The highway to the danger zone is closed, temporarily.


Montana Air National Guard's F-16 jets, which have screamed across the skies above Great Falls for 22 years, made their final Big Sky flight Friday afternoon.

On Wednesday, pilots from the Vermont Air National Guard will fly the jets back to their state.

Great Falls will have only a brief respite from the roar of fighter engines, though. MANG is scheduled to receive four F-15s in the middle of the month, followed by two per month until it has 18.

The two pilots of MANG's final F-16 flight said they were sorry to see the familiar planes go.

"It's a pretty emotional time," said Maj. Jason Green, who completed his final F-16 flight Friday. "It's a premier fighter that we've flown over the skies of Montana and the skies of Iraq."

Mostly, though, they're happy to still have the chance to fly. For a while, it didn't look like that would be the case, said MANG spokesman Maj. Rick Anderson.

When military officials decided to take the F-16s out of Montana, they originally had no intention of replacing them, Anderson said.

"It was kind of a kick in the stomach," Anderson said. "We had a great mission, then we went to no mission, now we have another great mission."

The aircraft switch is part of a slight change in MANG's mission, to make the unit's focus better align with the geographic resources they have available.

F-16s are designated for both air-to-air and bombing missions. Because there are no bombing ranges in Montana, MANG pilots had to fly more than 400 miles to Idaho or Utah to practice that skill.

The F-15, an older model jet, is used only for air-to-air combat. MANG pilots will forget about bombing, and take advantage of Big Sky Country's ample airspace to practice dog fighting, Anderson said.

F-15s are bigger and heavier than the F-16s, and have two engines instead of one. The Air Force is sending MANG pilots to training centers in Florida and Oregon, where they will spend five months getting comfortable with the new jets.

"Our wing commander describes it as a flying tennis court compared to (the F-16)," Anderson said.

Thanks Weasel Keeper

What unit did the 122FW 163FS inheret from WWII? Thought I had a pretty good idea about the various units, but so many changed numbering once WWII was over that it is hard to keep track of all.

BTW, made a F-4E model of the 122FW 163FS AF68-0305 not too long ago - one of my better F-4's

...we may be going Thunderbolt II next year.

........ sending 85-1416 for a one time flight to AMARC because it needed a wing change...so she's retired now.