In article ,
Cub Driver writes:
the ANG
units are much more often activated for federal military service
deployed.
The New Hampshire Air Guard was, as I recall, called up for a couple
weeks every December to fly packages to Vietnam. While this tour of
duty would no doubt be sneered at by the Good People who never in
their lives put on a uniform, it did serve a purpose.
I was going to bring this one up, and you beat me to it.
Actually, the 157th ATG/MAG (Air Transport Group/Military Airlift
Group _was_ flying missions into Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia
from about 1963 on. They were flying C-97s, and later, C-124s, out
of Grenier Field (MHT), and, later, Pease AFB. They weren't called
up, though. They voluntarily placed the unit into the MATS/MAC
schedule to fly "for real" airlift missions. Other ANG and Air Force
Reserve airlifters did the same thing. ANG crews also ended up doing
"Detached Duty" in all manner of, shall we say, "Interesting Places".
Fer example, most of the aircraft and crews used by Balair, the
Inernational Red Cross, and Joint Church Aid for relief flights into
Biafra came from various Air National Guard units, the NH ANG among
them. This was ugly, intense duty, and as dangerous as an airlifter
could get. (the Kenyan MiGs, which were active and shot down several
relief aircraft, were the least of their problems.)
--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster
|