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  • 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

  • The Storm Before the Calm – October, 1962 Part 1: The Columbus Day Storm

    This series takes a look back at 142nd Wing history highlights from 60 years ago, in October, 1962. Many will remember it as the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Part 3 of the series), arguably the closest the world has been to a nuclear war. This was at the height of the Cold War, when even

  • An Oregon “Guest” of the Luftwaffe

    History can be a complex subject, finding the evidence of days gone by in documents, artifacts, images, interviews and such.  Even when one is familiar with the details of a given aspect of history, it’s common for new details to emerge.  History is not a static thing, and a surprising amount of