114 Fighter Squadron

Eagle’s Nest West “Land of no Slack”

Nestled in a quiet valley in Oregon is a little known place called “The Land

of No Slack.” Top sticks from around the Air Force are starting to flock to this new Mecca for “Eagle” superiority. A mythical place for bedtime stories? No, just the first training base in the Air National Guard for F-15 Eagle pilots. Currently all F-15 pilots are trained at Klamath Falls IAP taking over the active USAF Eagle training from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

Located in Klamath Falls, the 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base is going through an unexpected aircraft conversion from pilot training in the F-16 to the F-15. An impossible mission? Not really, especially with the talent assembled to tackle the challenge.

The conversion at Kingsley Field actually began a few years ago when there was talk at the Pentagon about the need for additional F-15 training capability for the total force. The Air Force was considering an Air National Guard unit to fill that need.

“We were energized by that opportunity,” said Col. Billy Cox, 173rd Fighter Wing commander. So when the opportunity came to compete for the mission, Cox aggressively mounted a campaign to Washington, D.C. There he talked to Guard leaders to sell the organization as a potential site for the mission.

“Our biggest selling point was our experience in student pilot training production and the reduced cost of changing us rather than locating at some other locations,” said Cox.

Not too long afterward, the 173rd was given the thumbs up to go ahead. “We went in with our eyes open,” Cox said. “We knew the effort required us to convert to a new airplane. The work required of operations and maintenance to learn and maintain the jet was going to be significantly different than with the F-16.”

And Kingsley Field’s conversion is not your normal swap of one mission for another. When Lt. Col. Johnny Adkisson, 114th Fighter Squadron commander, first arrived in 1989, the wing was just finishing a conversion from the F-4 to the F-16. “That was a planned conversion that was budgeted. We had airplanes, equipment and everything a normal conversion has. Our new conversion is somewhat different,” said Adkisson.

The Guard took a jet from each one of its six F-15 units, with two of those units providing one additional airplane. And that’s where the fun really started.

According to Lt. Col. Paul Weitlisbach, 173rd vice commander, there was no support equipment anywhere. Normally when a unit stands up in a planned conversion, another shuts down and provides the needed equipment. Not so in this case.

“Just having the ‘iron’ out there is nice. They’re shiny, and they look good in the sun. But if you don’t have all the support equipment that you need to fix the airplane, then it’s never going to leave the ground,” he said.

And a normal two- or three-day turnaround becomes eight days because of the need to send parts to Portland 300 miles away, where the 142nd Fighter Wing has F-15 avionics test stations. To help fix the problem, the 173rd sent teams to other F-15 units and the air logistics centers, to scrounge for parts and discarded equipment.

They took burnt-looking, twisted, broken pieces of equipment with holes in them and created something that works. “You talk about your $300 toilet seat. This is the complete opposite. We’re creating multimillion dollar test stations out of ‘garbage’ — spinning straw into gold,” Weitlisbach said. “This has been a Herculean effort by my people.”

And the 173rd’s maintenance team is so fired up about what they’ve accomplished that, according to Weitlisbach, “you literally have to kick them out the door to get them to go home at night. The taxpayer is getting a lot of bang for the buck with what we are doing here.”On the other side of the

conversion challenge are the F-16 pilots who are just starting to get familiar with the F-15. “I’ll miss the F-16 because I like doing what I’m already good at,” said Capt. Matt Andrews, 114th Fighter Squadron instructor pilot.

“It’s like when you’re driving your car, you switch on the turn signal without even thinking about it,” Andrews said. “But when you get into an unfamiliar car, reach for that turn signal, and it’s not there anymore — you have to stop and think about it. When you have to stop and think, then you’re too slow. You’re not fighting, you’re not maximizing how you employ the machine.

“A lot of what we learned in the F-16 still applies — your basic smart fighter pilot tactics,” Andrews said. “We just have to retrain our fingers. We call it the ‘piccolo drill’ — where to put your fingers on the control stick and throttle to hit the “note” you want.

And the 114th FS has hit some high notes in the past. It’s well-respected in the fighter community for the training it accomplished with the F-16. “Training students is our life here,” said Adkisson. “We’ve been doing it since the place opened up. We’re set up for it. We have the facilities for it and the culture for it.

“Besides, we have thick skins. That’s why our sign in the hallway says the ‘Land of No Slack.’ ”

In December 2025, the squadron’s final two F-15’s departed Kingsley Field. For the next 6 months, the squadron and airbase will begin its transition to accommodate the 5th generation F-35 Lightning II

114th Fighter Squadron photos