NCNGA Weekly Guardsman for November 12, 2020

Posted on: November 11, 2020 November 12, 2020
Author: ncngaweekly

November 12, 2020

News | About | Legislative | Benefits | Contact

IN THIS EDITION:

Tarheel Homecoming Update! NCNG
The Air Force is making it easier for women to be aviators—and to keep flying should they choose to have children AFMag
Welcome home ceremony held for N.C. National Guard 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team News&Record
The latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman is now available AFA
November 12th — Today in Guard History National Guard

Tarheel Homecoming Update! NCNG

This event is being moved to a virtual format. We are working closely with the NCNG to finalize the details. Even though it is going virtual we would ask that you still register so we can share any information and possibly presentations that occur during the event. Also in your email please list one topic that you would like to hear about or a question that you might ask if you attended in person. The Association will capture all requests and submit to the NCNG. As a reminder all that is needed to register is sending us an email at info@ncnga.org.

The Air Force is making it easier for women to be aviators—and to keep flying should they choose to have children AFMag

When Capt. Charlene Sufficool first got to the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2012, she wanted to be an engineer or maybe work in intel. Although she grew up in a military family and her dad had once been a crew chief for the Thunderbirds Demonstration Team, flying wasn’t on her radar, she said. “I never really thought of it as a possibility for me.”

But when Sufficool made the Academy’s Wings of Blue parachute team her sophomore year, her commander, an A-10 pilot, said she had what it takes to fly fighters. He urged her to give it a try. Sufficool had by then begun thinking of flying, but she’d only met one woman pilot, and she flew C-17s. “I was like, you know, I think I would like to fly C-17s because I’ve seen a girl, and she flies C-17s, so it seems like that’s what girls do,” Sufficool recalls.

“But, he was like, ‘No, really, I think you could be a female fighter pilot.’” His insistence changed her trajectory. Today, Sufficool flies A-10s with the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. “It took a commander that believed in me as a woman to help me see what I could be,” she said, and “for me to believe in myself.”

After a year-long mission, the North Carolina Army National Guard’s 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team was welcomed home with a small ceremony at the Koury Convention Center on Saturday.

The gathering was small because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The team deployed in last fall to the Middle East in support of Operation Spartan Shield, according to a news release from the North Carolina National Guard. It’s mission was to sustain readiness in the region to conduct unified land operations and support partner nations in making the region safer, according to the release.

The 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team has more than 4,200 soldiers assigned to it, of which 2,900 are North Carolinians. The remaining soldiers are guardsmen from South Carolina, West Virginia, and Ohio.

The team has deployed overseas five times since 9/11, according to the release, and this deployment was the third time the entire brigade mobilized with all of its personnel and equipment.

See photos and video…

The latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman is now available AFA

The latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman with a Q&A from MG Hunt and a gubernatorial candidate forum is now available on-line.

Save the Date! Tarheel Homecoming is on the calendar for December 11th NCNGA

While we don’t have the full details we have begun planning, and we are working through the impact of our current situation. We already know that no money will be collected in advance, just wanted to let you know of the date and to watch out for updates.

November 12th — Today in Guard History National Guard

1940
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – As war raged in Europe and the very real possibility that the U.S. might be attacked was present in most people’s minds, the Army authorized the organization of seven new observation squadrons in the National Guard, even as Guard units are being mobilized for their one year of ‘emergency’ training in case of war. On this date the 126th Observation Squadron receives federal recognition at Milwaukee. It was organized and commanded by Major Paul Meyers, the first American aviator in World War I to receive the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) Medal for valor in combat. The unit flew obsolete North American O-47B observation aircraft. Unlike prewar observation squadrons, the 126th was not assigned to a Guard division, rather it was assigned directly in support of the II Army Corps and performed various duties, including photographing portions of the Carolina Maneuvers in the autumn of 1941. During the war it served in a photographic reconnaissance role in the European Theater as part of the 9th Air Force and XII Tactical Air Command. After the war the 126th was first reorganized as a fighter squadron, but in 1962 it had a change of mission, converting to an aerial refueling unit flying the KC-97 Stratofreighter until, in 1977, they were reequipped with the KC-135 Stratotanker.

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