F-16 Final Flight to McChord AFB Museum
12-26-2006, 04:30 PM
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F-16 Final Flight to McChord AFB Museum
Associated Press
One of three F-16 fighter jets that patrolled the skies over Washington, D.C., during the 2001 terrorist attacks is headed to a museum in Washington state.
Lt. Col. Brad Derrig, who flew the alert mission over the nation's capital on Sept. 11, 2001, piloted the last flight aboard the retired aircraft on Tuesday morning. He called the cross-country trip a historic moment for the Fargo-based 119th Fighter Wing, known as the Happy Hooligans.
"It's a neat thing for the unit to have one of the airplanes for everybody to see rather than just wasting away in the desert in Arizona," Derrig said before taking off from Fargo at midmorning for the McChord Air Force Base Museum near Tacoma, Wash. "It's time for us to move on."
Another F-16 that flew over Washington will be on display at the base in Fargo. The third plane is being used by another Air National Guard unit for training.
The three F-16s had been on alert at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia on 9-11, when they were scrambled to protect the nation's capital. Derrig, 39, said the pilots knew about the attacks on New York City, but were not aware of the plane that crashed into Pentagon.
"We didn't know what was going on, but that's the way the air defense scenario is supposed to be set up," he said. "You're sitting on alert, the horn goes off, you get airborne as quickly as you can ... and you wait for further instructions."
Derrig compared flying the planes to driving a Porsche sports car or a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
"It's fun. It's just a rush," he said.
The Fargo base is making the transition to unmanned aerial vehicles and light cargo aircraft. The military has built a UAV command and control center at Fargo's Hector airport.
The Happy Hooligans have recorded 3,920 individual F-16 flights, known as sorties. The group has flown its fighter planes more than 70,000 hours without an accident.
The planes no longer are "relevant and useful" to the Air Force, Derrig said. Eighteen of the planes will be flown to a military bone yard in Arizona, he said.
Even though his name is printed on the cockpit dome, Derrig said, flying the planes has been a team effort.
"Having the names on the airplanes is something new," he said. The crew chiefs deserve the credit because they do the mechanical work, he said.
The 119th once had 20 full-time crew chiefs, each of them assisted by two or three people. Tech. Sgt. Darby Plath, 28, one of the crew chiefs, said it was difficult to see the F-16 go Tuesday.
"I've been working on this for probably four years now," Plath said. "I'm going to miss her."
One of three F-16 fighter jets that patrolled the skies over Washington, D.C., during the 2001 terrorist attacks is headed to a museum in Washington state.
Lt. Col. Brad Derrig, who flew the alert mission over the nation's capital on Sept. 11, 2001, piloted the last flight aboard the retired aircraft on Tuesday morning. He called the cross-country trip a historic moment for the Fargo-based 119th Fighter Wing, known as the Happy Hooligans.
"It's a neat thing for the unit to have one of the airplanes for everybody to see rather than just wasting away in the desert in Arizona," Derrig said before taking off from Fargo at midmorning for the McChord Air Force Base Museum near Tacoma, Wash. "It's time for us to move on."
Another F-16 that flew over Washington will be on display at the base in Fargo. The third plane is being used by another Air National Guard unit for training.
The three F-16s had been on alert at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia on 9-11, when they were scrambled to protect the nation's capital. Derrig, 39, said the pilots knew about the attacks on New York City, but were not aware of the plane that crashed into Pentagon.
"We didn't know what was going on, but that's the way the air defense scenario is supposed to be set up," he said. "You're sitting on alert, the horn goes off, you get airborne as quickly as you can ... and you wait for further instructions."
Derrig compared flying the planes to driving a Porsche sports car or a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
"It's fun. It's just a rush," he said.
The Fargo base is making the transition to unmanned aerial vehicles and light cargo aircraft. The military has built a UAV command and control center at Fargo's Hector airport.
The Happy Hooligans have recorded 3,920 individual F-16 flights, known as sorties. The group has flown its fighter planes more than 70,000 hours without an accident.
The planes no longer are "relevant and useful" to the Air Force, Derrig said. Eighteen of the planes will be flown to a military bone yard in Arizona, he said.
Even though his name is printed on the cockpit dome, Derrig said, flying the planes has been a team effort.
"Having the names on the airplanes is something new," he said. The crew chiefs deserve the credit because they do the mechanical work, he said.
The 119th once had 20 full-time crew chiefs, each of them assisted by two or three people. Tech. Sgt. Darby Plath, 28, one of the crew chiefs, said it was difficult to see the F-16 go Tuesday.
"I've been working on this for probably four years now," Plath said. "I'm going to miss her."
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