Forum: General

I was just wondering, will the 188th FS remain active? heard a rumour they were being shut down... Also heard that they will remove the roadrunner from the tail and put the old NM tailcode on. Any truth to this stuff?

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NM is going to be a Spec Ops unit, F-16's are going away. A few have lost the roadrunner on the tail, but that stopped when the unit learned of the F-16's future departure. HTH.

Jeff

Hello bandit,

The 188th FS is for the moment still active. They were about to start loosing the first of their 21 assigned "Big Inlet" Block-30 F-16s this past Dec., but so far they have postponed those plans to April this year!! At some point it is expected that the unit will merge and integrate with the 550th SOS flying MC-130Ps and HC-130Ns also at Kirtland AFB.

At this point it is unclear where their Block-30 F-16s will go after they leave the unit - at an earlier point it was expected that all 21 would transfer to the SD ANG in Sioux Falls, but this has somehow been reversed!!

About the markings - the "Roadrunner" is still applied. During 2007 some of their jets started to carry the "NM" tail code with aircraft 86-0340 being so painted in August of that year.

Around 10 aircraft wore those "NM" markings before a revised plan of markings allowed them to carry the Roadrunner once more. By Dec. 2009 only At the end of Viper operations in the NM ANG only two F-16s retain their "NM" tail codes -86-0356 and 87-0308.

Cheers,

Henrik.

Don't anyone feel sorry for the New Mexico boys. They had a chance to be an associate unit at Holloman flying the F-22, but thanks to their leaderships short sided attitude they are now losing their fighters, and if they are lucky will still end up being an associate unit, but they will fly heavies instead of the most advance A2A fighter ever built. Good move boys.

What's wrong with heavies?

Or are you saying: "If you don't fly fighters, you ain't $--t."?

Laughing

OL

Yeah, look how well VAANG's move to Langley and fly 22's helped that unit out!!

The VAANG hates the move and wishes they were on there own flying F-22's.

ViperDude

on a side note.. if there are ANY current photo's of 87-0308 out there with her new paint jobs I'd love to see them.
that was my bird at Cannon before processing out of the service in '99

Hi Ghetto,

This is the latest photo I could find of You old bird!!

I think it´s one of Jake´s photos from a Dec. 2009 visit at Kirtland AFB.

Cheers,

Henrik.

Ghetto, look at my user name, I am a heavy guy, but anyone out there who says they would not take an F-22 over and V-22 is full of s*it.

Henrik wrote:

Hi Ghetto,

This is the latest photo I could find of You old bird!!

I think it´s one of Jake´s photos from a Dec. 2009 visit at Kirtland AFB.

Cheers,

Henrik.

Yes, that's mine. Someone just cropped my name out of it. Here's the original.

Jake

Here are more Tacos from the same 2009 visit.
Jake

Elliboom wrote:

Don't anyone feel sorry for the New Mexico boys. They had a chance to be an associate unit at Holloman flying the F-22, but thanks to their leaderships short sided attitude they are now losing their fighters, and if they are lucky will still end up being an associate unit, but they will fly heavies instead of the most advance A2A fighter ever built. Good move boys.

I love armchair quarterbacking.

Yeah, don't feel sorry for us New Mexico boys.....As someone who has had to deal with people above me making the bad decisions that have adversely affected my future, I've got to hand it to you......you really know how to pour the salt in our wounds. Last time I checked, the Tacos are real people who have been getting pretty beat up by what's been going on for the last few years. It's been the saddest thing that's ever happened to me, watching a storied fighter wing slowly have the life sucked out of it.

Forum: General

188th FS questions