The Iowa ANG F-16s that escorted Air Force One
In an instant, US Air National Guard units around the nation switched from routine training to a real-world missions on Sep. 11, 2001.
With few units assigned alert missions during the post-cold war era, most Air National Guard units were initially left to their own devices to safeguard American airspace in the first moments following the 911 attacks.
As told by Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot, 185th Air Refueling Wing, in the article Iowa ANG on 911, fighter jets from the Iowa Air National Guard were one of many ANG units placed on alert on Sep. 11, 2001.
Air Force One carrying President George W. Bush flew from Florida to Louisiana to Offutt Air Force base in Omaha. On the final leg, two F-16s, flown by 185th pilots Kurt Kindschuh and Tyson Herbold flew cover air support for Air Force One until the crews from Andrews AFB took over for the landing.
Multiple F-16 fighter jets accompanied Air Force One to protect President George W. Bush following the terrorist attacks on the morning of Sep.11, 2001. Bush received news of the suspected terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York city while visiting Emma E. Brooker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, to take part in a reading demonstration.
Domestic combat air patrols
After delivering brief remarks at the school, Bush boarded Air Force One for his own protection, accompanied by roughly 65 advisors, security agents, and staff members. For the hours that followed, President Bush worked from his office aboard Air Force One, where he monitored the crisis using the secure phone lines and televisions installed in the aircraft.
By Sep. 12, Iowa’s 185th FW was one of 34 ANG units who had launched aircraft for domestic combat air patrols, presidential escorts and Federal Emergency Management Agency support.
Much of the Air National Guard response from that day has been recorded in an article, “The Air National Guard Responds on 911,” available on Department of Defense website.
In the weeks that followed the attacks aircraft and personal from Sioux City departed for Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
As the Iowa Airmen departed over the United States east coast their aircraft passed directly over Manhattan where smoke could still be seen rising from the World Trade Center buildings one month later.
Enforcing the southern no-fly zone in Iraq
The PSAB deployment was a preplanned, temporary duty assignment where the group was tasked with enforcing the southern no-fly zone in Iraq.
While the 185th FW was in the Arabian Peninsula, in October 2001, American B-52s began bombing Taliban controlled Afghanistan in response to the attacks. These actions opened a second theater of operation that would last into the next two decades.
In a direct response to the 911 attacks, many of the same 185th Airmen who had deployed to PSAB a few months earlier met New Mexico’s 150th FW in Atlantic City, New Jersey in March 2002 to help with combat air patrol missions.
During that time, the Air National Guard Wings from New Jersey, Iowa and New Mexico were among the first to be a part of the continuous combat air patrol mission dubbed, Operation Noble Eagle.
The operations in March 2002 were based at the New Jersey ANG’s 177th Fighter Wing in Atlantic City. All three units participated in flying CAP missions over the Northeast United States and included Washington D.C. and New York City.
Photo credit: U.S. Air National Guard photo SRA Oscar Sanchez and Air National Guard photo Staff Sgt. Andrew J. Hughan
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