Air combat has come a long way since its birth in World War I, when pilots dueled in balletic dogfights over trenches and dropped bombs by hand.
So has the Maryland Air National Guard, which has been around almost since that beginning. Its pilots have gone from weekend warriors flying fabric-covered biplanes in the 1920s to patrolling the skies over Bosnia in jet fighter-bombers and hauling cargo around the world.
Formed less than three years after World War I, the Maryland Guard aviation unit was among the country's first and will celebrate its 75th anniversary at 11 a.m. today at Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport in Baltimore County.
At the ceremony, the Guard also will formally adopt its new designation, 175th Wing, which will embrace the formerly separate 135th Airlift Squadron and 104th Fighter Squadron and their ground-support units.
The reorganization streamlines the command structure for occasions when the Guard is called to active duty with the regular Air Force, said Col. Walter T. "Ted" Thilly, the vice wing commander.
That is happening with increasing frequency. As budget constraints shrink the Air Force, the citizen-soldiers of the Guard are shifting from supporting the regulars to replacing them on some missions, said Col. David A. Beasley, commander of the 175th Wing.
"Our motto is 'Poised in Readiness,' and that typifies our history. When we've been called, we've been ready at a moment's notice," said Brig. Gen. Bruce M. Tuxill, assistant state adjutant general for air and a former commander of the old 175th Tactical Fighter Group.
Nationwide, the Guard provides 40 percent of the Air Force's airlift capacity and 30 percent of fighter support, the general said.
Militia nation
"We are a militia nation," Tuxill said. "We never had a standing army until after World War II. In these days of declining budgets, the Guard costs less to maintain and can be tapped at any time."
The Guard is no less ready to fight than the regular military.
The Maryland wing's 1,800 men and women must meet the same exacting training standards as the Air Force. Flight crew members average 166 days a year in training and on active duty, while the rest drill for 48 days and train in the field 15 days annually, Beasley said.
They have earned top marks in Air Force readiness tests and have been tapped for every important mission from Somalia to Bosnia, as well as in Haiti, Korea, Panama, Honduras, Liberia and in drug interdiction in Central and South America.
