EX9’s first flight test. Boeing has started F-15EX production of Lot 2 for the USAF, next stop is the paint shop and off to Portland (I guess) (video made by the Boeing company)
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Tag: F-15 Eagle
F-15 Eagle
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Lt. Col. Joel Thesing Fini Flight
In September 2024 the 142nd Wing bid farewell to Lt. Col. Joel Thesing as he completed his final flight in the F-15 EX and subsequently retired from the Air National Guard. Congratulations, Sir!
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Barnstomer Fini-Flights
Friday July 12th, 2024 was a fini- flight Friday! at the 104th Fighter Wing. Pilots Maj. Timothy ‘Shawshank’ Boersig and Capt. Brian ‘Brass’ Burke took to the skies for the last time in the F-15 with the 131 FS, and celebrated their fini-flights with friends and family. Congratulations and all the best on the next step in your careers.
Dating back to World War II, the “fini-flight” is a time honored tradition and an exciting way for pilots to celebrate and say goodbye to their unit with friends and family.
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5 ‘Fini’ Flights in one day
Photos by Jay Hewitt 104FW
On Friday June 21st, 2024 Col. Mark ‘Panama’ Prete, 104th Fighter Wing Medical Group commander, Lt. Col. Rich ‘Mental’ Ward, 104th Fighter Wing pilot, Lt. Col. Jay ‘Fat’ Talbert, 104th Fighter Wing pilot, Lt. Col. Johnny ‘Rocket’ Koegel, 104th Fighter Wing pilot, Lt. Col. Brett ‘Dutch’ Vanderpass, 104th Fighter Wing pilot, all flew there ‘Fini-Flight’ at at Barnes Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts.
Thank you for your service and Congratulations for all of your accomplishments and future success!
(U.S Air National Guard Photos by Jay Hewitt)
(U.S Air National Guard Photos by Jay Hewitt)
(U.S Air National Guard Photos by Jay Hewitt)
(U.S Air National Guard Photos by Jay Hewitt)
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104FW attend WIC at Nellis AFB
104th FW/PA
BARNES AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Massachusetts – Members of the 104th Fighter Wing attended the two-week USAF weapons school integration exercise from April 6, 2024, to April 20, 2024, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. This exercise combined multiple squadrons to test and determine the functionality of new air combat tactics through offensive and defensive counterair measures while using both fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft.
Maj. James ‘Mongoose’ Hurley, 131st Fighter Squadron Weapons Officer, stressed the significance of the exercise through the potential for fourth generation fighter units to provide air combat support to fifth-generation aircraft for future missions.
“We received an invite from the 433rd Weapons Squadron and the 17th Weapons Squadron there for the F-22 Raptor and F-15E Strike Eagle, respectively,” said Hurley. “Our role within the exercise was to integrate with them to focus on advanced-threat defensive counterair the first week and offensive counterair the second week. Overall, our goal here was to provide the sensor, as well as the fourth-generation role in that against fourth and fifth-generation fighter integration.”
Providing fourth-generation fighter F-15 support in the exercise effectively enables the Air Force to practice and analyze the validity of the new air tactics listed in the Air, Land, Sea, and Space application fighter integration doctrine. This also enables the weapons school students at Nellis to learn these new tactics and be able to teach them to their respective future units when they graduate.
“Helping to be the platform that validates the new tactics, whether its operational tests or the weapons school is great,” said Hurley. “But when you bring in units like us who are going to be the ones to get called on to do it, it’s crucial we have invaluable experience in practicing it.”
By having as many as 25-30 sorties per day, the Air Force can effectively analyze how fourth-generation fighters can provide critical support to fifth-generation fighters through combat and tactics integration.
“While the fifth-generation fighters are certainly capable, they are limited in their gas and missiles,” said Hurley. “If we talk about how fourth-generation can to enable that, we have extra missiles, extra sensors that we can use to support them, in so doing making everyone more lethal and survivable than they would be if they were doing so standalone.”
The exercise provided the 104FW with valuable lessons and experience in practicing integrating with the weapons school students and having the ability to sit through their brief, debrief, and mission planning. Through this integration, the Air Force is better equipped to test, validate, and adjust.
“It’s definitely a valuable experience to get to learn the latest tactics they’re coming out with from the weapons school,” said Hurley. “The validation of the new tactics manual and just learning exactly how best to do it with the changes happening daily as we progress and work our way closer to what looks right. Overall, this was the most useful temporary duty assignment I’ve been on, tactically speaking since I’ve been here.”