MADISON, Wis. — The a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing’s closing F-16 Preventing Falcon plane departed Oct. 5, following a sendoff ceremony commemorating their 30-year service at Truax Discipline.
Col. Bart Van Roo, commander of the Wisconsin Air Nationwide Guard’s a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing, was joined by state, native and navy leaders who gathered with a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing members and retirees to pay tribute to the legacy of the F-16 at Truax Discipline.
“I need to thank so lots of our extraordinarily supportive teams — our honorary commanders previous and current, the Badger Air Neighborhood Council, the Madison Space Chamber of Commerce, the management of the 495th Fighter Group, the 128th Air Refueling Wing, Volk Discipline, and to all our retired members, particularly to our commanders and chiefs,” Van Roo stated. “Thanks all in your help — you’ve gotten spent the final 30 years serving to us share our message of functionality to our state and nation.”
The F-16 Preventing Falcons first arrived at Truax Discipline in 1992, changing the A-10 Thunderbolt II. The plane are the unit’s eighth main airframe since its inception in 1948, and have been an integral a part of a number of world-wide deployments over the past 30 years.
“As we speak is one in every of many main milestones in our conversion to the F-35,” stated Col. Charles Merkel, a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing vice commander. “However immediately, it’s concerning the F-16 and all of the Airmen who have been part of the F-16 mission right here. To all the present members, and to all the previous members who’ve contributed to 30 years of flying the viper — you’ve left an unbelievable legacy of fight deployments and homeland protection.”
The ceremony additionally featured the awarding of problem cash to 11 Airmen, representatives of every of the teams throughout the wing who’ve supported F-16 missions at residence and across the globe over the previous three many years.
“There have been two themes that emerged that basically symbolize the distinction on this group — our tradition of excellence, and our folks’s want to take care of that,” Van Roo stated. “We determined one of the best ways to symbolize all we’ve achieved on this final 30 years is to inform the story of our folks.”
Development and coaching proceed on the base in anticipation of the arrival of the a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing’s ninth main airframe, the F-35 Lightning II, within the spring of 2023.
“It’s becoming that the house of the following F-35 squadron within the Air Power and within the Air Nationwide Guard is correct right here at Truax,” stated Brig. Gen. David Could, Wisconsin’s deputy adjutant common for Air. “Within the palms of the a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing Airmen, E-1 to O-6, we are going to present the world what dedication to excellence actually means, anytime, anyplace.”
A small contingent of F-16s from different models will quickly function from Truax Discipline to conduct homeland protection coaching whereas the a hundred and fifteenth Fighter Wing transitions to the F-35.
