The Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve, our nation’s citizen airmen corps, long have been poised to augment national defense at a moment’s notice. Through the years, they have served in operations as diverse as firefighting, airlifting, and actual combat.

The end of the Cold War brought a shift of responsibilities to both agencies. But on Sept. 11, 2001, their mission changed focus again—in very different ways.

Even before the towers of the World Trade Center fell, Air National Guard fighter units from Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, and North Dakota were in the air over New York City on the lookout for hijacked airliners. As mountainous clouds of dust obscured the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan, it was clear terrorists had opened a new front in their war against the American way of life, and the task of defending our borders never would be the same. No longer could we rely on early warning systems arrayed on the coastline. Now the threat could come from anywhere, even within our own borders. 

“Previously, we had the same air defense sectors and a much smaller alert force out there to do this mission, because during the Cold War, the emphasis was on threats to our borders,” explains Lt. Col. Chris Swadener, chief of the Air National Guard’s Deployments Division. “If someone came in over the ocean, we could scramble a couple of fighters, intercept them, and shoot them down. Now our focus is that it could be from within or without the country. The air defense of the continental U.S. from within the United States is really a pretty new mission.”

That mission—Operation Noble Eagle— stands in stark contrast to the role the Air National Guard long has played in looking outward for threats to our shores. The agency traces its lineage back to 1947, when the flying component was separated from the Army, but the National Guard’s ancestry dates back to Colonial days and the first militias. In 1973, the total force concept was initiated, and from then on, Air National Guard troops were equipped and trained alongside regular Air Force people.

That led to today’s modern force, which is trained and ready to respond quickly to any threat, wherever it originates.

“On average, we’re accessible in under 72 hours for any war plan,” says Swadener. “We train, then we’re mobilized, and we deploy, and we can do that rapidly because we maintain the same training levels for our personnel—even though they’re part-timers —as their regular Air Force counterparts. We’re immediately accessible.”

The Air National Guard also is available quickly for assistance during national emergencies such as hurricane relief. Unlike the Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard units report in peacetime to the governors of their respective states and are charged with the duty of protecting lives and property, as well as keeping the peace and providing for public safety.

“A state governor can delegate down to the adjutant general to go out and source a capability: water purification, security, or medical—whatever he needs to do,” Swadener says.

The Air National Guard’s dual role means in wartime it can be federalized under Title 10 of the U.S. Code and be made available for combat-related duties. It also provides nearly half of the Air Force’s tactical airlift support, combat communications functions, aeromedical evacuations, and aerial refueling in addition to its homeland defense obligations. 

Under Title 10, Air National Guard pilots participate in a chain of command that could lead to the downing of a commercial airliner or other aircraft with hostile or unknown intent. Swadener says after an air defense sector sounds an alarm, the North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambles fighters to intercept the plane and attempts to determine its threat level. After running through all the rules of engagement with no—or hostile—response, authority would be given to destroy the aircraft. Of course, that scenario is not a first choice, notes Swadener.

“Just like police would respond to a burglary, you don’t go in with guns blazing,” he says. “First, you try to take a graduated approach. But as a last resort, you’ve got to go ahead and eliminate that threat.”
 

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