page_title: 179th Fighter Squadron
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 179th Fighter Squadron / History / Minnesota Air National Guard / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: Four U.S. Air Force Air National Guard fighters in flight, circa 1970: (clockwise from the left): a Convair F-102A-75-CO Delta Dagger (s/n 56-1323) from the 179th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 148th Fighter Interceptor Group, Minnesota Air National Guard; a Republic (General Motors built) F-84F-40-GK Thunderstreak (51-9524) from the 170th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 183d Tactical Fighter Group, Illinois Air National Guard; a McDonnell F-101B-85-MC Voodoo from the 178th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 119th Fighter Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard; and a North American F-100D-50-NH Super Sabre (s/n 55-2870) from an unknown unit.
context_page_description: The 179th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the Minnesota Air National Guard 148th Fighter Wing located at Duluth Air National Guard Base, Minnesota. The 179th is equipped with the General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon.
context_section_description: The unit was organized by 1 January 1953 and ADC became its gaining command upon call to active duty. It resumed its peacetime training mission. The squadron upgraded in 1954 to the radar equipped Lockheed F-94 Starfire all-weather interceptor, armed with 20 millimeter cannon. With this new aircraft, the 179th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron became an all-weather interceptor unit. In 1957, the 179th again upgraded to the improved Northrop F-89C Scorpion then in 1959, the unit converted to the F-89J model of the Scorpion, which was not only equipped with data link for interception control through the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system, but which carried the nuclear armed AIR-2 Genie.
  On 1 July 1960, the 179th was authorized to expand to a group level, and the 148th Fighter Group (Air Defense) was established along with supporting squadrons. The 179th became the new group's flying squadron. The other squadrons assigned to the group were the 148th Material Squadron, 148th Air Bse Squadron and the 148th USAF Dispensary. The same day, the squadron assumed a 24-hour air defense alert status at Duluth alongside the regular Air Force 11th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.
  In 1967, the supersonic Convair F-102A Delta Dagger replaced the squadron's F-89J. The McDonnell F-101B Voodoo came aboard in April 1971 and remained until January 1976 when the unit was redesignated, becoming the 179th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron with McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom II Mach-2 unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. Its new mission entailed all weather, high or low altitude, day or night, reconnaissance. This mission also required the unit to have the capability to deploy to a wide variety of operating locations. The 179th TRS deployed seven RF-4Cs to Erding Air Base in West Germany between 3 and 23 August 1979 as part of Exercise Coronet Bridle.
  In October 1983, the mission changed again and the 179th returned to air defense becoming the 179th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.  The return to alert and air defense was accompanied by the McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II tactical fighter, most of the unit's aircraft being veterans of the Vietnam War. Between 1 March 1986 and 6 April 1987, three F-4Ds (65-0585, 65-0593 and 65-0648) from the 179th FIS were deployed to Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, alongside Phantoms of the 178th FIS and 194th FIS as part of Exercise Creek Klaxon, which saw the ANG units take QRA responsibilities while the 526th TFS converted to the General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon.
caption: 179th FIS Convair F-102 Delta Dagger 56-1323 alongside a F-84F Thunderstreak of the 170th TFS, an ANG F-100D Super Sabre and a F-101B Voodoo from the 178th FIS.
exif: {}