page_title: Ohio Air National Guard
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Ohio Air National Guard / History / Formation
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Air Force North American F-51D-25-NA Mustang (s/n 44-73348) from the 162nd Fighter Squadron, Ohio Air National Guard. The 162nd FS flew the Mustang from 1947 to 1955.
context_page_description: The Ohio Air National Guard is the aerial militia of the State of Ohio, United States of America. It is, along with the Ohio Army National Guard, an element of the Ohio National Guard.
  As state militia units, the units in the Ohio Air National Guard are not in the normal United States Air Force chain of command. They are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Ohio through the office of the Ohio Adjutant General unless they are federalized by order of the President of the United States. The Ohio Air National Guard is headquartered at Beightler Armory, Columbus, and its commander is Major General Mark E. Bartman.
context_section_description: Aviation units of the National Guard first began operating in 1915. The state of Ohio received its first aerial unit after World War I, when the 112th Observation Squadron (consolidated with the World War I 112th Aero Squadron on October 20, 1936) was constituted in 1921 and assigned to the 37th Division, but not activated. The 112th O.S. was organized and federally recognized on June 20, 1927, at Cleveland Airport. In 1933 the unit was assigned to the 45th Observation Group, a Regular Army Inactive (RAI) unit assigned to support the V Corps in wartime. The unit was inducted into federal service on November 25, 1940, and assigned to Pope Field, North Carolina, in support of the I Corps.
  One of its former members, Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor while commanding the B-24-equipped 93rd Bomb Group during a mission against the Ploesti oil refineries on August 1, 1943. The 112th Observation Squadron continues today as the 112th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo.
  The Ohio Air National Guard was formed when the 357th Fighter Group, a highly decorated fighter unit in World War II, was inactivated on August 20, 1946, and its squadrons designated for assignment to the Ohio ANG. The official site of the Ohio Air National Guard notes that it is "descended from the 357th Fighter Group".  The 357th Fighter Group was re-designated the 121st Fighter Group on August 21, 1946, and the 121st FG then allocated to the OHANG.  In 1947, with the passage of the National Security Act of 1947 creating a separate Air Force, the Ohio Air National Guard came into being as a federally recognized reserve component. The 121st FG received its federal recognition on June 26, 1948.
  The three fighter squadrons of the 357th were also re-designated as squadrons of the Ohio Air National Guard.  (Subsequently, the 121st FG was inactivated.)  Initially fighter squadrons flying F-84 and later F-100 and A-7 jets, these redesignated squadrons that formed the first units of the OHANG are:
  162d Fighter Squadron (formerly the 362d FS), now an F-16 training squadron. Federally recognized on November 2, 1947.
  164th Airlift Squadron (formerly the 363d FS), now a C-130 squadron. Federally recognized on June 20, 1948.
  166th Air Refueling Squadron (formerly the 364th FS), now a KC-135 tanker squadron. Federally recognized on March 2, 1948.
caption: An F-51D Mustang of the 162d Fighter Squadron, 1947
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