Wing loses tanker, bomber squadrons

Mountain Home AFB said goodbye, forever, to two of its five flying squadrons Monday, during special ceremonies that included a flyover of the last flight of "composite" aircraft at the base.

Between now and June 19, when the base's runway will be closed for three months of repairs and renovations, the KC-135 aircraft of the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron and the B-1B Lancer bombers of the 34th Bomb Squadron will leave the base, never to return. Over the next few months the personnel and families of the two squadrons will depart for new assignments, elsewhere.

In exchange, by fall, the 726th Air Control Squadron will be greatly expanded, and additional maintenance crews and aircraft will be added to the 391st Fighter Squadron, resulting a roughly a zero net loss in personnel.

The flag will be taken down on the "Mules" of the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron, its unit history and memorabilia destined for the archives of the Pentagon. The aircraft will be sent to the Kansas Air National Guard, replacing the B-1s that unit is losing as part of a drawdown of the B-1 bomber force from 93 aircraft to 60.

The 34th Bomb Squadron will head to Ellsworth AFB, in South Dakota. It will retain its flag and unit designation. At Ellsworth, the 77th Bomb Squadron will have its flag taken down and its aircraft and crews will be melded into the 34th. The 34th's designation is being retained because of its lengthy unit history, which goes back to the Doolittle raid over Tokyo in WWII.

The bomber crews from here will join the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth AFB as the two bomber squadrons there. The 34th and 37th fought together during the war in Afghanistan and provided the bulk of the bomb tonnage dropped in the war. The 22nd ARS came to Mountain Home in October 1992, and the 34th BS arrived in July 1996.

In a statement issued prior to the ceremonies, Col. Jeff Eberhart, the wing vice commander (who is running the show while Gen. Halter is deployed), noted that "we're sad to see the 34th and 22nd leave the base. Having the bombers and tankers here was a huge benefit. It's the idea of 'train like we fight.' Our aircrews had the luxury of training with different aircraft. It was like a miniature Red Flag every day. The 366th Wing grows airpower experts on a daily basis."

The moves are the culmination of a major reorganization within the Air Force. Several years ago, the 366th wing and one other were tasked as rapid response forces, called Air Expeditionary Wings, capable of responding as a single, "combined arms" unit, on a moment's notice. Every 120 days the unit stood up "on call," trading off with the other AEW. Meanwhile, the rest of the Air Force was reorganized into 10 Air Expeditionary Forces (AEFs), composite forces that trained, but were not based, together, and which were given up to two years of advance notice of deployments to ongoing commitments around the world to such places as the no-fly zones over Iraq.

Although the 366th Wing will still stand one or two more "on call" cycles, the AEW concept is being eliminated, leaving only the 10 AEFs, each of which will now handle "on call" stand-ups on a rotating basis. The two AEWs being eliminated will be melded into the AEF force structures.

The 366th Wing now becomes a "composite" fighter wing, with F-16s (configured for suppression of enemy air defenses), F-15C air superiority fighters, and F-15E ground attack fighters.

The six new F-15Es, which will take the 391st FS from 18 to 24 aircraft, are not expected to arrive until fall, when the runway work is completed.

During this summer, the 726th Air Control Squadron, was well as major elements of the three fighter squadrons, will deploy to the Mideast for Operation Southern Watch. The first of those aircraft, F-16s from the 389th FS, left this weekend and the remainer of the aircraft assigned to the deployment, from the 390th and 391st Fighters Squadrons, will leave over the next two weeks. The 726th is already there.

Those aircraft not being sent to the Mideast, about two dozen F-15s and F-16s from the three squadrons, flew out to Gowen Field in Boise last week, where they will be stationed during the $30 million runway renovation, continuing their training at the local ranges.

During Monday's ceremonies, held in front of the B-1 "Thunderbirds" hanger, crews from all five flying squadrons on base stood in ranks. Then, the two squadrons leaving stepped forward and were saluted by the remainder.

Col. William F. Andrews, Ops Group commander, told the crowd of airmen, their families and dignitaries from town, that "we are assembled here to say farewell" to the 22nd ARS and 34th BS, "and to witness their last mission together as a composite wing.

"The squadrons stand side by side in the same way they have trained and deployed and sometimes fought together."

He noted that during WWII, during the B-17 bombing raids into Hitler's "Fortress Europe," the Air Force learned "that no one kind of crew could do it alone. Ever since then, we have fought as a team."

"These five squadrons, flying together every day, turned into an unstoppable force."

He said that while the Air Force restructuring could no longer sustain all five squadrons at one base, a generation of airman trained here in composite operations "will forever add to the combat capability" of the nation.

Andrews thanked the citizens of Idaho and the local community for "your generous support, and especially the Shoshone-Paiute tribes for sharing their skies with us."

Led by tribal leader Terry Gibson, members of the tribe offered their own tribute by singing several songs, "sacred to our people," for warriors heading off to war, and then the crowd watched the last flyover of the composite wing, with aircraft from all five squadrons flying together over the runway.

Mayor Dave Jett said he was sad to see the mission of the base changing, but noted it would ring in a new era. "Our job now is to make sure DoD utilizes this base to the fullest extent."

Andrews told reporters after the ceremony that the wing will still conduct joint training, with units deployed temporarily to the base in the future, in order to utilize the extensive training facilities near the base "some of the best the U.S. has to offer."

At the same time, he noted, "a big piece of us goes away with our heavy aircraft. This was a unique opportunity for bomber crews to learn about fighters, and fighter crews to learn about bombers. You don't get a lot of that in most of the Air Force, so we're sad to see them go."

But he said, the composite wing concept, which lasted 10 years, "has been a great success."

"The 366th wing had been unique in its position to train together on a daily basis, to deploy together and to fight together.

"We were held as a 911 force, a round in the chamber, ready to go."

He said the changes were being made to improve the efficiency of the Air Force, and because "we find we can do fighting with fewer aircraft than we had to use in the past."

When he flew in Desert Storm, he noted, a typical strike package might involve up to 40 aircraft for a single target. In Afghanistan, typically only two aircraft were assigned to a specific target, and with improved accuracy of munitions, the four bombs carried by those two planes usually mean four targets hit and destroyed.

As he watched the static display of a tanker and bomber that had served as the backdrop for Monday's ceremonies being hauled away, he noted, "This kind of closes the door on an era."