With the surprise invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1960, and the regular military's complete lack of readiness, the ANG was mobilized into federal active duty.
The 165th Fighter Squadron was federalized and ordered to active duty on 10 October 1950.
  The squadron was moved to Godman Air Force Base at Fort Knox along with the 123d Fighter Group.
  At Godman, the squadron was joined by the North Carolina ANG 156th Fighter Squadron and the West Virginia ANG 167th Fighter Squadron.
  All three squadrons were equipped with F-51Ds.

After over a year of training at Godman AFB, the 123d was re-designated as a Fighter-Bomber Group and deployed to RAF Manston, Kent, England to replace the Strategic Air Command 12th Fighter-Escort Wing which was returned to Bergstrom AFB, Texas.
  In England, the mission of the 123d was to provide fighter escort for SAC B-50 Superfortress and B-36 Peacemaker bombers while flying over Western European airspace on their deterrence alert missions.
 The 123d left their F-51Ds at Godman AFB and the personnel boarded C-124 Globemaster II transports to England where they initially began conversion training on F-84E Thunderjets.

The training program began with the inexperienced F-51D pilots experiencing training difficulties with the jet aircraft, with several aircraft being lost in accidents.
  However, by March 1952 the 134th was judged to be 80% combat ready on the Thunderjets.
  However, the period of federalization for the 123d was expiring and in July 1952, the unit personnel were returned to the United States,  the aircraft at RAF Manston being passed on to the active-duty 406th Fighter-Bomber Wing was activated in place.
With the surprise invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1960, and the regular military's complete lack of readiness, the ANG was mobilized into federal active duty. The 165th Fighter Squadron was federalized and ordered to active duty on 10 October 1950.   The squadron was moved to Godman Air Force Base at Fort Knox along with the 123d Fighter Group.   At Godman, the squadron was joined by the North Carolina ANG 156th Fighter Squadron and the West Virginia ANG 167th Fighter Squadron.   All three squadrons were equipped with F-51Ds.
After over a year of training at Godman AFB, the 123d was re-designated as a Fighter-Bomber Group and deployed to RAF Manston, Kent, England to replace the Strategic Air Command 12th Fighter-Escort Wing which was returned to Bergstrom AFB, Texas.   In England, the mission of the 123d was to provide fighter escort for SAC B-50 Superfortress and B-36 Peacemaker bombers while flying over Western European airspace on their deterrence alert missions.  The 123d left their F-51Ds at Godman AFB and the personnel boarded C-124 Globemaster II transports to England where they initially began conversion training on F-84E Thunderjets.
The training program began with the inexperienced F-51D pilots experiencing training difficulties with the jet aircraft, with several aircraft being lost in accidents.   However, by March 1952 the 134th was judged to be 80% combat ready on the Thunderjets.   However, the period of federalization for the 123d was expiring and in July 1952, the unit personnel were returned to the United States,  the aircraft at RAF Manston being passed on to the active-duty 406th Fighter-Bomber Wing was activated in place.
165th Airlift Squadron