(male announcer) The LPA Group Incorporated-- aviation and transportation engineers, architects, and planners with corporate headquarters in South Carolina-- proudly salutes the South Carolina Air National Guard on 60 years of service to our state and country.

Congratulations!

♪ ♪ (male narrator) For six decades, the ear-piercing thunder of fighter planes has carved up many a quiet country morning near Eastover, South Carolina.

♪ ♪ Amazingly, the constant noise of fast and loud jets has existed splendidly with those who have been here much longer.

[jet roaring] But because our world is not always peaceful, the mornings are often shattered by the sound of fighter jets and the steady stream of vehicles entering the gates of McEntire Joint National Guard Base.

These men and women are the first to rise in the morning, the first to leave their own homes and families when their country calls, and the first to fight when told to.

They are the men and women of the South Carolina Air National Guard.

♪ ♪ ♪ (narrator) In its first 60 years, the South Carolina Air National Guard has grown from a group of just 50 members to an essential fighting force of the United States military.

South Carolina Air Guardsmen have served our country in every major combat operation since the Second World War and today stand ready in defense of America.

All three of the state's primary Air Guard units are frontline combat forces, often the first to be called upon when our nation's security is threatened.

(male speaker) Semper Primus is Latin for "always first."

It was a motto of our 157th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from many years ago.

We're number one in everything we do.

It's good to remind ourselves that we strive to be number one in our mission and performance.

Francis Marion, who is our namesake, was the first guerrilla fighter of the Revolutionary War, and we carry on his tradition of always striving to protect our state and our nation.

Wherever we go and whatever we do, all around the world people recognize the Swamp Fox as a symbol of excellence and dedication and valor.

(male speaker) I was overwhelmed with how professional the National Guard was.

I was an active-duty JAG.

I never had really any association with the Air National Guard, and I was astounded at the level of professionalism and competency, from the crew chiefs to the maintenance people to the support folks.

What was going on at McEntire was equal to any active-duty squadron or wing I'd ever been involved in.

We're looked upon by the leadership of the Air Force-- many of whom I know personally-- to be called upon whenever they need us, from Desert Storm to Afghanistan, Northern Watch, Southern Watch, whatever.

♪ (narrator) The South Carolina Air National Guard didn't become one of the nation's elite fighting units overnight.

It took the vision of some extraordinary early leaders to put the Air Guard on this path.

Lieutenant General James C. Dozier, Medal of Honor winner from the First World War, was the state's adjutant general and head of the South Carolina National Guard.

General Dozier remembered well the lessons of the world wars, and instead of pushing for disarming after World War II, he knew it was time to rebuild and strengthen our nation's defense.

He recognized the need for a strong Air Guard and was sure Congaree would be a good home for it.

So Dozier set out to find the officers and airmen who would build the South Carolina Air National Guard.

Among them were Lieutenant Colonel Barnie B. McEntire and Major Bob Morrell, experienced aviators with distinguished military records.

Dozier charged McEntire and Morrell with the job of finding the men needed to launch the fledgling Air Guard operation, and 50 airmen assembled at Congaree Air Base in lower Richland County for the first muster of the South Carolina Air National Guard December 9, 1946.

The area that's McEntire Air National Guard Station, formerly Congaree Air Base, was farmland.

The federal government during World War II acquired the property from 20-plus property owners.

(narrator) Aircraft and buildings replaced cattle and farmhouses.

I was about 13 years old, going to Lower Richland High School.

During the summer I worked over here while they were building runways and barracks.

Before the base, it was farmland.

In fact, my grandfather owned a little bit of the land, back around where the Army Aviation is today.

I have come over here and picked cotton on this base when I was 10 or 11 years old.

(narrator) Young decided to join the Army Air Corps and become a mechanic.

That led him to an active-duty career before he found his way back home.

(Young) General McEntire personally hired me, and really Colonel Morrell at that time also.

I came out on a Monday night drill.

They both called me over and asked me did I want a job.

I said yes, and afterwards they carried me upstairs, which was the old hangar, and said come to work whenever I got ready to.

(narrator) Many of the early pilots had flown the P-51 in combat, a fighter that helped win the Second World War.

Pilots were joined by experienced and enthusiastic aircraft mechanics, and the new South Carolina Air Guard was on solid ground.

Training became an immediate priority for the 157th Fighter Squadron.

Within two years after its birth, the Air Guard made its first summer field training deployment to Chatham Field in Savannah.

That first trip to Georgia started a tradition that continues to this day.

A report of the unit's good performance made its way to Washington, and in 1950 the entire unit was activated in response to the Korean Conflict.

The Palmetto State airmen went to Lawson Field, Georgia, to train on a new aircraft, for a new mission, and under a new command... the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing.

After a year of training, many Air Guardsmen extended their 21-month call-up and took off for Europe in F-80s to protect U.S.

interests there while much of our military was engaged in Asia.

(male speaker) We deployed in January, right after Christmas in '51.

We flew 'em across the North Atlantic, and that was quite an experience.

We took off from Lawson Field, went to Dow Field, Maine, and here it was ice on the runways and ice on the parking lot, and we had to wait until the weather cleared up so we could fly from there to Goose Bay, Labrador... in the wintertime, and the temperature was running about 35 below zero.

And you landed on the runway, and it was like landing in a canyon because there was 30 to 40 foot of snow on either side of the runway where they'd blown the snow off of the runway.

We took off from Goose Bay, and they told us your life expectancy, if you bailed out, was two minutes because of the water temperature.

(narrator) The deployment left Congaree Air Base deserted, so General Dozier asked for another unit to be created, the 110th Air Control and Warning Squadron.

It had been organized in December 1950, then activated the following year, and eventually served throughout Europe during the time of the Korean Conflict.

(male speaker) We were a very good unit, a very good unit.

We had old equipment, but we managed to keep it going.

One of the things that our people did daily is they would give us the weather reports and strike up the radar, the light radar.

One of the most exciting times was that the Russians were waiting on us, and they shot down one of our P-80s.

And of course we went on alert.

We thought, This is it, doomsday... this is when the Russians are coming.

(narrator) When the unit was disbanded after its service, some of the 110th airmen stayed on and became members of the re-formed 157th.

I was told to go to see Colonel Barnie McEntire.

He was a Brookland-Cayce guy, and so was I, and my parents knew his parents.

Whether that had anything to do with it, I don't know, but Barnie said, "You're the kind of man I want."

He said, "I'm gonna hire you.

You're going to be my administrative assistant."

(narrator) The heartbeat of Congaree Air Base in the early days was its commanding officer, Barnie B. McEntire.

He was one of the first to check out on every new type of plane assigned to the Air Guard.

McEntire rose to lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was exactly the type of man General Dozier was looking for when he dreamed of starting the South Carolina Air National Guard.

Oh, a grand leader... a flying leader that had flown in World War II.

He didn't ask you to do anything that he didn't do, but he wanted you to do it and do it right.

(narrator) It was said of McEntire that he loved three things: his family, flying airplanes, and building and driving miniature race cars.

McEntire was so busy as commander of the Air National Guard, that he often involved his family in base activities.

(female speaker) We would sit in his office and call the kitchen and get 'em to deliver sandwiches.

We were so bad.

And he took us up in a propeller plane once, or at least took me.

And another big thing I remember was going out at night when they would do-- I think they're called touch-and-goes?

He would go out, and the whole family would go; Mom and Daddy in the front seat, and the kids in the back, sleepin'.

He would watch because of his concern that everyone was being trained correctly.

I remember that a lot, fallin' asleep in the car with the sound of those planes.

[jet swooshing through the air] (narrator) The 1950s ushered in the age of jet aircraft, and the South Carolina Air National Guard was at the forefront.

Captain Bob Johnson was a pioneering aviator whose best-known flight was the 1954 Ricks Memorial Trophy Race, a California-to-Michigan fighter jet sprint.

Johnson made two fuel stops, each lasting 4 minutes on the ground, and covered the 2,000-mile trip in 3 hours and 28 minutes, averaging nearly 600 miles per hour and finishing in second place by a mere 6 seconds.

(Johnson) They put fuel in the airplanes, put the caps on, and said "go."

The real prize was... the joy of winning.

However, we did have a movie star that came up and greeted you.

It was Anita Ekberg.

(narrator) Within months, however, flying operations turned serious again when the 157th Fighter Squadron received its first alert mission.

On the night of December 8, 1954, an F-86 piloted by Captain Jack Moak paved the way for 24-hour alert tasking, a scramble that required two jets to be in the air within five minutes.

(male speaker) We'd get in our flying gear, flying suits, and we'd spend the night out there, the idea being that if an alert was sounded, you'd have to get airborne in five minutes.

(narrator) The '50s at Congaree Air Base also saw the foundations of what would become the 240th Combat Communications Squadron and the 245th Air Traffic Control Squadron.

These squadrons trace their history back to 1952.

The 1960s began quietly, but the tranquility didn't last long.

In the first week of that decade, the National Guard Bureau announced that South Carolina would become the first Guard unit to get the F-104 Starfighter, the hottest fighter in the Air Force inventory at the time.

General McEntire led the formation of sleek, fast, and loud Starfighters and was the first to touch down at the base.

(Johnson) He came in and landed.

And I was somewhat younger.

I did a little show-off and put on an air show.

(narrator) Johnson roared down the airfield, then pulled the stick back.

Within seconds, he was soaring to 35,000 feet.

The Starfighter had arrived.

(Wright) Barnie B. and Strom Thurmond arranged to get us the 104s, and that was a great airplane.

(narrator) There was a certain romance with the F-104.

(Johnson) The way my wife got a ride in an F-104 is when the first ones were delivered to McEntire, and she was there, and she told Colonel Fred Hook, she said, "I want a ride in that airplane."

(narrator) Colonel Hook told her if she got commissioned to write a newspaper article, got a commercial license, and went through the altitude chamber, he would approve her ride in the F-104.

(Johnson) So when that happened, she took it all to Colonel Hook and says, "Here it is; I want my ride."

So he says, "Okay, you earned it."

So I took her for a ride in a 104 and took her to Mach 2.

♪ (narrator) The F-104 brought notoriety and tragedy to the South Carolina Air National Guard.

It would do a lot of things, but it wasn't too forgiving, and you didn't get to make but one mistake in it.

(Johnson) The engine had variable inlet guide veins, and if they would get out of kilter, the engine would stall.

The only way that you could get your engine back was to shut the engine down... shut it off and restart it.

(narrator) On May 25, 1961, General McEntire and Colonel Morrell flew to a conference in Pennsylvania to demand that the Air Force do something about the frequent 104 engine problems.

But on the return trip, with tragic irony, the unthinkable happened.

(male speaker) Bob, I'm having an engine stall.

(narrator) Those were the last words spoken by Brigadier General Barnie B. McEntire.

Moments later, McEntire's F-104 crashed on an island in the Susquehanna River, just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

It was a very traumatic day and a very sad day.

As a matter of fact, Colonel Morrell stayed up there.

He didn't return.

He stayed up there and came home with the body, with Colonel McEntire's body.

I guess what I remember most, I do remember mother sitting down... with me in the living room and talking to me.

And I remember that people and flowers and stuff just kept coming and coming and coming.

(narrator) A few months after McEntire's death, the governor of Pennsylvania posthumously awarded him a certificate of valor for sacrificing his life to make sure that no civilians on the ground were killed or injured.

In November of that year, South Carolina Governor Ernest F. Hollings renamed the base McEntire Air National Guard Base.

(Hollings) All I did was I made sure that we would name it after him because he'd given his life for that plane and for the Guard.

He had led the way.

He was the best that we ever had, and he was also the best in the Guard.

I had a tremendous respect for General McEntire because he had a vision.

Everybody knew it.

The Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., they knew and respected General McEntire.

He had more time when I was coming along.

I got to spend a lot of time with him.

It was very hard for me when he died because I was so close to him.

(narrator) Colonel Robert Hanley Morrell became chief of staff after McEntire's death.

Morrell was a colorful character who could have been Southern Conference boxing champion before his Army Air Corp and Air Guard careers.

He was also a traveling companion of famed novelist John Steinbeck, having worked with him as a technical advisor when Steinbeck was doing a special book on the Air Corps.

(male speaker) General Morrell was a character.

He had a control over the base.

He knew every detail, everything that was going on.

This was actually his love.

General Morrell lived here in Horrell Hill.

His son, Mark Morrell, is in my unit, and Mark is carrying on his dad's legacy to the tee.

My earliest recollections when Daddy became commander of the Air National Guard was that everybody was scared of him.

He was a big man, and he, uh... was very loud.

(narrator) Morrell had a tough side and a lighter side, but sometimes the line between the two was blurry.

He was famous for his "Morrell Memos," creative instructions he sent to staff members, either on official letterhead or notepad.

His famous "pecan letters" drew the attention of a U.S.

congressman, especially the line that said, "Anyone caught in the orchard without authorization may be shot."

(male speaker) I was actually placed there as a guard to make sure that folks did not pick up a pecan or two on the way to the chow hall.

That was one of my first official duties as a young security policeman, armed with an M16 or a .38 or whatever we had.

Around lunchtime one of us was posted there to make sure that nobody got any of General Morrell's pecans.

One of the stories that I remember about General Morrell-- and somebody's probably already talked about this-- he would smoke Camel cigarettes and bend those cigarettes where they would zigzag.

It looked like a Z shape.

Every time he took a cigarette out of his pack, he'd put it between his fingers and bend it.

And as he was smoking it, it would be crooked like a Z. I remember one day over in the headquarters building, I said, "General, why do you bend the cigarettes?"

And he said, "Son, that's to keep the smoke out of my eyes."

(narrator) Morrell was a strong leader who loved the Guard and loved his family.

The thing I'd want most people to remember about my father is, is, uh... what a wonderful human being he was, what a humanitarian he was, how caring and giving a person he was, and how hard he worked to make the South Carolina Air National Guard better.

(narrator) General Morrell's leadership skills were put to task when the Cold War began.

Because of the intense political climate in Europe, the entire South Carolina Air Guard was activated in October 1961.

About half the unit was sent to Morón, Spain.

(male speaker) Yeah, I left here on Thanksgiving Day.

In '61, I remember it well.

Me and Bubba McLean, the only two on the 124... one airplane.

(narrator) The F-104s were dismantled and shipped to Spain inside C-124 transport planes, then reassembled for combat.

After eight months in Europe, the South Carolina troops returned home to McEntire Air Base.

In 1963, Master Sergeant Alton G. Cox became the first person to retire from the South Carolina Air National Guard.

Jack Moak became the first officer to retire, also in 1963.

Cox was one of the last surviving charter members when he died in the spring of 2006.

His death was followed just four months later by the passing of retired master sergeant Rob Roy Honeycutt, the last surviving airman who was there with Colonel McEntire, Major Morrell, and the others at the first unit muster in December 1946.

In 1964, Sergeant John Watson enlisted in the unit and became the first African-American member.

(Watson) I really enjoyed being in the National Guard because I didn't have a whole lot of trouble.

I don't know whether it came from experience or...I just got along with people.

(narrator) The first female enlisted member of the Guard was Sergeant Alice Lown of Chapin.

Lieutenant Jean Clark, a nurse, had been the first woman in the South Carolina Air Guard back in 1958.

In 1971, the South Carolina Air National Guard celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The next quarter century appeared filled with promise and hope, and in those coming years, the Swamp Foxes would achieve a worldwide reputation that Generals Dozier, McEntire, and Morrell could only have imagined.

♪ The '70s and '80s brought new aircraft and new missions.

During training deployments to Norway, Air Guardsmen trained to fight against the Russians in Europe.

After the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet threat was gone.

A new theater of operations emerged...Southwest Asia.

Iraq became the new battleground, starting in December 1990.

More than 700 members of the South Carolina Air National Guard deployed for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

[artillery fire crackling and booming] The 240th Combat Communications Squadron got right to work setting up communications and air traffic control on the base in Saudi Arabia.

Air traffic controllers worked out of a mobile tower set up on a small hill.

Members of the 169th Fighter Group managed to hang on at home until a few days after Christmas.

Most of the Air Guard men and women were experiencing combat for the first time.

A lot of excitement, stress.

People never know how they're gonna perform.

They've trained, trained, trained, but some people do really well in combat, some don't.

But overall, it was outstanding.

(narrator) Major Jet Jernigan led the first bombing mission into Kuwait.

(Jernigan) And as we walked across the ramp, there were members of the South Carolina Air Guard-- crew chiefs, avionics specialists, supply people-- some with tears in their eyes, comin' and pattin' us on the back because they didn't know whether we were going to come back.

(narrator) Jernigan and the Swamp Fox pilots flew into Kuwait and dropped their first bombs on real targets.

(male pilot, over radio) Two seconds... boom!

Let's get out of here.

(narrator) Then it happened... surface-to-air missiles and a battle within the battle that would become all too familiar over the next 45 days.

As we started to recover and try to go back to altitude, all of a sudden I got a radar-warning-receiver noise, indicating a surface-to-air missile launch at left 8:00.

It showed an SA-2.

As I looked out the left window, a "telephone pole" riding on a smoke trail was tracking our aircraft.

It's doing faster than twice the speed of sound, and your mouth goes real dry, and its gets very tense.

(narrator) After hair-raising fights against missiles trying to kill them, the Swamp Foxes got out of there and headed for home.

As my adrenaline started to slow down a little bit, I was very relieved to find myself still alive and my wingman still with me.

But when I went to check in my flight that morning, I could barely make the call.

I was very concerned about what I would find.

It remains, out of my whole flying career, one of the most special moments when I gave the command to check in and, one at a time, there were 20 F-16s on the radio.

The easy part is getting to the target.

The hard part is making sure you get the people you take with you in and out of the target area and safely back on the ground.

(narrator) Retired Chief Master Sergeant Danny Sightler remembers that the men and women on the ground had to dodge a few missiles too... or so they thought.

They told us to have our chem suits and gas masks ready.

It took me probably 30 minutes to get that chemical suit on.

You're supposed to get it on a lot quicker than that, but when you're in combat and you think that Scud is going to hit right on your tent, it takes a lot longer than that.

(Coln) Desert Storm was a very exciting time.

It was the first time I had been in combat, and the first time many of us in the fighter squadron and deployed over to Saudi Arabia had been in combat.

The main thing about Desert Storm for us was the fear of the unknown.

(male pilot, over radio) Got the second one passin' overhead me at this time, slight echelon right.

(male speaker) It was my first true experience in a combat environment, and I guess the thing that stands out in my mind is... how that pressure-- not fear so much for your personal safety, but fear that you will fail or not perform your duties the way that you are expected to-- that pressure, that intense pressure, really brings out the best-- and the worst--in people.

And I'm happy to say that I saw a lot of the best.

We were a little disappointed that it ended a day or two early.

A tremendous number of targets were allowed to escape.

In retrospect, that was not a good thing.

But we were happy it was over.

(narrator) When the conflict ended, or was at least suspended for a few years, the Swamp Foxes had flown nearly 2,000 combat missions, while the maintainers achieved a near-90% mission capable rate, the highest aircraft reliability of any flying unit in the entire theater of operations.

The Swamp Foxes were required to make several more trips to Southwest Asia in the 1990s.

When the Air Expeditionary Force concept was being devised and tested, the South Carolina pilots and maintainers were the first called upon.

Operation Southern Watch was staged from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, a place the Swamp Foxes would become very familiar with in years to come.

In 2000, operating out of Turkey, the South Carolina airmen patrolled the northern no-fly zone of Iraq to keep Saddam's air force on the ground.

September 11, 2001... the men and women at McEntire Air National Guard Station watched and learned of that day's events with the same shock and horror as the rest of the country.

But shortly after seeing the second plane hit the World Trade Center, Air Guard leaders knew there would be tasks forthcoming.

I remember making a remark that that wasn't an accident; the United States was being attacked and we were at war.

(narrator) The first job at the base was to get the jets out on training missions back on the ground.

(Noble) Before we got the first call, we began reconfiguring our airplanes so we would be ready to load our airplanes with live missiles.

And it turns out, that call came within an hour or so asking us how quickly we could have our airplanes ready.

(narrator) 9/11 triggered what became the busiest and most dynamic five-year period in the history of the Guard.

Five months after the attacks, the 169th sent six jets and 200 people again to Qatar to fly combat missions over Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Later that year, the 240th Combat Communications Squadron was put to its biggest test since Desert Storm.

Until October 2002, very few people in the South Carolina Air National Guard-- or maybe even the world-- had ever heard of Kyrgyzstan.

But the word came down that the 240th would be going there to set up communications at a former Soviet air base.

(female speaker) It was pretty scary.

I had one of my guys go on the Internet to kind of just see where it was, and we realized it was on the China-Russia border... unknown territory to U.S.

troops at all.

So it was kind of scary, but once we got there, it was a pleasant surprise.

The people there were a lot friendlier.

They kind of looked like me; they thought I was one of the natives.

(narrator) After a six-month deployment, Keck had the opportunity to share her experiences with many people, including one high-profile interested observer.

When the 240th got home from Kyrgyzstan, it was the 245th Air Traffic Control Squadron's turn to see more overseas action.

In late 2002, the 245th deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, to manage air traffic control functions there.

We deployed radar controllers, tower controllers, and our maintainers to Bagram Air Base.

It was a quite interesting deployment.

We were working out of a Russian control tower, but they had remoted the radios from the mobile control tower up to the tower, so we had a great visibility.

The interesting thing about Bagram was that the base itself still had a lot of minefields.

In fact, some of the battles had taken place at Bagram as the Taliban was leaving.

We could see mines being blown up on our own base while they were clearing it while we were working aircraft in and out of there.

♪ (narrator) Deployments seemed to come literally one right after the other.

While the 245th was in Afghanistan, the 169th got an invitation for a return trip to Southwest Asia, this time in anticipation of another war in Iraq.

To some, Operation Iraqi Freedom had the feel of Desert Storm all over again.

Colonel Deane Pennington had been a new member of the 169th and a captain in Desert Storm.

Twelve years later, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, he commanded the Swamp Fox detachment.

When I talked to my guys and gals about combat, I just reassured them, hey, we've trained well, we've got an outstanding organization here, we've got the whole packet from support to pilots, a nd we're gonna do fine.

(female speaker) I had already been to Iraq and flown those kinds of missions.

It was actually very exciting to be involved in the first night of the war.

We really felt like McEntire was an integral part of that operation and they were calling on the best and the brightest to do their job.

(narrator) A few South Carolina Air Guardsmen were on the ground in Iraq days after the American military secured the region.

In 2003, I was one of the first air traffic controllers arriving there in Baghdad after the Army secured Baghdad and moved through.

So it was really scary.

(narrator) For most of the Swamp Foxes, Operation Iraqi Freedom was short and successful.

For others, the operation continues.

♪ The strength of the South Carolina Air National Guard has always been its people.

And what has given these people their best opportunity to excel is great aircraft.

It started with the P-51 Mustang.

Older pilots still call it the best.

(Wright) Well, the P-51 was one of the best airplanes in the world.

It was very maneuverable, had good speed.

It wasn't too comfortable; the cockpit wasn't too big.

But it just had something about it.

That was a nice flying airplane.

(narrator) RF-80s and F-86s ushered in the jet fighter era.

Air Guard pilots made their first Atlantic crossing in the RF-80 for deployment to Germany in the early '50s.

When the Swamp Foxes returned to Congaree Air Base, the F-86 became the primary aircraft for the unit.

The first real superstar jet to grace the ramp at Congaree Air Base was the F-104 Starfighter, which could fly twice the speed of sound.

The F-102 Delta Dagger enjoyed a stellar 9-year run, serving primarily in an alert role.

The arrival of the A-7 in the mid-'70s brought a new airplane and a new mission, from interceptor to fighter-bomber.

That was a big change for McEntire.

She went from ADC-- Air Defense Command-- to Tactical Air Command, two totally different roles.

You're going from doing alert and defending the American skies to doing tactical attacks on the bad guys.

(male speaker) Most of the people had flown F-102s and had done air intercept missions, high altitude intercept and some low altitude work.

Mostly it was defensive air combat tactics.

Now the people had to learn to fly low-level missions down on the top of the trees.

They had to learn to drop bombs, air refuel, and that was quite a change.

(narrator) Inabinet and the rest of the fighter group saw the world in the A-7.

From McEntire, they deployed to Hawaii for training missions and to Panama to assist with defense of the Panama Canal.

In the late '40s and '50s, while the P-51s and F-86s were the stars on the ramp, C-47s, C-54s, and C-131s carried much of the support load.

Today, the C-130 transports personnel and equipment wherever they are needed for the Air Guard's mission.

♪ Early leaders envisioned the Air National Guard becoming a key asset and vital member of America's total defense force.

With the coming of a new fighter jet in the 1980s, the Swamp Foxes' reputation continued to grow.

I remember talking about it at the time.

Once we got the F-16, we weren't going to be a third-echelon kind of force.

We were going to train and be ready to go with the first group that went.

(Patterson) So I got wind at one of my meetings up at Wright-Patterson that the F-16 was gonna come into the inventory of the Air National Guard.

I didn't tell another soul that little tidbit I learned.

I made a beeline to Strom Thurmond's office, and I said, "Senator, the Air Force is gonna put F-16s in the Air National Guard."

And I said we wanted the first squadron of the F-16.

(Inabinet) We were ecstatic when we heard we were gonna get the F-16.

There was nothin' like the F-16.

It was like flying a sports car... small, compact, and it was highly maneuverable.

(Coln) The F-16 is a dream airplane to fly.

We have the most modern, the most capable F-16 here at McEntire that exists in (Hood) To be perfectly frank with you, the A and B models was a marvelous fighting machine.

Every time I'd touch down, I'd say a prayer, "Thank you, Lord, for giving this weapons system to my country."

That's how good it is.

(narrator) The Swamp Foxes and the F-16 were a good fit from the start.

Training was intense but successful.

The Guard made strong showings in 1985 and 1987 in the Air Force worldwide gunnery meet, Gunsmoke.

At Gunsmoke '89, the South Carolina Air Guard was the team to beat.

And the Swamp Foxes came through with a victory, returning home as Overall Top Team.

The arrival of the F-16s allowed a lot of boys and girls to live their childhood dreams.

Flying fighters is a dream come true for me.

As a boy, I used to go out to the airport and just watch the airplanes take off and land because I was just so interested in aviation.

(male interviewer) Did you always want to be a fighter pilot?

(Parham, voice-over) I sure did, ever since I was ten and saw my first air show.

It was probably the Thunderbirds, who fly F-16s.

I had picked out the airplane that early on, and that's what we fly out here at McEntire, of course.

[jets roaring] (Pennington) I've been doing it for almost 25 years now.

Every time I get in an airplane, it is still the same rush as day one.

It's hard to explain how exhilarating it is.

It's a phenomenal feeling.

It's a total adrenaline high, and I can't imagine doing anything else.

(Patrick) And then there are those moments of just absolute, sheer beauty where you are up there in that aircraft, in a single-seat cockpit, just you, and you capture those moments of God's incredible beauty.

You almost forget there is the rest of the world.

[engine whirring] (narrator) No air base, least of all McEntire Joint National Guard Base, operates with just aircraft and pilots.

Support comes in all forms.

Without it, fighter squadrons can't do any fighting.

(Patrick) The real strength of the Air National Guard and the real strength of McEntire is our enlisted corps and our traditional guardsmen.

Pilots...we've got about 30 pilots or so out of 1200 people.

These are great Americans, and they are highly skilled warriors, but, quite frankly, they could not do what they've done and what they will continue to do without the incredible, incredible professionalism and the incredible hardworking ethic of our enlisted corps.

(Johnson) Major Morrell and Colonel McEntire selected good people, wonderful people.

There's not enough that you can say about the NCOs.

(narrator) The best fighter jets in the world are just pieces of hardware without the skill and experience to maintain them and keep them ready to fly.

Are we good to go?

Yep.

(male speaker) The trust we have with our maintenance guys is strong.

We step out to the jets, trusting that thing is ready to go and that's gonna let us take off and come back safely.

We have that between each other, and it's great.

(Dickson) This plane's got one motor.

We're very particular about who works on the motor, who puts the motor in the airplane.

Can't pull on the side of the road if it quits.

We put our life in their hands.

Our guys at McEntire have done an outstanding job.

They're professionals, the best in the world.

I am 100% confident every time we walk to an airplane.

The last thing I have to worry about is, Is the maintenance on this airplane good enough to get me through this war?

A lot of the expertise is passed on, you know, from one generation out here to the next.

A young guy in here gets hooked up with somebody who's got some experience, and they learn.

Of course, you've got to have mechanics.

We hire mechanics out here, which is getting hard to find in today's society.

So I cherish any mechanics that come through these doors.

♪ (narrator) While maintainers keep the aircraft in the air, when the jets are up there, controllers keep them safe.

(Hartley) The 245th Air Traffic Control Squadron stationed at McEntire National Guard Station is one of ten air traffic control squadrons in the Guard in the United States.

Our role at McEntire is not only to provide air traffic control services for the fixed base here, but it's also to prepare for our wartime mission.

Our wartime mission is to take our equipment and set it up in a bare-base environment.

We have several different control positions that we work.

We have ground control, flight data control, and then local control.

(male pilot, over radio) Good morning Viper two-one.

I'm ready to taxi to.... (Godfrey, voice-over) Just controlling airplanes all over.

I love it.

(narrator) Communication is also important to the success of the Guard.

The 240th Combat Communications Squadron makes sure commanders can communicate at all times.

Our main mission is to go out and set up new bases.

We set up all the telephone, Internet services, secure and nonsecure.

(narrator) Eagle Vision is the 240th's latest innovation.

This satellite mapping system's applications are available to commanders in the field or disaster relief officials preparing for the next hurricane .

(male speaker) We use this imagery for several items, such as disaster preparedness, homeland security, and, most importantly, to support the war fighter.

(narrator) An important facet of the Air National Guard's charge is community service... disaster relief, public safety, being there when a need arises.

We've recognized all along that we have a state mission that's just as important as our federal mission.

And I remember as early on as Hurricane Hugo in 1989, we were able to bounce back within about 24 hours and start receiving relief missions into the base here.

The same requirements for being ready to go to war are used to be ready to go and help the citizens of South Carolina in time of a natural disaster.

(narrator) The South Carolina Air National Guard serves the region too.

McEntire's C-130 and crew were a valuable asset in 2004 when Hurricane Frances struck Florida.

State and federal officials made a short-notice request for an aircraft to take Governor Jeb Bush and the director of FEMA on a tour of the state.

And in 2005, when Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Palmetto State guardsmen rushed to the aid of their neighbors in that region.

The heart and soul of the South Carolina Air National Guard is still the traditional guardsmen.

Only about 25% of Air Guardsmen work full-time at the base.

The rest--traditional guardsmen and women-- come together from cities and towns all over the state and even beyond its borders to serve and make the organization complete.

(Coln) Seventy-five percent of our people are drill-status guardsmen or traditional guardsmen.

They are called up and away from their jobs, families, and they respond to that call for service.

And I think that's a very unique and admirable thing.

(narrator) Master Sergeant Ralph Guyton is a member of the 169th Security Forces Squadron.

But when he's not at the base, he's Captain Ralph Guyton of the Columbia Fire Department.

The two jobs have a lot in common.

I want to be that person that's called on when the chips are down.

I want to be that person that when people are looking for somebody to call, they say, "Well, let's call Sergeant Guyton," or, "Let's call Captain Guyton."

I want to be that man.

(narrator) The Guard constantly challenges young people to manage their time so they can serve and make a difference.

Being a mom, working full-time, and being a member of the South Carolina Air National Guard can be challenging at times, but with the help of my family, who have my children now, I am able to make it.

(narrator) Training is of vital importance to the Guard and always has been.

In 2006, the Swamp Foxes were preparing for an Operational Readiness Inspection, the most important peacetime evaluation of the unit's combat readiness.

The purpose of our exercise is to get our people, jets, and equipment from our base into theater so that we can perform our mission against the enemy.

That is our primary purpose, to get our troops ready for war.

(narrator) Various scenarios are played out.

We gave an input that the hangar had been hit by falling debris from a missile and it was on fire.

We're evaluating, first, how they bug out and, second, how they treat the casualties through self-aid and buddy care.

(narrator) In combat--even simulated combat-- first aid and medical care are essential.

Well, basically, we're all medical professionals, at saving life and limb and gettin' them back to the battle as quick as possible.

♪ (narrator) Through the years, Savannah has been a second home to the Swamp Foxes.

(male speaker) We always looked forward to making the trip to Savannah.

And it was really a fun time for the unit.

I miss home, I miss my children, but I'm glad to do it for the South Carolina Air National Guard.

♪ (Motley) The opportunities for a young person, when they join the Air National Guard, are limitless.

When I joined, I had no idea that I would get a chance as a young man-- sometimes I still call home when I go to places and say, "You'll never guess where I am," because I still can't believe it 30-something years later.

It's interesting that I came in enlisted air traffic control, and now I'm the commander of the squadron.

So there's a ton of opportunities at McEntire for those that come out and stay.

(narrator) Today, these opportunities exclude no one.

I find that the makeup, the diversity in the Air National Guard is more reflective of the community than it was when I first joined in 1981.

(narrator) Captain Tally Parham followed in her father's footsteps and became a Swamp Fox fighter pilot.

(Parham) He was the one who took me to my first air shows and brought me out to McEntire and introduced me to this community and took me on my first flight, and that's when I realized that I really would rather be nowhere else but in the air.

It's a dream come true.

Every day, when I go into work, it's like I am not going into work.

To do something that I enjoy doing, love doing, to have that opportunity is great.

And actually to render a service, to fly and render a service to protect the people of South Carolina and the United States of America, it's a great opportunity and one that I cherish and love that I would even do for free!

(narrator) The South Carolina Air National Guard family has expanded to include a large and diverse group of airmen and officers.

My dad was in the South Carolina Air National Guard, Vietnam era, for about ten years.

I just always knew it was a good organization.

My dad encouraged me to join.

I joined the South Carolina Air National Guard because I enjoyed my four years of active-duty Air Force experience so much, and I wanted to continue to serve.

It's been ten years in the Air National Guard, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

I feel like we're a family out here because, when we deploy, we live, work, and play together, and we can count on each other.

It's one big family.

It doesn't matter whether you're the colonel or the airman.

It's one big family.

Everybody hurts together; everybody wins together.

There's some kind of camaraderie at McEntire that causes people to build upon at McEntire that I can't explain.

It's just a group-- I don't know if I should use the word love or not, but they seem to love each other.

They're just a compatible bunch... always have been and always will be, I believe.

I enjoy being in the South Carolina Air National Guard just because of the people out here... everybody from the E-1 level all the way up to the top.

The leadership is great, and the people out here are just wonderful.

♪ (narrator) "Always First."

Number one in protecting our state and nation.

The South Carolina Air National Guard's mission has not changed from the intent of those who gathered at the first muster December 9, 1946.

We're the same, but we're different.

We're different in the technology that we use, in the mission that we perform, in the airplane that we fly, and all the different systems that we use, but at the core of everything, the most important asset we have is our people, and they are the same people, basically, that were here for our first muster 60 years ago.

(Pennington) If General McEntire were standing next to me, he'd say, You guys are doing a great job.

We're proud to represent him and his family, and we hope that we can live up to his expectations of what he wanted this base to be.

I'm sure that General McEntire and General Morrell and people like that would be just tremendously proud to have started this organization and to see where it is today.

The South Carolina Air National Guard is recognized throughout the United States, throughout all the National Guard circles, and throughout the entire Air Force as the premier fighter unit in the country.

I think we will be at the front every time there's a conflict anywhere because of the reputation that we carry.

Well, the recent announcement that we will be the first Guard unit to fly the F-35 proves our value as a partner in the defense of this nation and our state.

(Graham) Twenty years from now if the President of the United States needs someone to combat the enemy, the first group that will get called will be at McEntire.

And they will do then what they've always done... perform marvelously well.

The one thing I got as a governor that was ready, willing, working, professional, and outstanding was the National Guard and, particularly, our Air National Guard.

(Johnson) The Guard just continues to get better all the time.

You think, Who's gonna take over after I go?

There's always somebody that comes in and does it better.

I'd love to live 50 more years and see what it would look like 50 years from now.

I think the South Carolina Air National Guard has continued its tradition of being first and the best.

And I think the next 60 years is gonna be even more dynamic, and there will be bigger and greater things coming down the road.

♪ ♪ Captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc.

www.compuscriptsinc.com ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (male announcer) The LPA group Incorporated-- aviation and transportation engineers, architects, and planners with corporate headquarters in South Carolina-- proudly salutes the South Carolina Air National Guard on 60 years of service to our state and country.

Congratulations!