Air National Guard

From Freepedia

In the U.S. military, the Air National Guard (ANG), as part of the National Guard, is the organized militia of a particular U.S. state and is a reserve component of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), too. Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia has an Air National Guard. As federally-organized militia, Air National Guard units are liable to activation by both the President of the United States and the governor of the state in which the ANG unit resides. The Air National Guard is part of the National Guard Bureau which administers both the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard.

The ANG is said to be a "reserve" force of "part-time airmen", although many members are on full-time status due to the demands of maintaining modern aircraft and other systems; many ANG pilots work for commercial airlines. The ANG flies every type of aircraft in the USAF inventory, with the exceptions of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the B-1B Lancer bomber, the MH-53 Pave Low, the AC-130 Gunship,the F/A-22_Raptor and the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.

ANG pilots have flown on active duty continually since the Gulf War of 1991, patrolling Iraq's no-fly zones. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, a North Dakota F-16 unit (the Happy Hooligans from Hector International Airport) was the first unit to fly air cover over Washington, D.C., for at the time they were undergoing flight training at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. An F-16 unit of the Vermont ANG patrolled the skies over New York City immediately after the terrorist attacks.

ANG units saw extensive service in both WW II and the Korean War, when units were activated intact. Many ANG pilots also served in the Vietnam War, but as individuals attached to Air Force units.

The ANG motto is "Semper Paratis", which means "always ready". The logo is intended to symbolize a Minuteman of the American Revolution.