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  • Wings Clipped: A Redhawk Captured in Korea

    Seventy years ago this summer, the guns went silent on the Korean Peninsula after three years of intense fighting as the Armistice took effect on July 27, 1953. Although combat had ceased, a number of actions resulted from this - one of which was the repatriation of prisoners of war. Of the 7,

  • Wing History: Coronet Nighthawk

    Coronet Nighthawk was the name of the Air Combat Command mission that transitioned from the active duty component to the Air National Guard in 1990. It was a counterdrug operation which employed fighter aircraft to patrol the skies of Panama to detect aircraft suspected of being involved in illegal

  • Tell Their Stories, on National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, 2023

    This year, National Former Prisoner of War (POW) Recognition Day, observed annually on April 9, falls on Easter Sunday. Through American history, well over 550,000 men and women have been taken prisoner by the enemy.  Many never survived captivity, especially in the Pacific, Korea and Vietnam in the

  • Fifty Years On: Remembering the 1973 Paris Peace Accords

    Today, January 27, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam,” which brought an end to the active US involvement in the Vietnam War. The accords were formally signed on January 27, 1973, in Paris, France at

  • The Oregon Air National Guard’s First Outstanding Unit Award

    The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (AFOUA), renamed in 2020 as the Air and Space Outstanding Unit Award (ASOUA), is the Air Force’s highest peacetime unit award.  It was established in the aftermath of the Korean War and was the first independent Air Force decoration created. Sixty years ago this

  • The Oregon Air Guard’s First Thanksgiving

    Happy Thanksgiving!  The first Thanksgiving Day celebrated by Oregon’s first military aviation unit, the 123rd Observation Squadron (today’s 123rd Fighter Squadron) was on Thursday, November 27, 1942. It was a first not only for the 123rd Observation Squadron, but in a sense for the nation as well. 

  • The Storm Before the Calm – October, 1962 Part 2: The ANG RIO School

    As the USAF developed air defense interceptor aircraft with night and all-weather capabilities, some of the aircraft such as the Northrop F-89 Scorpion had a radar intercept officer (RIO) position in addition to the pilot.  For the F-89, the USAF operated a RIO school at James Connally Air Force