History
On 5 September 1957, the South Carolina Air National Guard 157th Fighter-Bomber Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level, and the 169th Fighter-Interceptor Group was established by the National Guard Bureau. The 157th was re-designated as a Fighter-Interceptor squadron and became the group's flying squadron. Other squadrons assigned into the group were the 169th Headquarters, 169th Material Squadron (Maintenance), 169th Combat Support Squadron, and the 169th USAF Dispensary.
Shortly afterwards Air Defense Command upgraded the new 169th FIG to the all-weather/day-night F-86L Sabre Interceptor aircraft, and in 1960, the 157th was one of three selected ANG units to receive F-104A Starfighter Mach-2 interceptors from the ADC active-duty interceptor forces. The "Swamp Foxes", as a result of the national recognition as one of the best air defense units in the nation, were chosen to fly the new high performance jet fighter.
Brigadier General Barnie B. McEntire, Jr., the first commander of the South Carolina ANG and its first general officer died 25 May 1961, when he courageously piloted his malfunctioning F-104 fighter jet away from populated areas near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to crash into the Susquehanna River. On 1 October 1961, then-Governor Ernest F. Hollings presided over the ceremony renaming the heroic wing commander's South Carolina installation from Congaree Air Base to McEntire Air National Guard Base.
The 169th FIG was called into active service a second time in November 1961 as the construction of the infamous "Berlin Wall" pushed the world to the brink of war. Within a month after mobilization, 750 personnel and 22 157th FIS F-104 aircraft were in place at Morón Air Base, Spain as the unit took up flying daily air defense patrols as part of the NATO air defense force in Western Europe. With world tension easing, the squadron returned home in August 1962.
In June 1963 the F-104s were transferred back to the active-duty Air Force and sent to Homestead AFB, Florida, where Air Defense Command was setting up a permanent presence after the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Starfighters would be better located for Air Defense against Soviet MiG fighters that were flown by the Cuban Air Force. The South Carolina ANG was re-equipped with the F-102A Delta Dagger, which was being replaced in the active duty interceptor force by the F-106. The Mach-2 "Deuce", still a very potent interceptor, served with the 169th FIG until April 1975, when Aerospace Defense Command was reducing the USAF interceptor force as the threat of Soviet Bombers attacking the United States was deemed remote.
Read more about this topic: 169th Fighter Wing
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