The 125th Fighter Wing (125 FW) is a unit of the Florida Air National Guard, stationed at Jacksonville Air National Guard Base, Florida. If activated to federal service with the United States Air Force, the 125 FW is operationally gained by the Air Combat Command (ACC).
Overview
As an Air National Guard unit, the 125th Fighter Wing has a dual mission - one state and one federal. The state mission under Title 32 of the United States Code (Title 32 USC) is to provide trained and equipped personnel to protect life and property and to preserve peace, order, and public safety under the Governor of the State of Florida as part of both the Florida Air National Guard and the broader Florida National Guard. The federal mission under Title 10 USC is to provide fully trained and qualified personnel to the Commander, United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) / North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in time of war or national emergency for the defense of the North American continent, with operational responsibility for the 125 FW as a U.S. Air Force unit falling to the Air Combat Command (ACC). The 125 FW is also available to other combatant commanders for forward deployment outside the United States (OCONUS) in order to perform air superiority/air dominance missions in other theaters of operation and areas of responsibility.
In addition to its primary installation, the Jacksonville Air National Guard Base at Jacksonville International Airport, the 125 FW also maintains an alert detachment of F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft at Detachment 1, 125 FW, Operating Location ALPHA ALPHA (OL-AA) at Homestead Air Reserve Base in South Florida. The overall wing organization comprises over 1100 citizen airmen in a combination of full-time Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) and Air Reserve Technician (ART) personnel and traditional part-time Drill Status Air Guardsmen (DSG), also known as Traditional Guardsmen (TG).
Units
125th Operations Group (125 OG) 159th Fighter Squadron (159 FS) 125th Operations Support Flight (125 OSF) 125 FW Detachment 1/OL-AA - Geographically Separate Unit (GSU) at Homestead Air Reserve Base (F-15C Eagle, rotational alert) 114th Space Control Squadron (114 SPCS) - GSU at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 249th Special Operations Squadron (Associate) (249 SOS) – GSU at Hurlburt Field (CV-22B Osprey) 125th Maintenance Group (125 MXG) 125th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (125 AMXS) 125th Maintenance Squadron (125 MXS) 125th Maintenance Operations Flight (125 MOF) 125th Mission Support Group (125 MSG) 125th Force Support Squadron (125 FSS) 125th Logistics Readiness Squadron (125 LRS) 125th Civil Engineering Squadron (125 CES) 125th Security Forces Squadron (125 SFS) 125th Communications Flight (125 CF) 125th Medical Group (125 MDG) 125th Medical Group Detachment 1 125th Regional Support Group (125 RSG) - GSU at Camp Blanding 202d RED HORSE Squadron (202 RHS) - GSU at Camp Blanding 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron (290 JCSS) - GSU at MacDill AFB 159th Weather Flight (159 WF) - GSU at Camp Blanding 131st Training Flight (131 TF) - GSU at Camp Blanding
History
On 1 July 1956, the Florida Air National Guard's 159th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (159 FIS) was authorized to expand to a group level organization and the 125th Fighter-Interceptor Group (125 FIG) was established by the National Guard Bureau, the 159 FIS becoming the group's flying squadron. Other squadrons and squadron equivalents assigned to the group were the 125th Headquarters, 125th Material Squadron (Maintenance), 125th Combat Support Squadron, and the 125th USAF Dispensary.
With the establishment of the 125 FIG, the unit converted to the F-86D Sabre (also known as the "Dog" version of the Sabre) with the primary mission of continental air defense of the southeastern United States. In 1958, the 125th became the first Air National Guard unit to earn the right to compete in the Air Defense Command's annual WILLIAM TELL Weapons Meet and was the first team ever to fire a perfect score in that competition.