Alabama ANG units are trained and equipped by the Air Force and are operationally gained by a Major Command of the USAF if federalized.

State missions include disaster relief in times of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and forest fires, search and rescue, protection of vital public services, and support to civil defense.

[4] The 106th Observation Squadron was ordered into active service on 125 November 1940 as part of the buildup of the Army Air Corps prior to the United States entry into World War II.

On 24 May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces, in response to dramatic postwar military budget cuts imposed by President Harry S. Truman, allocated inactive unit designations to the National Guard Bureau for the formation of an Air Force National Guard.

[5] The modern Alabama ANG received federal recognition on 25 November 1946 as the 106th Bombardment Squadron (Light) at Birmingham MAP (Sumpter Smith Field).

[5] On 1 October 1947 the 117th Fighter Group allotted by the National Guard Bureau, extended federal recognition and activated at Birmingham, with the 106th Bomb Squadron being assigned to the unit.

The 187th Fighter Wing (187 FW) operated the F-16 Fighting Falcon and deploys around the world as part of Air Expeditionary Forces.

According to information from Seymour M. Hersh, author of The Dark Side of Camelot during early preparations to the Bay of Pigs Invasion, President Dwight D. Eisenhower personally asked then-Governor of Alabama John Malcolm Patterson (who served as a lieutenant in Eisenhower's staff during the World War II) to use the aircraft of Air National Guard of Alabama (Patterson, as governor, was commander-in-chief of the guard) by Cuban émigrés to attack and pilots to train them in deep secret in Nicaragua.

[citation needed] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency