Missouri 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] Early in 1923 a group of local St. Louis aviation enthusiasts including Major William B. Robertson and his brothers Frank and Dan, went to Washington to seek support for selection of St. Louis as the site for the "International Air Races" and a charter for organization of an Army National Guard Air Unit for the state, Their mission was successful and they returned with the approval for both activities.

Members would be paid for a maximum of 60 "drills" a year which were described as periods of instruction in ground work, machine-shop practice and flying.

War maneuvers would be taught and bombing and machine gun firing would be directed at targets on the nearby Missouri River.

[5] The modern Missouri ANG received federal recognition on 3 July 1946 as the 71st Fighter Wing at Lambert Field, St. Louis.

The 139th Airlift Wing provides the State of Missouri and the nation with immediately deployable, combat-ready C-130H2 Hercules model aircraft.

In 2008 after 86 years of flying operations in St. Louis in an End of Era ceremony coinciding with the closure of the base fire house and the 131st Fighter Wing's final F-15C Eagle departure from Lambert International Airport, the Headquarters of the Missouri Air National Guard moved from Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to its new home at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, St. Joseph.