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.

See also

• Air National Guard Units
• List of U.S. Air Force bases