Under the "Total Force" concept, Arizona Air National Guard units are an Air Reserve Components of the United States Air Force. Arizona ANG units are trained and equipped by the Air Force and are operationally gained by a Major Command of the USAF if federalized. In addition, the Arizona Air National Guard forces are assigned to Air Expeditionary Forces and are subject to deployment tasking orders along with their active duty and Air Force Reserve counterparts in their assigned cycle deployment window. Along with their federal reserve obligations, as state militia units the elements of the Arizona ANG are subject to being activated by order of the Governor to provide protection of life and property, and preserve peace, order and public safety. State missions include disaster relief in times of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and forest fires, search and rescue, protection of vital public services, and support to civil defense.
Components
The Arizona Air National Guard consists of the following major unit:
On 24 May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces, in response to dramatic postwar military budget cuts, imposed by President Harry S. Truman, allocated inactive unit designations to the National Guard Bureau for the formation of an Air Force National Guard. These unit designations were allotted and transferred to various State National Guard bureaus to provide them unit designations to re-establish them as Air National Guard units. The Arizona ANG was founded by Barry Goldwater, and its origins date to the formation of the 197th Fighter Squadron at Luke Army Airfield, Glendale, receiving federal recognition on 12 December 1946. It was equipped with F-51D Mustangs and its mission was the air defense of the state. 18 September 1947, however, is considered the Arizona Air National Guard's official birth concurrent with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate branch of the United States military under the National Security Act The Arizona ANG was integrated in 1947, two years before President Truman's Executive Order 9981 which abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces. On 2 October 1957 the 197th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level, and the 161st Fighter-Interceptor Group was allotted by the National Guard Bureau, extended federal recognition and activated. Today, the Arizona ANG performs a worldwide air refueling mission, a homeland defense training mission and tactical battlefield reconnaissance missions. Its 111th Space Operations Squadron is the first space communications unit in the United States military. After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, elements of every Air National Guard unit in Arizona has been activated in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Flight crews, aircraft maintenance personnel, communications technicians, air controllers and air security personnel were engaged in Operation Noble Eagle air defense overflights of major United States cities. Also, Arizona ANG units have been deployed overseas as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq as well as other locations as directed.
