Entered combat in mid-December 1943, supported the invasion of Normandy during June 1944 by patrolling the English Channel, escorting bombardment formations to the French coast, and dive-bombing and strafing bridges, locomotives, and rail lines near the battle area.

After D-Day, engaged chiefly in escorting bombers to oil refineries, marshalling yards, and other targets in such cities as Ludwigshafen, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Berlin, Merseburg, and Brux.

The 123d left their F-51Ds at Godman AFB and the personnel boarded C-124 Globemaster II transports to England where they initially began conversion training on F-84E Thunderjets.

Because most jet aircraft were still in USAF use, the squadron received F-51D Mustangs and initially returned to its pre-federalization air defense mission, being designated as a Fighter-Interceptor unit.

The crew was two—one pilot and one photo-navigator One of their major activities of the 123d in the United States was to carry out photographic surveys of areas hit by natural disasters such as hurricanes or tornadoes.

The Phantom years were marked with many overseas deployments, participation in international photo reconnaissance competitions and a remarkable flight safety record.

In May 1983 the unit reached another historic milestone when it earned the highest possible rating from Tactical Air Command during its Operational Readiness Inspection.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact led to accelerated retirement plans for active duty USAF RF-4Cs.

In 1988, the Kentucky Air National Guard's Phantoms were sent to AMARC, and on 9 January 1989 the 123d was officially re-designated the 123d Tactical Airlift wing and began conversion to the C-130B Hercules transport aircraft.

From August 1990 to March 1991, the 165th flew 1,240 airlift sorties worldwide in direct support of the Gulf War—the most for any Air National Guard unit.

The unit's all-volunteer force flew 1,082 airdrop and air-land sorties and delivered 2,215 tons of food and supplies into war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In July 1994 the 123d answered another call for help and deployed within 72 hours of notification to fly relief missions into Rwanda and Zaire for Operation Support Hope.

Operating out of Mombassa, Kenya, unit personnel flew 147 sorties, transporting 652.5 tons of relief supplies to the beleaguered Rwandan refugees.

Other wing members deployed to Egypt as part of a multinational training exercise that integrated 7,000 troops from every branch of the U.S. military and six foreign countries.

1998 continued the 123rd Airlift Wing's tradition of global deployments with missions to Panama as part of Operation Coronet Oak and Ecuador for Nuevos Horizontes '98.

The latter operation, whose name means New Horizons in Spanish, was a Southern Command joint training exercise that gave Kentucky Army and Air Guard engineers the opportunity to fine-tune military skills while constructing clinics, schools, and latrines in rural areas of the South American nation.

The following year, the wing returned to Bosnia once more to provide theater airlift for the continuing peacekeeping mission, now called Operation Joint Forge.

More than 350 Kentucky aircrew, maintainers, and support personnel deployed for the operation, along with about 200 members of the Ohio Air National Guard's 179th Airlift Wing.

The two unit's C-130s flew nearly 500 sorties during the deployment, delivering 3,500 passengers and more than 1,000 tons of cargo to sites across Europe and inside Bosnia, including Sarajevo and Tuzla.

Shortly thereafter, the unit began planning for a 90-day deployment to Muscat, Oman, to again support U.S. troops enforcing the no-fly zone in Southern Iraq.

The wing also stood up the Air National Guard's first Contingency Response Group—a rapid-reaction "airbase in a box" with all the personnel, training and equipment needed to deploy to a remote site, open up a runway and establish airfield operations so that aid and troops can begin to flow into affected areas after a disaster.

All told, the wing deployed more than 380 Airmen across the Commonwealth to clear roads, distribute food and water and conduct house-to-house "wellness checks" credited with saving two people from death by carbon monoxide poisoning.

When Hurricane Gustav began closing in on the Gulf Coast in August 2008, the 123d Airlift Wing provided the facilities and support for relief agencies to evacuate more than 1,400 New Orleans residents to Louisville and then repatriate them after the danger had passed.

For example, about 300 Kentucky Airmen and multiple C-130 aircraft were deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, from March through May 2009 to provide key airlift support for U.S. forces engaged with the enemy in Operation Enduring Freedom.

The unit maintained an unprecedented 100 percent mission-capable rate during the deployment, never missing a single scheduled flight due to aircraft maintenance issues while completing more than 1,500 combat sorties that delivered 3,900 tons of cargo and transported 20,000 troops throughout the theater of operations.

The wing also deployed more than 120 Airmen and two C-130 aircraft to the Caribbean in support of Operation Coronet Oak, an ongoing U.S. Southern Command mission to provide theater airlift capability for U.S. military and government agencies in Central and South America.

Military judgment was the predominant factor in this recommendation—this realignment would create one right-sized squadron at Louisville (79) and would retain experienced ANG personnel.