Courtesy Photo | Aim 7 and Aim 9 Missiles attached an Iowa Air National Guard F-16 from the 185th...... read more read more
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In an instant, U.S. Air National Guard units around the nation switched from routine training to a real world missions on September 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.
Fighter jets from the Iowa Air National Guard were one of many ANG units placed on alert on September 11, 2001. Two jets from Iowa’s 185th Fighter Wing were tasked with flying escort for the U.S. president as Air Force One made its way to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
By September 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.
The PSAB deployment was a preplanned temporary duty assignment where the group was tasks 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 domestic 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 the CAP mission over the Northeast United States and included Washington D.C. and New York City.
A collection of photos from that time, taken by 185th photographer Senior Airmen Oscar Sanchez include photos of a visit to New York City.
The group of Airmen from Sioux City witnessed the destruction in the city, impromptu memorials as well as the first “Tribute in Light” that took place 6 months after the attacks in the city.
The Tribute in Light, is a display of two bright beacons of light pointing skyward representing each of the Twin Towers.
The display is produced by the Municipal Art Society of New York and has become an annual event commemorating the attacks each September.
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2024 15:41 |
| Story ID: | 480524 |
| Location: | SIOUX CITY, IOWA, US |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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