On Thursday morning March 19th several of us met at Elmer's Restaurant at 8am for breakfast. We were joined with several members of the Vintage Thunderbird Club (VTCI). Many more joined us between 10am and 10:30 am to caravan together to PANG (Portland Air National Guard) on the South edge of Portland International Airport.                     Unfortunately three of our members were unable to attend because they did not have a "REAL" ID drivers license. One other didn't make it due to health. So of our 13 registered only 9 made it. About the same number were present from VTCI and the Ford Galaxie clubs.
  Once we all cleared the entry gate we were directed to our parking area and were escorted into a relatively large hangar. There were two F-15 fighters in there. One was an older F-15C that is in the process of being retired. Once the engines, avionics and the wings are removed it will be trailered to the extremely large aircraft bone-yard just north of Tucson, AZ. The other plane was an F-15EX. This is the newest F15 model in the Air Force. It had arrived from the Boeing factory just a few weeks ago and is the first in the PANG fleet. It will be placed in service very soon. 
    Upon leaving the hangar we were escorted out onto the flight line where we watched an F15 take-off, a very impressive sight. After what seemed like hours three more F15's took off. Unfortunately for us the wind (breeze) was from the west and therefore the planes headed west on take-off. The planes started their take-off roll near us and just totally disappeared as they lifted off and climbed into the cloud cover and completely vanished from sight. On a couple of the photos below Jim Sweet put a red arrow next to the aircraft. By-the-way the F15 is the only plane capable of accelerating as it is in vertical flight. Very impressive to watch!
   Then we were invited into a "Ready Room" for a presentation by one of the F15 pilots. He gave us a great run down of what it is like to fly one of these phenomenal air craft. You could tell he loves what he does, and was a very excited pilot/presenter. 
   The last stop on our tour was to see their bomb disposal unit. The three airmen in the last two photos displayed to us several anti-personnel bombs and their robot for searching and entering to retrieve explosive devices.
   Thanks to Jim Sweet for the photos below. Also thanks to Tom P. from VTCI for making the arrangements with PANG.

   Remember to click on one of the photos below to get a much larger version. You will then have left & right arrows to scroll through all of them.