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Massachusetts’ 104th Fighter Wing formally became the Air National Guard’s fifth F-35A Lightning II unit during a Sunday ceremony at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Massachusetts.

While commemorations in New York and Washington, D.C., drew national attention, National Guardsmen in several states held or participated in activities Friday that brought local focus to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

For the second consecutive year, the NGAUS general conference featured a range of voices tackling issues relevant to National Guard leaders at every echelon.

“Together, we need to lead boldly, and we can never be late to need.” That’s how Air Force Gen. Steve Nordhaus, the 30th Chief of the National Guard Bureau, challenged National Guard leaders to keep pace with a dynamic security environment. He described the Guard as a force that continuously adapts and modernizes while keeping its 435,000 Guardsmen and their families ready for missions at home and abroad.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting Army chief of staff, emphasized the Army National Guard’s indispensable, multidomain contributions to the Joint Force Aug. 29 at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.

During a panel discussion at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis, Bob Darling, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who served in the White House, and Heather “Lucky” Penney, a retired District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16 pilot, recounted how they scrambled to respond as a hijacked airliner headed toward the nation’s capital that morning.

Pilots and crews of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing returned home Sunday from a deployment that began before last Christmas and saw the unit fly missions in two hemispheres.

Ahead of the start of fiscal 2027 on Oct. 1, House lawmakers passed a continuing resolution Sept. 1 to extend government funding at current levels through Dec. 11.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general of Massachusetts and a member of the NGAUS board of directors for the last 10 years, is now the association’s chairman of the board.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds received the NGAUS Harry S. Truman Award, the association’s highest honor, Sunday, during the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.

The wars in Iran and Ukraine demonstrate the nature of warfare has moved away from traditional battlefields. The impact that evolution has on the National Guard both at home and abroad is the focus of one of three NGAUS panel discussions.

One of the two District of Columbia Air National Guard fighter pilots sent on a potential suicide mission the morning of September 11, 2001, will share that experience Sunday morning at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.