Air National Guard
The
Air National Guard (ANG) is part of the
United States National Guard and a
reserve component of the
United States Air Force (USAF). Like the
Army National Guard, the ANG is administered by the
National Guard Bureau and an ANG unit may be activated by both the
President of the United States and the
governor of the state in which it resides.
Although the ANG was not established as a separate component of the USAF until
1947, throughout the
twentieth century National Guard aviators have played significant roles in all wars involving the
United States and in most of its major contingencies. Whereas entire ANG units were activated for the
Korean War, ANG aviators saw service in the
Vietnam War as individuals attached to USAF units. In recent operations, entire units and individuals were activated.
The ANG is often described as a "
reserve" force of "part-time
airmen", although the demands of maintaining modern
aircraft mean many ANG members work full-time. Many ANG aviators work for commercial
airlines, but in the ANG they may train to fly any of the aircraft in the USAF inventory, with the exception of the
B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the
B-1B Lancer bomber, the
MH-53 Pave Low helicopter, the
AC-130 Gunship and the
F-117 Nighthawk stealth
fighters.
Since the
1991 Gulf War, ANG pilots have patrolled
Iraq's
no-fly zones. During the
9/11 terrorist attacks the first unit to provide air cover was the
Happy Hooligans, a
North Dakota ANG
F-16 unit diverted from flight training over
Langley Air Force Base,
Virginia. Another ANG F-16 unit from
Vermont later patrolled the skies over
New York City.
According to news and Congressional sources, the first unit over New York after the attacks began was the
102d Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. The F-15's were stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On May 22, 2002 a Joint Resolution was passed by the Congress of the United States recognizing the members of the 102 FW for their actions on September 11, 2001.
The resolution in part states "Whereas on the morning of September 11, 2001, the 102d Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard became the Nation's first airborne responder to the terrorist attacks of that day when it scrambled two F-15 fighter aircraft just six minutes after being informed of the terrorist hijackings of commercial airliners;
Whereas within the first hour of the terrorist attacks, the 102d Fighter Wing launched six armed aircraft on combat air patrol over New York City and Boston;"
The United States Air National Guard has about 110,000 men and women in service.
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List of Air National Guard units*
List of U.S. Air Force bases
