Air Defence Ramp Alert, 1953 Style
The wartime P-51 equipped 505th Fighter Squadron of the US Army Air Force was re-designated as the 138th Fighter Squadron, and was allotted to the New York Air National Guard, on 24 May 1946. It was organized at Hancock Field, Syracuse, New York, and was extended federal recognition on 28 October 1947 by the National Guard Bureau. The 138th Fighter Squadron was bestowed the lineage, history, honors, and colors of the 505d Fighter Squadron and all predecessor units. It was the first New York Air National Guard squadron that was extended federal recognition.
“In some ways, the postwar Air National Guard was almost like a flying country club and a pilot could often show up at the field, check out an aircraft and go flying. However, the unit also had regular military exercises that kept up proficiency and in gunnery and bombing contests they would often score at least as well or better than active-duty USAF units, given the fact that most ANG pilots were World War II combat veterans.”
Then came the Cold War. It was thought that the long-range (3000nm with 6000-lbs of dumb or nuclear bombs) Soviet Tu-4 (B-29ski) could penetrate over the North Pole from Siberian bases and attack the Northern United States, even if it meant one-way trips with primitive Russian A-bombs. The first working Soviet A-bomb, tested in 1953 at the Semipalatinsk test range had a deployed yield up to 30 Kt. The first deployed US bomb, Little Boy, dropped in 1945 at Hiroshima, was but a 16 Kt package.
Beginning on March 1, 1953, two Air National Guard units–including the 138th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Syracuse, New York, pictured here, began a standing Air Defense Runway alert that continues to this day in one form or another.
The 138th placed two F-51D fighters and five pilots on air defense “runway alert” from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset (no radar= no nighttime intercept capabilities). The runway alert program was the first broad effort to integrate reserve forces into a major Air Force operational mission on a volunteer basis during peacetime.
(Painting by Gil Cohen, “Runway Alert”, National Guard Heritage Painting.) The P-51, while the most advanced fighter in the world in 1943, was just ten years later outclassed by modern MiG’s and relegated to National Guard use.
Still, armed with six M2/AN2 heavy machine guns loaded with incendiary tracers, the P-51s should have been able to chew up a Russki bomber but good.
In 1954 the 138th transitioned to F-94B Starfire jets and the Mustangs in Syracuse faded away. It was the same year that the Soviets introduced the jet-powered Tu-16 Badger and the P-51 just couldn’t catch up to a bomber with a 652 mph maximum speed.
The last P-51s were withdrawn from the Air National Guard in late 1956 and a few remained as chase planes for helicopters at Fort Rucker (being flown by the Army) until 1968. Overseas Mustangs remained with the Philippine and Dominican Republic Air Forces as late as 1988.