Whether engaged in training

sorties and exercises at home

in the US, or deployments the
world over, the A-7 Corsair IIs
of the Air National Guard
served with great distinction.
No wonder former ANG pilots
remember the SLUF so well.
report: Ben Dunnell

IR FORCES ARE proud

institutions. When the
US Air Force was pressed
into operating Voughts
outstanding A-7 Corsair
II as a close air support
platform, some were far from happy. After
all, it had been developed for the Navy. If the
USAF had to take on this role, it wanted a
bespoke aircraft. An excellent Vietnam combat
record notwithstanding, as soon as the A-10
Thunderbolt II became available the USAF
began to rid itself of the A-7. Still, the regulars
loss was the Air National Guards gain.
For close on two decades the SLUF (Short
Little Ugly F*****) was a mainstay of many
Air National Guard units. Their aircraft
became familiar sights in Europe, carrying out
deployments to maintain readiness for the
Cold War action that never came. On another
regular detachment, to Panama, some ANG
A-7s ended up firing their guns in anger. They
ought, many felt, to have been sent to fight
in Desert Storm. And, all the while, they
demonstrated the attributes that rendered
the Corsair II one of the finest American
warplanes of its era.

Corsairs

A-7 and the Total Force

Total Force was the Air Force buzz-phrase

of the early 1970s. Drafting men to fight in
Vietnam had proved highly controversial
far more favorable, it was felt, increasingly
to use better-equipped and better-trained
National Guard and Reserve elements. More
economical, too. The Air Guard would now
be equipped, trained and evaluated as a full
partner in the Total Air Force team.
When the 188th Tactical Fighter Squadron of
the New Mexico ANGs 150th Tactical Fighter
Wing received its first A-7Ds on October 19,
1973, the event embodied the Total Force
concept. The Corsair IIs delivered to Kirtland
AFB were not ex-Air Force airframes, but
fresh from the LTV Aerospace factory in
Dallas. It was glad of the work. Different
interest groups wanted a say in future aircraft
programs, politicians from Texas, keen to
support local employer LTV, among them.
They helped persuade the Senate Armed
Services Committee to order a fly-off in April
1974 between the A-7 and the A-10, from
which, as far as the Air Force was concerned,

68

there would only ever be one winner the

Warthog. The Air Guard ensured that the
Corsair II was not totally left out in the cold.
It wasnt long before more former activeduty SLUFs headed for the Guard. The
354th TFW at Myrtle Beach AFB, South
Carolina, and the 3rd TFS, formed within
the 388th TFW at Korat RTAFB, Thailand
out of deployed elements from the 354th,
began divesting their A-7Ds during 1974. The
process was gradual not until 1977 would
the first A-10s arrive at Myrtle Beach but
the trend was clear. Davis-Monthan AFBs
355th TFW followed. All the while, from the
Dallas plant continued to emerge new Corsair
IIs. Congress managed to secure funding for
further production batches: 24 aircraft each
in Fiscal Years 1974 and 1975. Good news for
LTVs workers, to say nothing of those hardlobbying Texan legislators.

Yet it would be wrong to paint a picture of

a platform whose production was furthered
solely by pork-barrel politics. The A-7 was,
in many ways, an ideal attack aircraft for the
Air Guard. It was capable, dependable, and
far from obsolete. It boasted a state-of-the-art
navigation and weapons delivery computer
system coupled with a head-up display that
made it a formidable air-to-ground platform.
A sizeable cadre of personnel already
experienced on the Corsair II was able to ease
the transition of Guardsmen coming to it
afresh, valuable indeed given the lack at this
time of a two-seat trainer variant.
One such was Maj Gen Mason Whitney, a
former USAF O-2 forward air control pilot in
Vietnam and seasoned instructor pilot who,
from 1975-79, flew the A-7D with the 23rd
TFW at England AFB, Louisiana. Even then,
with Air Guard units re-equipping, this active-

July 2014 www.combataircraft.net

This photo: Air defense training exercise

Amalgam Brave 87 at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska,
saw participation from A-7Ds of the Iowa ANG.
TSgt Ed Boyce/USAF
Inset: The pilot of A-7D 72-0244 from the
Colorado ANG displays his home states flag
upon arrival at Nellis AFB for the Gunsmoke
81 contest. SSgt Douglas Gruben/USAF

duty wing was still getting fresh airframes

during a period of about four weeks, I picked
up three brand-new A-7s from the factory,
recalls Whitney. Having left the regular Air
Force, he got a job with the Colorado ANG
at Buckley ANGB, starting out as a Corsair II
flight examiner and chief of standards and
evaluation, and rising to become commander
of the 140th TFW. Before two-seat A-7Ks
started arriving in 1981, newly-fledged
SLUF drivers had obviously to go solo
from the outset, with an instructor such as
Mason Whitney flying in close company. I
flew chase so many times I could do it in my
sleep, he jokes.
The Air Guard full-timers, says Whitney
from experience, essentially kept operations
running, did the planning for drill weekends,
annual field training and the like, and ensured
that all the administration was taken care

www.combataircraft.net July 2014

69

500lb bombs being fused prior

to loading aboard an Ohio
ANG A-7D for Exercise Gallant
Eagle 82 at NAS China Lake.
TSgt Bob Marshall/USAF

of. They made up about a quarter of the

complement, the majority being the parttimers more usually associated with the ANG,
many of whom were former active-duty Air
Force pilots. Whitney recalls, Very few pilots
in our unit back then were what we called
Guard babies who essentially went to
pilot training through the Guard, and grew up
in the Guard. Most of the guys were airline
pilots based in Denver they would come
out to Buckley whenever they were not doing
their airline job. They were a tremendously
talented and dedicated group of aviators,
sacrificing their free time to train and deploy
with the Guard.
A practicing attorney when he joined the
Oklahoma ANG as an F-100 Super Sabre
pilot, Lt Gen Harry M. Bud Wyatt III later
transitioned to the A-7, and recalls: We
had a truck company owner, a couple of
schoolteachers, some other lawyers, a building
contractor, a car dealer, a guy who ran a
concrete construction business just about
all walks of life. He flew an average of roughly
10 to 12 sorties a month. Most of our training
back in those days for weapons delivery
was low-altitude ingress and egress with a
pop-up delivery to the target, Wyatt told
Combat Aircraft. We flew some low-levels
in the F-100, but the A-7 allowed us to get
down a little bit lower and had a much better
weapons delivery system. It handled real well,
it flew real well, and it had a reasonably good
top-end speed down low we could get to
between 450 and 500kt at low level.
According to Mason Whitney, You had
all kinds of manpower available to you in
the active-duty force that you didnt have in
the Guard, but in the Guard you still had to
maintain the same levels of readiness. While
not all squadron pilots were available on a
daily basis, skills were constantly honed.
We focused a lot, of course, on the different
elements of our DOC (Designed Operational
Capabilities) mission that we were required
to maintain: close air support, interdiction,
suppression of enemy air defenses, air-to-air.
What did a typical Air Guard A-7 training
detail involve? Bud Wyatt says: On a normal
air-to-ground sortie we would take off, depart
traffic and hit a low-level route Then we

70

had some planned pop-up locations where we

would come in, hit our entry point and begin
our weapons delivery. The altitude to which
we popped up varied depending on whether
it was a low-drag, a high-drag or a dive-bomb
event. That was before the tactics changed
on the F-16 they do a lot of mediumaltitude ingress now.
Occasionally wed hit a tanker for in-flight
refueling, and sometimes we mixed it up
a low-level ingress for weapons delivery, and
then a medium- to high-altitude exit to meet
up at an air-to-air range with, preferably,
dissimilar aircraft, before practicing
some air combat tactics and recovering
back into Tulsa.

New Mexico ANG A-7Ds taxiing at Cairo

West in the course of 1980s edition of
Bright Star, the regular joint training
exercise involving US and Egyptian forces.
MSgt Donald Sutherland/USAF

The A-7 handled

real well, it flew
real well, and it
had a reasonably
good top-end
speed down low
Lt Gen Harry Bud Wyatt

SLUF success

Participation in large-force exercises

constantly showed the Air Guard Corsair
IIs and their crews to be at the top of their
game. When TAC re-started its Gunsmoke
air-to-ground gunnery competition at Nellis
AFB, Nevada, in September 1981, Air Force
units from around the world gathered to
test and hone their skills. Who came out
on top? The Colorado ANG team from the
140th TFW, one of whose A-7 pilots, Lt Col
Wayne Schultz, was awarded the individual
Top Gun trophy. Two years later, another
Colorado Guardsman, Maj Charlie Betts, took
home the same award; a third, Capt Dean
McDavid, did likewise in 1987.
Why were Air Guard pilots, flying an
aircraft the active-duty Air Force no longer
wanted, able to get one over on their regular
counterparts? As a Colorado ANG man,
Mason Whitney offers some reasoning for
their specific successes, not least the nearby
air-to-ground Airburst Range in the Fort
Carson restricted area. We had our own
range officer down there; he had been there
for about 15 years, and designed a great array
of targets. The combination of all of that
with the different military operating areas
[in Colorado] was really good for training.
We were able to fly low-level, do an air-to-air
engagement, go to the range and perform a
SEAD mission, an interdiction mission or
whatever, ingressing at low level and doing a
pop-up weapons delivery.

Armed with 500lb Mk82

bombs, two Puerto Rico
ANG A-7Ds formate
during Exercise Solid
Shield 78. USAF

July 2014 www.combataircraft.net

Right: Maj Gen Mason Whitney about to step

into A-7D serial 70-1055, named Double Nickel,
during his time with the Colorado ANG. This
aircraft is today preserved at Montrose Airport
in the state. via Mason Whitney

Whitney cites other factors in the

continued success of the Air Guard A-7
community, too. We moved people in and
out of jobs so often on active duty. When
you became very proficient at what you were
doing, very often it was time to move you
into another job. In the Guard, basically, you
stay in one job for a long time. For instance,
I was the wing commander for eight years.
The constancy of purpose and the longevity
that we had in the Guard allowed us to
maybe be a little more innovative and
get a better sense of what needed
to be done in the long term.
Maintenance, especially,
was a factor I think

www.combataircraft.net July 2014

the Guard has the best maintenance in the

world because of its culture. We had guys
that were on the A-7 for 20 years, and knew
every nut and bolt on that airplane. We were
maintaining mission-ready rates that far
exceeded what the active-duty force had,
because of the great maintenance guys.
We initiated a lot of things that the Air
Force would copy later. It used to be that, in
order to get good composite force training,
you had to go to Red Flag. Thats the way
the Air Force did it. What we started at
Buckley was something called Aspen Flag,
where we invited units to come in and
train with us during drill weekends. At one
time we had somewhere around 70 aircraft

on the ramp, representing different types

from the Navy, Marines and Air Force
active-duty as well as Reserves and Guard
which all took part in big composite
force training exercises in our airspace
here in Colorado.
Of course, the Guards Corsair IIs went often
to exercises like Nellis AFBs Red Flag and
its Canadian counterpart Maple Flag. They
acquitted themselves very well, thanks in part
to a certain independent-minded mentality.
We tried to be innovative whenever we
deployed there in designing new tactics
within operating limits and regulations, just
to test and see how they worked, says Mason
Whitney. When I was on active duty, you

71

Part of a 12-aircraft
deployment, a two-seat A-7K
from the Iowa ANGs 132nd TFG
leads a single-seat A-7D as they
head for Chitose AB, Japan, to
participate in Cope North 88-3.
TSgt James Ferguson/USAF

tended to follow a script. In the Guard, we

were given the latitude by our commanders to
try new things.

A-7F: the upgrAde thAt never wAs

Checkered Flag and

Creek Corsair

As part of the forces that would have been

gained by TAC if required for real-world
combat operations, Air Guard A-7s made
preparatory deployments to Europe under the
commands Checkered Flag program. Over
an average of two weeks, all aspects necessary
to execute the mission were thoroughly
practiced. If the Soviet Bloc forces came
through the Fulda Gap and invaded Western
Europe, says Mason Whitney, we would
have gone to our Checkered Flag base and
fought the war from there.
Many different European locations were
used. Whitney and his Colorado colleagues
sent detachments several times to Turkish
bases first Merzifon, later Eskiehir and
Sivrihisar. Around a dozen aircraft would
generally be involved; sometimes more,
sometimes fewer. Certain British bases saw
especially large numbers of Checkered Flag
visitors. Twice the Ohio ANG put 24 jets in
to RAF Sculthorpe, in 1983 and 1986; no
fewer than 36 were sent by Iowa and South
Dakota to RAF Waddington during 1985. Such
figures, such events, are unthinkable today
unless deploying for combat operations.
Bud Wyatt, who several times deployed
with the Oklahoma ANG to RAF Wittering,
then a Harrier station, says of these exercises:
We would take off, navigate low-level into
[mainland] Europe, practice some weapons
deliveries, and usually recover to a European
base. There some of the weapons loaders
from the different countries would be able

72

The first YA-7F, serial 71-0344, on a test flight

from Edwards AFB. Key Collection

The likelihood of procuring for the Air

National Guard a new fighter not used by
the active-duty Air Force was always slim.
Attempts by Northrop to sell the Air Guard
the multi-role F-20 Tigershark fell down
for that reason amongst others. Vought, as
LTV Aerospace had been re-named, faced
similar struggles in trying to convince
those in control of the purse strings that an
upgraded, supersonic A-7 was potentially
superior to an F-16.
From A-7D airframes Vought produced
two YA-7F prototypes, the aircraft having an
afterburning Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220
turbofan engine, a lengthened fuselage,

strengthened wing and many other

enhancements. The first completed its
maiden flight on November 29, 1989, and
there ensued a very successful test effort.
But while the USAF had initially prompted
the program by way of examining how best
to meet future close air support/battlefield
area interdiction requirements, and issued
a contract for the prototypes, there was
to be no A-7F upgrade for the Air Guards
337-strong Corsair II fleet. Towards the end
of 1990 came confirmation that the USAF
preferred to meet the need with F-16s. With
no export orders forthcoming, it spelled the
end of the SLUF.

July 2014 www.combataircraft.net

Above: An A-7D of Michigans 127th TFW, deployed to Gioia

del Colle, joins a mixed formation as part of Exercise Dragon
Hammer 87. Also involved are an Italian Tornado and F-104S,
and a Turkish TF-104G. SSgt Fernando Serna/USAF
This photo: Corsair IIs from Pennsylvanias 112th TFG and
the 150th TFG from New Mexico share the flightline at RAF
Wittering, England, during a Checkered Flag exercise in
July 1983. This deployment was named Coronet Mail and
involved 18 aircraft. Sgt Thomas Coaxum/USAF

to practice on our aircraft before we turned

around and went low-level back to Wittering.
They didnt get to see the A-7 very often,
so we tried to get around as much as we
could. On occasion we spent three or four
days in [mainland] Europe, hopping around
from base to base.
From each location, the A-7 pilots had preassigned targets to hit behind the Iron Curtain.
We had, says Wyatt, some navigation points
leading up to them that we could practice
on low-level navigations to get used to the
countryside and the routes. If we had needed
to do it for real, we would at least have seen
the ingress and egress routes, and some of the
points leading up to the attack.
Back in those days, the objective was to stay
below the Soviets radar coverage. When you
combine the fact that we trained for that with
the very accurate weapons delivery system
on the airplane and some really experienced,
senior pilots in the Air National Guard,
coupled with the air superiority we believe we
would have enjoyed, I think we would have
done very well. We were more concerned
with triple-A and surface-to-air missile
coverage we let the fighter guys take care of
the air threat.
Checkered Flag was a TAC program. During
the latter half of the 1980s the Air Guard
added its own complementary deployment,
the smaller Creek Corsair. With a specific
focus on operations and maintenance, the
aim was to provide extra training in the
European environment and procedures, in
part through integration with local assets.
Four A-7s from Iowa, Oklahoma and South
Dakota detached to the Luftwaffe F-4 station
at Wittmund under the Creek Corsair name
in 1986, but the format solidified when the
biennial event used a USAF base in Germany.
Spangdahlem AB was the choice, missions
being flown with the resident F-4Gs and
F-16Cs of the 52nd TFW. Iowa, New Mexico
and Ohio were involved in 1988; two years
later it was the turn of Colorado, Pennsylvania
and Virginia. A rainbow deployment, a
member of the Colorado contingent called
it. The aircraft, seven of them, stayed for the
six-week duration while personnel rotated
every fortnight.
Much cheaper to stage than Checkered
Flag, Creek Corsair was a great success.
Those involved said as much to a study of
Air Guard fighter deployments to Europe.
But, with the end of the Cold War, its time
was already up when the last participants left
Spangdahlem in July 1990.

Grenada and Panama

A 178th TFG A-7D banks low over the

Panamanian jungle while taking part
in an Ohio ANG Coronet Cove rotation.
SSgt Fernando Serna/USAF

www.combataircraft.net July 2014

The horizons of Air Guard SLUF units were

broad indeed. Not long after 1983s US-led
invasion of Grenada, Operation Urgent Fury,
the Oklahoma ANGs 125th TFS sent an eightship there. Construction on the Caribbean
island of a new airport at Point Salines had
been a source of American concern its
long runway, the Reagan administration
contended, could be used by Soviet military
aircraft as a staging post en route to Cuba. Says
Bud Wyatt, We spent about two weeks at
that airfield ours were the first American
fighters to actually land there doing close
air support with some of the armies of the
Caribbean states, trying to show the flag
and to quell any issues that might lead to

73

In September 1981, these three Arizona

ANG A-7Ds tested potential new camouflage
patterns against various backgrounds for
visibility. Garfield F. Jones/USAF

We were
maintaining missionready rates that far
exceeded what the
active-duty force had
Maj Gen Mason Whitney
uprisings or anything like that. We left once
things had settled down.
Panama was a longer-standing commitment.
Coronet Cove was the name of TAC
deployments to aid the US Army in defending
the Panama Canal, a job assumed by activeduty A-7 units in 1973. Their Air Guard
successors took over on October 1, 1978,
starting with Iowas 132nd TFW. Every four
weeks a different unit rotated through Howard
AFB, though Guard requirements on how
long personnel could be expected to deploy
for training (no more than 15 days, unless one
volunteered for longer) meant they actually
provided two detachments of two weeks
each. Four aircraft was the requirement,

74

though some units sent five as a hedge against

potential problems.
A lot of it was to do with supporting the
jungle training the Army did down there,
says Mason Whitney. We did close air
support with the Army, but most of it was
dry we very rarely dropped anything
from the airplanes. Some of the airspace was
fairly restricted at that time Nicaragua was
very sensitive about American fighter aircraft
going over its territory but there were a
couple of low-level routes that we could fly,
and then wed also do air-to-air training out
over the water.
Coronet Cove was not normally the most
demanding A-7 deployment, as responses to
one study evidenced. Then, as once-friendly
relations with Panamanian leader Gen Manuel
Noriega cooled in the late 1980s, so things
heated up. The public implication of Noriega
in drug trafficking and the Iran-Contra arms
sale affair, his growing ties with regimes such
as those in Cuba and Libya, and the rigged
1989 election upped calls on the US to act.
After all, the Panama Canal remained a vital
route for American shipping. Coup attempts
failed, US military personnel in Panama were
attacked. An American invasion seemed ever

more likely, and, on December 20, 1989, it

began. This was Operation Just Cause.
At the time, the Coronet Cove commitment
was being met by five A-7Ds from the Ohio
ANGs 180th TFG. They went into action on
December 20, one early mission (sometimes
erroneously described as involving jets from
Virginia) supporting an assault against a
military headquarters in La Chorrera. An
OA-37B Dragonfly forward air control aircraft
from the USAFs 24th Tactical Air Support
Squadron marked the target with a white
phosphorous rocket, before two A-7s attacked
it with their 20mm cannon. Corsair IIs on
deployment to Panama worked often with the
co-located OA-37s; now, that training was put
into practice. December 21 saw a Dragonfly
letting loose 28 rockets when mortar fire was
spotted near San Isidro, the target later being
strafed by A-7s.
These were but a couple of the 22 sorties
flown by Ohios Guardsmen, standing a
constant 15-minute alert for close air support,
as part of Just Cause before the regular
Coronet Cove rotation saw their replacement
on December 23. Now the 114th TFG from
South Dakota took up the cudgels, its A-7s
notching up 54 more missions of a similar

July 2014 www.combataircraft.net

The sTaTion wagon

Mentioning the two-seat A-7K prompts an
immediate reaction from Maj Gen Mason
Whitney: Ah, the station wagon!, he says with
a laugh. As an A-7 pilot who grew up with
your first flight [in the aircraft] being solo, you
kind of went, Why do we need a two-seat A-7?
Now we have to worry about giving people
orientation rides and being a back-seat driver
as an instructor pilot. We didnt really look
at the A-7K as a great benefit, to tell you the
truth. At least, most of the fighter pilots didnt.
As it turned out, the two-seaters added a lot of
value to the units that flew them.
Of course, the A-7K had a serious training
purpose too. Most Air Guard Corsair II
squadrons had one or two on strength. The
first prototype, which made its maiden flight
during October 1980, was a converted A-7D,
but all subsequent airframes were newbuild. A total of 30 were produced, deliveries
commencing in April 1981.
This was an unusual aircraft in being built
to meet an Air Guard requirement. However,
it benefited the active-duty Air Force. The
Arizona ANGs 152nd and, subsequently,

195th Tactical Fighter Training Squadrons

used A-7Ks not only for instructing new SLUF
pilots as the Air Guards A-7 Replacement
Training Unit (RTU), but also to assist the
4450th Tactical Group, the USAFs first
F-117A operator. This Tactical Air Command
unit employed the Corsair II for surrogate
lead-in training, as well as for chase work and
other missions practice deployments, for
instance on which the then secret F-117As
could not be used. It was the last active-duty
A-7 operator once the 23rd TFW, from whom
the 4450th TG received most of its aircraft
in 1981, completed conversion to the A-10
that same year.
The Arizona ANG handled initial A-7
training for 4450th TG pilots, and provided
one of two A-7Ks assigned directly to the
group. The other was the one-time prototype
YA-7K. Both found employment as trainers
and on chase missions during weapon trials.
When the 4450th TG replaced its Corsair IIs
with AT-38 Talons in January 1989, the Arizona
Guardsmen got back their A-7K, and it saw
out its days on more run-of-the-mill duties.

Some way from its Des Moines, Iowa home, this 132nd TFG A-7K is pictured over Chitose
AB, Japan, in the course of Exercise Cope North 88-3. TSgt James Ferguson/USAF

nature. Corsair IIs expended 2,715 rounds

of ammunition during the conflict they
also carried Mk82 bombs, but were not
called upon to drop any. In the twilight of its
career, this potent strike asset had performed
faultlessly. Not a single sortie was missed, and
all attacks were on target.
Noriegas surrender three days into 1990
did not herald the end of military operations.
They carried on for some weeks, allowing
the Virginia ANGs 192nd TFG, which
arrived on January 20, to claim its Just Cause
campaign streamers. The units five SLUFs
provided air cover and reconnaissance while
efforts continued to flush out enemy forces
in Panamas provinces. But this was almost
Coronet Coves last hurrah. The commitment
ended on January 31, budget cuts and the
reduction of US forces in the Canal Zone
being cited. When American fighters returned
to Howard AFB as part of anti-drug efforts,
they would be F-16s.

Final years

Times were changing, and not in the A-7s

favor. Iraqs invasion of Kuwait in August
1990 prompted a massive build-up of
American forces in the Gulf, but the Air

www.combataircraft.net July 2014

Guards Corsair IIs played no part. Mason

Whitney remembers it well. As soon as we
knew that there was going to be US military
involvement, I called up the National Guard
Bureau and said, You realize that the 120th
TFS has been operating in that territory, out in
Turkey? We knew that Incirlik AB was going
to be one of the main bases for operations
conducted in Iraq, we had all kinds of great
experience in that area over 20 years, we had
great friendships with Turkish officers wed
have been ideal to go over. But the Air Force
said it didnt need the Guard at all.
The National Guard Bureau fought hard
to get the Air Guard involved, and the Air
Force allowed a few Guard units to come in,
but only if they had compatible equipment
with the Air Force. The Air Force used the
excuse that the logistical requirements for repositioning all the ground support equipment
for the A-7s, as well as all the other supplies
required for a weapon system unique to the
Guard, were not worth it. Essentially they only
invited F-16 units We understood, but we
were pretty upset about it.
US Navy A-7s fought well in Operation
Desert Storm, but their Air Guard
counterparts went nowhere near the Gulf.

For Bud Wyatt and many others, it was a big

disappointment. Most of the Guard guys sat
at home and watched the war from their living
rooms at least, I did. When the service does
not support a particular airplane across all of
its active-duty and reserve components, it has
a natural hesitancy to use it in combat. The
Air Force leadership wanted, I think, to show
the muscle of the new jets.
While aircraft no longer part of the activeduty force were hardly first in line for updates,
the Air Guards A-7 fleet had seen several.
We did most of our A-7 upgrades through the
National Guard Reserve Equipment Account,
an annual amount of money [from] Congress,
explains Bud Wyatt. It paid for automatic
maneuvering flaps, which improved the
aircrafts turning performance, and later the
LANA (Low-Altitude Night Attack) system,
adding a pod-mounted Texas Instruments
AN/AAR-49 FLIR (forward-looking infra-red)
linked to a new Singer Kearfott navigation
and weapon delivery computer and GEC
wide-angle head-up display, thus affording an
automatic terrain-following capability in all
weathers. Deliveries of an eventual 83 LANAupgraded aircraft, both A-7Ds and A-7Ks,
began in May 1987. They equipped Iowas

75

124th TFS, Oklahomas 125th and New

Mexicos 188th.
No wonder Air Guard Corsair II pilots
left at home during Desert Storm felt they
could have performed just as well as did
F-16s in the interdiction role, if not better.
But the Fighting Falcon first introduced,
incidentally, to the Guard when South
Carolinas 157th TFS traded in its A-7Ds
for early F-16As way back in 1983 was
the future. There was also something of
an irony in the A-10, the A-7s rival long
ago, being among the winners of the Gulf
campaign. Its prominent success in the
close air support role helped save the
Warthog from post-Cold War retirement.
For the A-7, no such luck.
Drawing down the active-duty force made
available surplus F-16C/Ds for Guard units.
That and the decision not to proceed with
the upgraded YA-7F beyond prototype form
(see boxed item) put the writing on the wall.
Corsair II numbers dwindled as airframes
were sent to the boneyard, October
1993 seeing the final farewell when the
Oklahoma ANGs 125th Fighter Squadron
relinquished its last A-7D.
Both of the pilots interviewed for this
feature went on to assume senior leadership
roles. Mason Whitney retired in 2007 as
Adjutant General of Colorado. Bud Wyatts
last assignment, ending in 2013, was as
Director of the Air National Guard. Their
careers, and those of many others, were in
part shaped by years spent flying the A-7
Corsair II, an aircraft rightly remembered as
one of the Guards most faithful servants. As
Whitney says, I never had a bad day when
I was flying the A-7 in the Air Guard. It was
the best of all worlds, I thought.

A line of Virginia ANG A-7Ds at the 192nd

TFGs Richmond base in June 1985 is
headed by 71-0376, named Bad Company.
Stephen Wolf via Adrian M. Balch collection

76

Air NAtioNAl GuArd A-7 uNits

State

Group/Wing

Arizona ANG

162nd TFG

Squadron

Base

Years of A-7
operation

152nd TFTS/TFS

Tucson IAP

1976-86

195th TFTS/TFS

Tucson IAP

1984-91

Buckley ANGB

1974-92

Colorado ANG

140th TFG/TFW

120th TFS

Iowa ANG

132nd TFG

124th TFS

Des Moines IAP

1977-93

185th TFG

174th TFS

Sioux Gateway
Airport, Sioux City

1976-92

Michigan ANG

127th TFW

107th TFS

Selfridge ANGB

1978-90

New Mexico ANG

150th TFG

188th TFS

Kirtland AFB

1973-92

Ohio ANG

180th TFG

112th TFS

Toledo Express Airport

1979-92

178th TFG

162nd TFS

Springfield MAP

1978-93

121st TFW

166th TFS

Rickenbacker AFB/ANGB

1974-92

Oklahoma ANG

138th TFG

125th TFS

Tulsa IAP

1978-93

Pennsylvania ANG

112th TFG

146th TFS

Greater Pittsburgh IAP

1975-91

Puerto Rico ANG

156th TFG

198th TFS

Muiz ANGB

1975-92

South Carolina ANG

169th TFG

157th TFS

McEntire ANGB

1974-83

South Dakota ANG

114th TFG

175th TFS

Sioux Falls MAP

1977-92

Virginia ANG

192nd TFG

149th TFS

Byrd Field/Richmond IAP

1982-91

Note: Unit designations are given as per the majority of the period during which A-7 operations
were undertaken. In March 1992 the word Tactical was removed.
Abbreviations:
AFB
Air Force Base
ANG
Air National Guard
ANGB
Air National Guard Base
IAP
International Airport

MAP
TFG
TFS
TFTS
TFW

Municipal Airport
Tactical Fighter Group
Tactical Fighter Squadron
Tactical Fighter Training Squadron
Tactical Fighter Wing