National Guard > Features > 2016 > Vietnam War 50th Commemoration

Slideshow

Lt. Col. Warren G. Nelson -- 185th Tactical Fighter Group, Iowa National Guard – demonstrates the flight capabilities of an F-100F to Iowa Governor Harold Hughes at the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center in Wisconsin on July 22, 1966. Through 1966, the Air National Guard sustained operations in Southeast Asia with airlift and medical support; meanwhile, fighter aircrews provided a strategic reserve and conducted steady state training at facilities like Volk Field. U.S. Air Force photo/A1C Dwain Volwieler

1966

As the Army National Guard served as a strategic reserve force for deployed active-duty units, the Air National Guard provided mission support to combat operations in Southeast Asia. Immediately following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964, the Air National Guard began Operation READY-GO, a four-day mission in which aircraft from 23 states and the District of Columbia flew 4,600 miles using three mid-air refuelings to reach airbases in Spain, France and England. Within an hour of landing in Europe the planes were able to be refueled, armed and ready for combat missions, demonstrating the Air National Guard’s ability to respond to short-notice tasking orders.

Narratives from 1964-1973