The 121st Fighter Squadron is a unit of the District of Columbia Air National Guard 113th Wing located at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. The 121st is equipped with the Block 30 F-16C/D Fighting Falcon.
The squadron is a descendant organization of the 121st Observation Squadron, established July 10th 1940. It is one of the 29 original National Guard Observation Squadrons of the United States Army National Guard formed before World War II.
History Origins The squadron was established as the 112th Observation Squadron and allotted to the District of Columbia National Guard in July 1940. It was formed in Washington D.C., without aircraft assigned, and was not organized until April 1941.
World War II The unit was ordered to active duty in April 1941 as part of the buildup of the Army Air Corps after the Fall of France. The unit was first assigned to Bolling Field, D.C., and equipped with light observation aircraft. The unit was then transferred to the Third Air Force in September 1941, in which they began flying anti-submarine flights over the South Carolina coastline from airfields in the Columbia area. They were then moved to the First Air Force at Langley Field, Virginia, again engaging in anti-submarine patrols over the Maryland, Virginia, and upper North Carolina coasts and the approaches to Chesapeake Bay. Finally, it was moved to Birmingham, Alabama in October 1942 and then inactivated. The squadron personnel were reassigned to other units and aircraft and transferred to other duties.
The squadron was reactivated in April 1943 as the 121st Liaison Squadron, with a mission to support Army ground units by flying observation missions, performing battlefield reconnaissance for enemy ground forces, and spotting for artillery fire. They were deployed to the Twelfth Air Force in Algeria in March 1944, engaging in liaison and courier operations for Headquarters, Army Air Forces, Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO). They were equipped with various light observation aircraft, mostly A-20 Havoc light bombers used for aerial photo-reconnaissance and modified A-24 Banshee dive bombers taken out of combat and modified into RA-24 photo-reconnaissance aircraft.
They were again assigned to the Fifth Army in Italy in September, where they engaged in combat reconnaissance and photo-reconnaissance in Italy as part of the Italian Campaign. The squadron was then broken up, with elements of the squadron transferred to the Seventh Army in Southern France, where they performed combat reconnaissance as part of the Southern France Campaign. Other parts of the squadron remained attached to the Ninth Air Force and Sixth United States Army Group during the Rhineland Campaign and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The remaining elements of the squadron stayed in Italy as part of the Fifth Army as it advanced north and enemy forces withdrew north of Rome. They were stationed near Florence until the end of the war.
The squadron was returned to the United States at Drew Field, Florida, in August 1945. Most personnel were demobilized although the unit remained active until being inactivated in Oklahoma in November 1945.
District of Columbia Air National Guard The squadron was redesignated the 121st Fighter Squadron, and allotted to the National Guard on 24 May 1946. It was organized at Andrews Field, Maryland, and was extended federal recognition on 20 October 1946. The squadron was equipped with P-47D Thunderbolts and was assigned to 113th Fighter Group, also a DC guard unit and was initially gained by Air Defense Command.
The mission of the 121st Squadron was the air defense of the District of Columbia, along with southern Maryland and northern Virginia. Parts were no problem and many of the maintenance personnel were World War II veterans, so readiness was quite high and the planes were often much better maintained than their USAF counterparts. In some ways, the postwar Air National Guard was almost like a flying country club and a pilot could often show up at the field, check out an aircraft and go flying. However, the unit also had regular military exercises that kept up proficiency and in gunnery and bombing contests they would often score at least as well or better than active-duty USAF units, given the fact that most ANG pilots were World War II combat veterans.
In December 1949 the 121st Fighter Squadron converted from its P-47s to F-84C Thunderjets as the first Air National Guard squadron to be equipped with jet aircraft. It was not to be a happy relationship. During 1950, the 121st had lost four Thunderjets in accidents, and two more to undetermined other causes.
On 30 August 1950 the squadron lost a single Republic F-84 Thunderjet during a routine weather training mission of two aircraft. After passing southbound near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the F-84C exploded in mid-air at tree height, left a large crater in a field, and scattered wreckage over 3 acres (1.2 ha) of the Hilbert cornfield near the Maryland intersection of the Harney and Bollinger School roads. Along with small parts of the aircraft, a few remains of the pilot were recovered; and the element leader in the lead F-84, 1st Lt. William L. Hall, reported "Alkire had not radioed of any difficulty before the explosion".
Korean War activation
With the surprise invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950, and the regular military's lack of readiness, most of the Air National Guard was called to active duty, including the 121st, which was activated on 1 February 1951. The 121st Fighter Squadron became an element of Air Defense Command (ADC) and was redesignated as the 121st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.Cornett & Johnson, p. 122 The squadron was joined in the 113th Fighter-Interceptor Group by the Delaware ANG 142d Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons, also equipped with F-84Cs, and the Pennsylvania ANG 148th Fighter Squadron equipped with World War II era F-51D Mustangs at Spaatz Field, Reading.Cornett & Johnson, p. 68
ADC moved the 113th group and its parent 113th Fighter-Interceptor Wing from Andrews to New Castle Air Force Base, Delaware, where they replaced the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing and group, which deployed to the Pacific,Endicott, p. 59Ravenstein, pp. 13–14} but the squadron remained at Andrews. The squadron mission was the air defense of the Delaware Bay and the Delmarva Peninsula.
In September 1951 the squadron converted to airborne-interception radar-equipped F-94B Starfires with partial all-weather capabilities. ADC's was experiencing difficulty under the existing wing base organizational structure in deploying its fighter squadrons to best advantage.Grant, C.L., p. 33 In February 1952, the 113th wing and group were inactivated and replaced by the regional 4710th Defense Wing. The squadron remained assigned to the wing until it was released from federal service in November 1952, and its mission, personnel, and equipment reassigned to the 95th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, which activated the same day.Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 318
Cold War
With its return to District of Columbia control, the 121st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was re-equipped with propeller-driven F-51H Mustangs and resumed its air defense mission of Washington, D.C. It was not until 1954, with the phaseout of the Mustang and the requirement by Air Defense Command that its interceptor squadrons be equipped with jet-powered aircraft that the squadron was upgraded to postwar-era F-86A Sabres that had been refurbished and reconditioned before being received. In August 1954, the 121st began standing daytime air defense alert at Andrews, placing two aircraft at the end of the runway with pilots in the cockpit from one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset. This ADC alert lasted each and every day until the end of October 1958.
Despite the reconditioning, the F-86A Sabres were weary and required a considerable amount of maintenance to keep in the air. In 1955, the 113th sent them to storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and received F-86E Sabres from active-duty ADC units that were receiving F-89 Scorpion interceptors. In 1957, the F-86H was already being phased out of active service with the USAF, being replaced by the F-100 Super Sabre, and the 121st received F-86H Sabres in late 1957.
In late 1958, the gaining command for the 113th was changed from ADC to Tactical Air Command (TAC) and the mission of the wing was changed to tactical air support, although the air defense of Washington remained as a secondary mission. The Sabres were phased out in 1960 with the receipt of relatively new F-100C Super Sabres from active duty units receiving the F-100D model. The Super Sabre was a major improvement over the F-86H and it gave the wing a major increase in capability as well as it entering the supersonic age.
In January 1968, a new crisis, the seizure of the American ship USS Pueblo by North Korean forces, and again the 113th was called to active duty. The wing was activated to federal service, and its personnel were assigned to Myrtle Beach Air orce Base, South Carolina as a filler unit while the base's permanent unit, the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing was deployed to Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. At Myrtle Beach, the federalized New Jersey Air National Guard 119th Tactical Fighter Squadron joined the 121st on active duty.
The squadron returned to Andrews in June 1969, and transitioned into the F-105D Thunderchief (AKA "Thud") in 1971, receiving Vietnam War veteran aircraft that were being withdrawn from combat. The 113th was one of four Air National Guard units to receive the F-105. A very large and complex aircraft, the 113th was fortunate to have many Vietnam Veteran airman in its ranks by 1970 which had F-105 experience. The Thud was the first USAF supersonic tactical fighter-bomber that was developed from scratch. All others before it were adaptations of aircraft that had originally been developed as pure fighters.
In December 1974, the 113th Tactical Fighter Group was inactivated, with the 121st being assigned directly to the 113th Tactical Fighter Wing.
In 1981 at the end of its service life, the F-105s were retired, with the 113th TFW receiving F-4D Phantom IIs, again receiving Vietnam War veteran aircraft from active-duty units receiving F-15A and F-16A next-generation fighter aircraft. With the F-4, the 113th returned to the air defense mission, becoming part of Air Defense, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC), a named unit at the Numbered Air Force echelon of TAC. ADTAC had taken over the mission of Aerospace Defense Command in 1979 when the command was inactivated; the D.C. Air National Guard using the Phantoms for Washington, D.C. air defense.
The 113th operated the Phantoms throughout the 1980s, retiring the Phantoms at the end of their service life in 1989. In turn, the 121st FS started receiving F-16A Fighting Falcons in September 1989. These were block 5 and 10 models coming from various regular USAF units converting to more modern F-16C/D models. The Wing retained its air defense and attack mission, however the early block 5 and 10 models really designed to do. In the air defense role these models lacked any BVR capability, limiting them only to close range combat with their gun and Sidewinder missiles. In the attack role these aircraft were able to deploy bombs, but with their smaller stabs the center of gravity of these aircraft was far from ideal making it quite a challenge for the pilots to fly these missions.
The 113th Tactical Fighter Wing was not mobilized during the 1991 Gulf Crisis, remaining in the United States with its air defense mission. D. C. Air National Guard volunteers, however were deployed to CENTAF during the crisis and subsequent combat operations as part of Operation Desert Storm.
Air Combat Command