Members from the 179th Airlift Wing, Ohio, and the 130th Airlift Wing, West Virginia prepare for additional missions while a C-130 from Rhode Island's 143rd Airlift Wing takes off from Howard Air Force Base.

Coronet Oak (originally Volant Oak), the Air National Guard's longest running airlift operation, began in October 1977. It rotated portions of Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130 units to Panama on short tours of active duty to meet the theater airlift requirements of the United States Southern Command in Latin America. Relying on volunteers and Lockheed's versatile C-130 Hercules transport, Coronet Oak also marked the growing participation of women and minority aircrew members in the Air Guard and Air Force Reserve. Virtually the entire C-130 airlift community in the Air Guard and Air Force Reserve participated in Coronet Oak. The operation was moved to Puerto Rico in 1999 when U.S. military installations in Panama were closed.