NY Air National Guard's 174th Fighter Wing waves goodbye to piloted flights
By Dave Tobin / The Post-Standard
March 05, 2010, 6:00AM
Syracuse, NY -- In 2001, when Lt. Col. Dan Tester turned his F-16 south into a September sky over Syracuse, no one could have guessed that the end of the combat plane’s mission was beginning.
On Saturday, the last F-16s to be piloted by members of the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing will fly away for good. A 63-year tradition of flying manned aircraft will end, as the fighter wing fully assumes its mission flying remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Pilots of the 174th flew missions during the 1991 Gulf War, when a massive air campaign destroyed Iraq’s military and civilian sites before the U.S. ground invasion. The Fighter Wing has provided support to ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 174th has been scaling back F-16 training flights for a year. Its last overseas mission was June 2008. Most of the 17 jets formerly based at Hancock have left, bound for the “aircraft boneyard” at Davis-Monmoth Air Force Base near Tucson, Ariz., a desert location where thousands of retired aircraft are stored.
This weekend marks the F-16’s final and ceremonial departure, as the fighter wing commander, Col. Kevin Bradley, and Tester fly the last two F-16s out of Syracuse. They’ll land them at Fort Drum’s Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield. On Monday, the planes will be flown to Arizona.
For the public, the mission’s end means no more parade flyovers. No more glimpses of F-16s in formation as they head north for combat training over the Adirondacks. The F-16 fighter jet, introduced in 1976, is being retired. More profoundly for the 174th, its new mission is transforming the unit’s combat culture.
Each F-16 pilot and crew chief were partners with their dedicated plane. They deployed overseas together and built singular bonds. When a plane lands, the crew chief is the first to make eye contact with the pilot and climb the ladder to the cockpit to debrief. Visual communication on the runway, practiced over years, could be a raised finger, a subtle but clear signal.
“We put them (pilots) in the air. We take care of them,” said Staff Sgt. Gary Smith, a crew chief. “We’re not going to have that bond with the pilots anymore. We’re not going to be able to sit around the conference table and BS with them. The paradigm is changing.”
The 174th has flown F-16s for 20 years. The unit’s entire purpose was built around the fighter jet, from training to maintenance to coordination of overseas deployments. The name of each plane’s pilot was painted on the left side of the jet’s domed canopy; the crew chief’s name on the other. A cobra head, a unit insignia, was painted on the tail.
Names and insignias have now been stripped off the planes. Now that they remotely operate drones, pilots’ full names aren’t even acknowledged in public.
In the insurgent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where roadside bombs and stray mortars are the threats and insurgents have virtually no air defense, the Reaper drone has proved invaluable, redefining how the military thinks about airplanes.
Cruising at roughly 200 mph, Reapers can fly up to 30 hours on one fueling, as high as 40,000 feet. The F-16 has a top speed of 1,500 mph, and can fly roughly 90 minutes before refueling.
Long surveillance time with the unmanned drones has enabled the U.S. to watch sites and track people nonstop for days. “The MQ-9 is doing the job in some ways better than the F-16,” Tester said. “With the F-16, when it gets low on gas, you’re like, ‘Hey, guys, I’ll be right back.’ The F-16 is a thirsty airplane. And it’s fast. Well, the Army doesn’t really need fast. It needs persistent airpower, or eyes, overhead.”
This week, some of the 174th’s remaining F-16 pilots flew their last flights. Tuesday, three went up for about an hour and 20 minutes, flying air combat maneuvers over the Tug Hill plateau. Among them were Lt. Col. Scott Brenton, Lt. Col. Sean McQuaid and Bradley, the wing commander. A firetruck met them as they taxied in, arcing water spray over the jets, a tradition for pilots completing their final flight. Brenton and McQuaid’s families greeted them. They toasted with champagne.
Flight helmets off, the pilots were beaming, as if they’d just had the ride of their lives. “This is the hottest ride in town,” Brenton said. “You don’t have to ask me twice to go up in an airplane like that. It’s tough to let it go.”
Brenton and Tester are staying with the 174th to operate Reapers and instruct other Reaper operators.
On the Sept. 11, 2001, morning that Tester took off nine years ago, the U.S. had been attacked by four rogue passenger jets hijacked by terrorists. The country’s airspace was shut down. Tester was sent up to make sure it stayed clear.
“It was eerie,” he said this week. “I was hoping I didn’t have to use the airplane for what it’s made for.”
Tester, an Air National Guard pilot since 1995, is also a pilot for United Airlines. Months before 9/11, he had flown both United Airlines planes that crashed. He did not the know the pilots who were killed.
Although the F-16’s G-force (up to nine times the pull of gravity) can be hard on his 42-year-old body, giving up the F-16 will be hard, he said. With the closing of a military aviation chapter, he knows his children won’t have the same opportunities he’s had. But he’s at peace with that.
“It’s not important driving the Ferrari,” he said. “It’s doing something significant. Serving other people. As long as they’re helping people and having a significant life, that’s what I want for them.”
source:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/ ... 4th_f.html
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