This F-16 Unit Battling ISIS Has Legendarily Rebellious Revolutionary War Roots - the Drive
Just a small point of pride coming from some of our best.
The 158th Fighter Wing is nicknamed “The Green Mountain Boys” after a militia that fought on the side of the United States during the Revolutionary War. In the blinding sun at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, five members of the wing and its 134th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron held up that group’s distinctive green and blue banner.
“It’s The Green Mountain Boys, live from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar,” one of them says in the brief recording. The unit, with its F-16 Viper fighter jets, has been in the region fighting ISIS as part of the U.S.-led coalition since December 2016.
Now, of course, there were no air forces or fighter jets during the American Revolution. Officially, the 158th traces its direct lineage to the 134th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the formal recognition of the Vermont Air National Guard in 1946. But the wing highlight’s Vermont’s unique place in America’s formative history with its moniker. The Green Mountain Boys, and their leader Ethan Allen, was an important factor in the Revolutionary War and the creation of Vermont itself.
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