We did get very fortunate with a beautiful sunny day for our tour of the Oregon Air National Guard Base. 34 people with 14 Thunderbirds gathered for a great tour of the base and lunch at Colwood Golf Course. The photos below give a bit of an idea as to what we saw and did. When we were outside waiting for the planes to take off my camera died. I had to pull the battery to reset it. You will see that I got the date wrong when setting it. We really were there on the 16th. Superintendent, Public Affairs MSgt. Shelly Davison was with us for the entire tour. She gave us a great overview of the base. Captain "Slash" Hovanas gave us a very complete run down of the capabilities of the F-15 Eagle. One bit of trivia is that no F-15 has ever been lost due to hostile action. It is also the only aircraft with more thrust than weight. That means it is the only plane that can accelerate while climbing straight up. While on the ramp we were about 75 feet from a squadron of F-15's taxing out for take-off. We were probably 200-250 feet from the active runway as they all took off (or launched as the military says).
While in the maintenance hangar we had up close and personal time with several F-15's, pilots, and maintenance staff. We only had two "don't do" rules: No photos of open panels on a plane or in the cockpit and don't get in a cockpit. I think we all complied.
During lunch President Roger Hull honored Loren Wagnild for his two years of service as club President.