168th Wing | |
|---|---|
 168th Air Refueling SquadronKC-135R Stratotanker | |
| Active |
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| Country |  United States |
| Allegiance |  Alaska |
| Branch |  Air National Guard |
| Type | Wing |
| Role | Aerial refueling, missile warning, and space surveillance |
| Part of | Alaska Air National Guard |
| Garrison/HQ | Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska |
| Motto | Guardians of the Last Frontier[citation needed] |
| Decorations | Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (1994, 1996, 2004) Distinguished Flying Unit Plaque (1996, 1997) Curtis N. "Rusty" Metcalf Trophy (1997) |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Colonel Benjamin A. Doyle |
| Insignia | |
| 168th Wing emblem[a] |  |
| Tail stripe |  |
The168th Wing is a unit of theAlaska Air National Guard, stationed atEielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Before it was redesignated in February 2016, it was known as the 168th Air Refueling Wing.[1] If activated to federal service as aUSAF unit, the 168th is primarily gained byPacific Air Forces, while its 213th Space Warning Squadron is gained bySpace Force.
From 1964 to 1967, thewing was anairlift unit of thePennsylvania Air National Guard, flyingLockheed C-121 Constellations as the168th Air Transport Group (later168th Military Airlift Group). It was inactivated when the Pennsylvania mission changed topsychological warfare. It was reactivated in Alaska in 1990.
The 168th Wing provides combined operations ofair refueling,missile warning, andspace surveillance. The unit supports forPacific Air Forces, U.S. Northern Command,Space Force and the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region. Besides its federally directed missions, as a unit of theAlaska National Guard, the 168th Wing is an asset of theGovernor of Alaska, who can direct the unit to respond to emergencies declared or missions required within the state.[2] Thewing is the onlyArctic region air refueling unit in the United States. The unit transfers more fuel than any other Air National Guard tanker wing, because nearly all receivers are active duty aircraft, many of which are on operational missions.
The 168th Wing consists of the following units:
Since 1950, the Air National Guard had been organized into wings, self-sustaining organizations, made up of functional groups. Because it was not practical to put an entire wing on a single installation for day to day operations, wing squadrons were located on bases as “augmented squadrons” containing support elements needed to sustain operations. By the law at the time Guardsmen could only be activated as members of a mobilized unit. This meant that, even when only operational and maintenance elements were needed for mobilization, the entire “augmented squadron” had to be called to active duty, including unneeded administrative personnel. The response was to replace the “augmented squadron” with a group including functional squadrons that could be mobilized as a group, or individually.[3]
In 1964, the140th Air Transport Squadron atOlmsted Air Force Base was reorganized to form the168th Air Transport Group. In addition to the 140th, units assigned into the group were the 168th Material Squadron, 168th Support Squadron, and the 168th USAF Dispensary. The group operated theLockheed C-121 Constellation. In January 1966 the group became the168th Military Airlift Group.
FollowingOperation Power Pack, the United States military intervention during the 1965 crisis in the Dominican Republic,[c]Robert McNamara, theUnited States Secretary of Defense directed the Air Force to develop a capability to disrupt civilian broadcasting networks and guerillacommand and control networks. In response,Tactical Air Command began to test a tactical electronic warfare support system that would be installed on C-121s, named Coronet Solo. Coronet Solo aircraft would be able to join or disrupt commercial radio and television and to broadcast prerecorded programs, in addition to having anelectronic countermeasures capability.[4]
Threatened by the closure of Olmsted (now Harrisburg Air National Guard Base) and by the downsizing of all conventionally powered transport aircraft, theNational Guard Bureau volunteered the 168th for the Coronet Solo mission capability in 1967.[5][6] The 168th and its components were inactivated and its resources were transferred to the new193d Tactical Electronic Warfare Group, which was activated to perform the Coronet Solo mission.[7]
The168th Air Refueling Group (later the168th AAir Refueling Wing) was activated on 23 October 1990 when the 168th Air Refueling Squadron was expanded to a group level. In 1995, the wing transitioned from theBoeing KC-135E Stratotanker to the KC-135R.
The 168th has thirteen subordinate assigned units whose missions include all aircraft maintenance for thePacific Air Forces gained tankers, providing financial, transportation, contracting, and base supply resources, communications, data processing and visual information functions, organizational security, and disaster preparedness and air base operability. They also contain all personnel activities such as training, equal employment opportunity and recruiting, and limited diagnostic and therapeutic service in general medicine, flight medicine, bioenvironmental, environmental, and dental services.
The unit was redesignated the168th Wing in February 2016, recognizing the inclusion of the 213th Space Warning Squadron at Clear Air Force Station, Alaska. The squadron had been part of the wing since 2046 and the redesignation of the parent wing recognized the dual-mission sets of both air refueling and ballistic missile early warning that the wing now performed.[1]
In 2000 the wing completed a major flight deck upgrade to its Stratotankers calledPacer CRAG. The same year, the wing became mobility-tasked.
Four years later, the wing added the 213th Space Warning Squadron, located 40 miles (64 km) north ofDenali and 40 miles (64 km) south of Fairbanks. The 213th is responsible for providing tactical warning and attack assessment of a ballistic missile attack against thecontinental United States and southern Canada. Warning data from the unit is forwarded to theNorth American Aerospace Defense Command insideCheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado. The squadron is also responsible for a portion of theSpace Force'sSpace Surveillance System and assists in tracking more than 9,500 space objects currently in Earth's orbit.
In 2025, the United States Congress rejected the idea of forming a Space National Guard, to include units like the 213th. Instead, space related functions will be transferred to regular Space Force units.[8]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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