The 123rd Airlift Wing (123 AW) is a unit of the Kentucky Air National Guard, stationed at Louisville International Airport (Louisville Air National Guard Base), Kentucky. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command.
Overview
The Kentucky Air National Guard's 123rd Airlift Wing mission is to provide worldwide theater airlift for U.S. military and humanitarian operations. The wing is equipped with eight C-130H Hercules aircraft. Multiple groups, squadrons and flights carry out the unit's mission by providing administrative and logistical support, including airlift operations, combat control, pararescue, maintenance, supply, transportation, contracting, communications, civil engineering, personnel, base services, security forces and medical functions.
In November 2021, the 123rd was re-equipped with C-130J Super Hercules
Units
The 123rd Airlift Wing consists of the following units: 123rd Operations Group 165th Airlift Squadron 123rd Special Tactics Squadron 123rd Maintenance Group 123rd Mission Support Group 123rd Medical Group 123rd Contingency Response Group
History
Korean War Federalization
With the surprise invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950, the 123rd Fighter Group and its component squadrons were mobilized into federal active duty at Godman Air Force Base at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Shortly after being federalized, the group and its support units of the 223rd Air Service Group were reorganized under the wing base organization and the 123rd Fighter-Bomber Wing was activated to control the operational and support elements that had been mobilized.
After over a year of training at Godman, the 123rd deployed to RAF Manston, Kent, England to replace the Strategic Air Command (SAC) 12th Fighter-Escort Wing which returned to Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas. In England, the mission of the 123rd was to provide fighter escort for SAC Boeing B-50 Superfortress and Convair B-36 Peacemaker bombers while flying over Western European airspace on their deterrence alert missions. The 123rd left their F-51Ds at Godman AFB and the personnel boarded C-47s to Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts and later to transport ships to England. They arrived in early December, 1951 at Manston where they began conversion training on Republic F-84E Thunderjets.
The training program began with the inexperienced F-51D pilots experiencing training difficulties with the jet aircraft, with several aircraft being lost in accidents. However, by March 1952 the unit was judged to be 80% combat ready on the Thunderjets. However, the period of federalization for the 123rd was expiring and in July 1952, the unit personnel were returned to the United States, the aircraft at Manston being passed on to the active duty 406th Fighter-Bomber Wing took over its personnel and equipment.
Tactical Fighter mission
After returning from England, the unit re-formed at Louisville. Because most jet aircraft were still in USAF use, the squadron received P-51D Mustangs and initially returned to its pre-federalization air defense mission, being designated as a fighter interceptor unit. However, with the P-51s, the Kentucky Air National Guard was limited to daylight training only.
On 1 January 1953, the wing was transferred to Tactical Air Command jurisdiction and re-equipped with refurbished North American F-86A Sabre air superiority fighter. With the switchover to TAC, the unit designation was changed to "Fighter-Bomber".
Tactical Reconnaissance mission
The wing only flew the Sabre for two years, when it was re-equipped with Martin RB-57A Canberra reconnaissance aircraft and became the 123rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing.. The 123rd became a Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, in which it would remain for the next thirty years.
The wing would perform day and night, high and low, and visual and photographic reconnaissance. Unlike the Sabre fighters, the RB-57A was totally unarmed. The crew was two—one pilot and one photo-navigator One of their major activities of the 123rd in the United States was to carry out photographic surveys of areas hit by natural disasters such as hurricanes or tornadoes. In 1965, the 123rd was awarded its second Spaatz Trophy for superior combat readiness and flight training.