Shillelagh "Hun" ready for USAF's 75th anniversary
Recently, Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing restored their long time North American F-100C Super Sabre inmate.
Just before the start of USAF's 75th years anniversary festivities, the HA coded Super Sabre, with serial number 54-2005, has been restored to tribute the Iowa ANG's fighter jet legacy. Wearing the Southeast Asia camouflage colour scheme, the 1950’s era Super Sabre made the leap into the supersonic jet age for the Iowa ANG.
What is today the Iowa Air Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing with the 174th Air Refueling Squadron, was back in the F-100 heydays the 174th Tactical Fighter Squadron, one of only four ANG fighter units who deployed with the F-100 for a yearlong deployment to Vietnam.
Air National Guard F-100 units achieved the status being among most effective Close Air Support (CAS) units in the Southeast Asia theatre. The Iowa ANG unit flew the F-100 for sixteen years between 1961 and 1977.
Being preserved at Sioux City-Gateway Airport (IA), Hun "005" has been affectively named "Shillelagh". This, being the Irish folklore legacy about a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty blackthorn stick with a large knob at the top. Nowadays, the shillelagh is also regarded as a stereotypical symbol of Irishness.
Photos by USAF