148th Fighter Wing

148th Fighter Wing
F-16s from the 148th Fighter Wing flew combat air patrols over the Washington D.C. area in the months after 9/11
Active	1 July 1960-Present
Country	United States
Allegiance	Minnesota
Branch	Air National Guard
Type	Wing
Role	Fighter
Part of	Minnesota National Guard
Garrison/HQ	Duluth Air National Guard Base, Minnesota
Tail Code	Blue tail stripe "Duluth" in white letters
Commanders
Current commander	Col. Jon Safstrom
Insignia
148th Fighter Wing emblem

The 148th Fighter Wing (148 FW) is a composite unit of the Minnesota National Guard, stationed at Duluth Air National Guard Base, Minnesota. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Combat Command.

The 148 FW provides air defense of the northern great lakes and over the state of Minnesota. The Wing's 179th Fighter Squadron is a deployable unit which participated in Air and Space Expeditionary Force deployments. The wing also maintains a detachment (Det 1.) at Tyndall AFB, Florida.

The 148th Fighter Wing consists of the following units:

On 1 July 1960, the 179th Fighter-Intercepter Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level, and the 148th Fighter Group (Air Defense) was established by the National Guard Bureau. The 179th FIS become the group's flying squadron. Other squadrons assigned into the group were the 148th Headquarters, 148th Material Squadron (Maintenance), 148th Combat Support Squadron, and the 148th USAF Dispensary.

On 1 July 1960, the 148 FIG assumed a 24-hour alert status in support of the Air Defense Command mission in Duluth. In 1967, the F-102A Delta Dagger replaced the aging F-89J. The F-101B Voodoo came aboard in April 1971 and remained until January 1976 when the unit again saw re-designation, becoming the 148th Tactical Reconnaissance Group with RF-4C Phantom II Mach-2 unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. The new mission entailed all weather, high or low, day or night, selective reconnaissance. This mission also required the unit to have the capabilities to deploy to a wide variety of operating locations. In October 1983, the mission changed again and found the 148th back in air defense and being renamed the 148th Fighter Interceptor Group. The return to alert and air defense brought with it the F-4D Phantom II, tactical fighter, with most of the aircraft being veterans of the Vietnam War.

On March 10, 1990, the 179th Fighter Intercept Squadron received the first ADF variants of the F-16A/B Fighting Falcon to take over for the F-4D. The early markings included Duluth written on the tail as well as an image of the constellation 'Little Bear' which is also better known as the 'Big Dipper'.