109th Airlift Wing
unit of the NY Air National Guard assigned to provide Arctic and Antarctic airlift operations
The 109th Airlift Wing is a unit of the New York Air National Guard, stationed at Stratton Air National Guard Base, Schenectady, New York. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command.
Mission
The wing's mission is to provide airlift support to the National Science Foundation's South Pole research program by flying LC-130H Hercules airlifters, modified with wheel-ski gear, in support of Arctic and Antarctic operations. The 109th Airlift Wing is the only unit in the world to fly these aircraft. These resupply missions are part of Operation Deep Freeze, the U.S. military’s ongoing support of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic research. Larger aircraft like C-17 can land at McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast and the LC-130 can fly to remote research stations like the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. 109th Airlift Wing operates 5 LC-130.
Along with the NSF mission, the 109th Airlift Wing also supported Operation Enduring Freedom. In addition to its combat airlift mission, particularly when placed in a Federalized status, the wing also provides domestic-related functions commonly associated with Air National Guard units, such as disaster or hurricane relief.
Units
The 109th Airlift Wing consists of the following major units:
109th Operations Group
139th Airlift Squadron
139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron
109th Maintenance Group
109th Mission Support Group
109th Medical Group
History
Established by the USAF and allotted to New York ANG in 1956.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “109th Airlift Wing” is unit of the NY Air National Guard assigned to provide Arctic and Antarctic airlift operations. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through 109th, Airlift and Wing, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “109th Airlift Wing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.