AIR NATIONAL GUARD at 60: a HISTORY Possible War with the Soviet Union
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D 12.2:H 62/3 ^m' ' >U' «’,'«, TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword i Building a Total Force 1 Volunteers 17 America Attackeds September 11, 2001 33 Wars Without End A5 Support to Civil Authorities 57 Epilogue; Toward the Future 67 r COVER: A Vermont Air National Guard F-16from the 134th Fighter Squadron, 158th Fighter Wing, conducts combat air patrol over the still burning World Trade Center site, September •» 12, 200i. (Photographer: Lt Col T^ry B.^ i|^troup. 1^4th 9 ^ * Fighter Squadron, 158th Fighter ^ing, Vermont Air ^ National courtesy Air National Guard.) : Guard. Photo ofVermont ; . www.ang.af.mil/history l40th Logistics StaffSergeant Leslie Wuerflein, from the Squadrons vehicle maintenance section, Colorado Air National Guard, loads bales ofhay onto a WyomingAir National Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft at Pueblo Memorial Airport, Colorado, mission that will be January 3, 2007, for an emergencyfeeding conducted thefollowing morning. The hay will be dropped near by a La Junta, to help feed livestock that have been stranded snowstorm that has impacted the area. (Photographer: MSgt John Rohrer. U.S. Air Force Photo.) Lieutenant General Craig R. McKinley Director, Air National Guard he Air National Guard has played significant roles in all of America’s wars and most of its T major contingencies since the beginning of the 20th century. Governors and citizens alike have looked to the Air Guard for relief and rescue during community and state emergencies. Today’s Gitizen Airmen epitomize the enthusiasm, adaptability, and innovative spirit of America. Every day they are called upon to defend the freedoms and operated. Air National Guard members rescued 1,443 of our nation and help their fellow citizens in times of crisis. people—heroically saving people stranded by the flood. At eight Performing according to the highest professional standards of sites along the Gulf Coast, Air National Guard medical units the Air Force, Air Guard members embody our militia heritage treated more than 15,000 patients, combining expert medical and its volunteer tradition. care with compassion. Air Guard members, in 2006, joined For the past 60 years the Air National Guard has served as their Army counterparts in Operation Jump Start, supporting an invaluable resource for the Air Force and the governors, the Border Patrol in strengthening efforts to help stem the flow transitioning seamlessly between federal and state roles. Air of illegal immigrants into this nation across its southwestern National Guard members have served around the world and their border with Mexico into the United States. For many years Air military experience and civilian skills have proven invaluable as Guard members have fought wildfires, combated the influx of our nation prosecuted conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian prohibited drugs into the United States, and saved countless Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They also served during lives through the daily operations of its search and rescue units. several major contingencies including the Cuban Missile Crisis In addition to their primary federal warfighting responsibilities. and the Berlin Crisis of 1961 to 1962. In addition. Air Guard National Guard aviation units have been performing such members made major contributions in a host of other operations missions for civil authorities at least since 1927. That year the in Panama, the Balkans, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, and the Iraq governor of Arkansas called out his entire 154th Observation no-fly zones instituted after Operation Desert Storm. Squadron to use their aircraft to locate stranded survivors and In the United States, the Hurricane Katrina relief effort breaks in levees during the great Mississippi River flood. brought into sharp focus the Air Guard’s well established role The Air National Guard’s role within the Air Force has as America’s hometown Air Force. The Air National Guard matured and changed enormously since its establishment as a flew over 3,000 sorties, moved over 30,000 passengers, and separate reserve component September 18, 1947. Originally, hauled over 11,000 tons of desperately needed supplies into the Air Guard was a poorly resourced Mobilization Day fighter Gulf Coast airfields, some of which Guard personnel opened force requiring weeks of preparation for its major mission: a i AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY possible war with the Soviet Union. Since then the Air National everything from blizzards and hurricanes to the possibilities of a Guard has evolved into a highly capable organization held in pandemic flu or another terrorist incident. a high state of readiness augmenting the active duty Air Force The following history, written by Dr. Susan Rosenfeld and in a broad spectrum of operational missions around the globe Dr. GharlesJ. Gross ofthe Air National Guard’s history program, on a daily basis. Beginning with the air defense runway alert documents key facets of the ANG’s evolution and brings them experiment in March 1953, the Air Guard assumed what up to date as the Air National Guard transforms to meet the has become known in recent years as an “Operational” role. space and information age and confronts the multiple challenges Simultaneously, the Air National Guard maintained the of terrorism, insurgency, illegal narcotics, humanitarian and capability to serve as a “Reserve” force for wars and major peacekeeping operations, conventional warfare, and supports contingencies. The defense of the United States is the Air civil authorities. Ghief Master Sergeant David P. Anderson’s National Guard’s primary responsibility as part of the Total Air chapters on Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom Force and the National Military Strategy. At the same time, in the 2001 to 2004 Air National Guard periodic history the governors rely on their Air Guard units to help handle contributed invaluable information to this publication. New Orleans Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (Alvin Callender Field), Belle Chasse. Louisiana, September 1, 2005. (Gil Cohen, In Katrina’s Wake, National Guard Heritage Painting.) II An F-106A Delta Dartfrom the Golden Bears of California Air National Guard’s I44th Fighter Interceptor Wing launched an AIM-2 Genie air to air missile in the 1980 William Tell aerial weapons competition. The Wing won overall top honors. (Photographer: TSgt Frank Garzenick. Air National Guard Collection.) urricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. “This was, by and large, the worst sight of devastation I’ve ever seen in H my career,” Chief Master Sergeant Pat Malone of the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard (ANG) recalled of his deployment to flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. Chief Malone was among some 40,000 National Guardsmen* who responded. “The sheer magnitude of it and the conditions we had the guys working in were the most devastating.” As a 1 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY These guys were selfless jumped in there and saved seven straight days.” veteran of the first Gulf War and the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Chief Malone had plenty of experience to compare with his Louisiana assignment. Working with the 125th Special Tactics Squadron (Oregon), the 212th Rescue Squadron (Alaska), 131st Rescue Squadron (California), and the 103rd Rescue Squadron (New York), all ANG, the 123td used Zodiac boats to rescue over 1,200 people. They also saved 86 people found wading through the waters or trapped in vehicles. “Once you really get the guys in there, they’re in a giant cesspool ofcontaminated water with anything you can imagine. Anything in anybody’s garage, any chemical under Kentucky Air National Guardsmen, 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, setting out with Zodiac boats to anybody’s sink, the oil industties, the rescue survivors ofHurricane Katrina in New Orleans, 2005. (Air Force Photo.) BELOW: A US Air Force C-5 Galaxy, 105th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, Stewart International ahport. deceased, animals, sewage, everything New York, sits on a ramp at the Gtdjport Combat Readiness Training Center, Mississippi, as airmen together,” said. mixed Chief Malone The with the 137th Airlift Squadron unload the cargo bay fidl ofsupport vehicles and eqtdpmentfor Hur- pararescuemen with Malone were trained ricane Katrina reliefoperations. (Photographer: TSgt Micheal O’Halloran. Air Force Photo.) “to get into confined, collapsed spaces; conduct search and rescue missions; cut Air National Guatd C-130,” noted one children who needed hospitalization through roofs; cut down doors; and Guardsman looking back on the ANG’s on two C-130s into Kansas City for get into places other rescue workers can’t hurticane missions. During Katrina, treatment. The Delaware Air National . These guys were selfless . and they Air Guard C-130s ferried in rescuers, Guard’s 1 66th Airlift Wing C-130 crews jumped in there and saved people for medics, and support workers, and carried brought Army National Guard members seven straight days.” out the rescued. On September 1, 2005, into Jackson, Mississippi, while Nevada’s “The shottest distance between a the 139th Airlift Wing of the Missouti 152nd Airlift Wing flew Guard medical disaster and humanitarian assistance is an Air National Guard flew 3 1 New Orleans teams into Baton Rouge. Pave Hawk *Both men and women in the Air National Guard are referred to as Guardsmen. rescue helicopters dropped in rescue their localities and Air Force media. Yet, in insight in the early 1960s that took on teams like Chief Malone’s. Louisiana the United States, the ANG has primary even more significance as the Air Guard Air National Guard’s 1 22nd Air Support responsibility for the aerial defense of accepted increased responsibilities in the Operations Squadron had trained to call the United States as well as assisting civil post-Gold War military. Because Guard in air strikes; alter Katrina, they used authorities to deal with natural disasters. personnel often had previous active those same skills to direct rescuers.