End Of An Era

Well After Eighty Six Years, The 131st Fighter Wing Has Officially Ended Operations at Lambert Airport. They celebrated (and wept) the final day with a ceremony at the base, including a presentation, lunch, and getting up close and personal with the final two eagles. When the engines finally started toward the end of the day the entire crowd was at the ramp watching as a moment in history was ready to take-off and never return. In fact, there were even ground crews from Lambert lined up beside the base waiting as well.

Col. Mohr, and Col. Drake were the two pilots who flew the eagles out of St. Louis. They took off waving to the crowd with there eagles and then sword into the sky before turning around and doing a final pass. Although the pass was great for pictures, a lot of people, probably everyone wanted that final pass to be just a little more loud. It kind of felt like going on on a whimper, which is exactly what it was. No one wanted to leave St. Louis, everyone thought it was a dumb decision, and worst of all everyone just had to keep on going for the final four years knowing there demise was coming. It is like knowing the date of your death, as every day you get closer, you get sadder.

The Event was like a reunion to some, as retired members from all ages meet up with there old friends, while others it was a final goodbye, as some pilots retire, or move to different units in order to continue to fly. A good chunk of people will move to Whiteman to support the B-2 Mission, while others will fly a desk and work at Jefferson Barracks.

All In All the decision to remove the planes from Lambert was very overlooked. St. Louis is where the F-15 was born, and having no planes stationed there leaves a hole in the defense mission. Stationed right in the middle of the country, the 131st would easily go anywhere within hours to protect our nation. Not to mention, out of the four (Col. Drake recently had this honor) pilots that reached over 4,000 Flight hours in the F-15, three of them were part of this unit, making the 131st the most experienced F-15 unit in the country.

Goodbye 131st Fighter Wing, it brings tears in my eyes knowing that I will not have a flight of 4-8 birds waking me up in the morning, it brings tears to my eyes knowing that I will not get to drive by the airport with my camera waiting for you guys to launch and recover, it brings tears to my eyes that so many people have to re-root there lives for missions that just aren't the same, and it brings tears to everyone that you guys have really left. EVERYONE will always be remembered for what they did and what they accomplished, serving our country and St. Louis.

Good Luck To Everyone And There New mission at Whiteman AFB. It is not the same as flying the best fighter ever built, but at least we are still flying. Also thanks to everyone who said thanks for the blog and website during the final day and through E-mail, it really does mean a lot.

Farewell 131st Fighter Wing. "Mission Complete Incomplete"

P.S.
Video Is Now On Youtube. Over 500 Pictures will eventually be added to the site.
[First Picture Curtsy of Mark Nankivil]

NEW PICTURE.. ONE WEEK LEFT!!!! ;(

Well, it has come down to one more week until the 131st Fighter Wing is a part of history, but it will be remembered forever. The Air Force Recently posted this picture online of the "End Of An Era Committee" standing in front of the Arch/Boss Eagle. As of now the base is dead, with the sun tents and drop tank areas taken down.


(And Yes, This Picture is the Original Size To...)

UPCOMING STUFF

So there are only about three weeks left ;(. However, I do have a few projects in the works. One of them is a memorial video of the 131st, which will be combining all my "best" (hey its just a digital camera) videos and put them together. Still debating on the sound-track, but I got a few songs in mind (nothing like that crap music youtube made me change to). I doubt I will get any more video of the unit until the final flight, because between school, my job, my life, and sleep, I just can't seem to catch them, plus they fly now between 11 and 1230 (solo flight). I came FIVE MINUTES AWAY from catching two birds depart to Hawaii, both had three external tanks attached. However it was going to storm that day...

FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THEY LAUNCH THE WIND CHANGES ON ME AND THEY USE 12/30 WHILE I'M STATIONED AT 11/29 ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE!!! It's like fate does not want me to see there final few flights, and it was two birds two which is rare now. The arch bird now has tanks on it, and i'm guessing the Blues bird does to (although I have not seen the blues bird out in about a month).


One thing that bothers me so much is that the lack of knowledge people have of the 131st. I talk to people all the time, about how there leaving, and they go "oh i love seeing those, they flew over the highway" and "they wake me up every morning", but outside of Bridgeton, No one really knows about the 131st, if you would talk to someone that does not live in Bridgeton, they would not know what you were talking about, which is sad. Because I see Montana get all this press of them getting the new F-15's with an article a month on there progress, but the 131st has been ignored. (I've contacted Fox 2 and CW11 numerous times, but no bite).

Well the media better be there on the final flight!

Anyways... new layout on the website, because I got kinda bored of the blue clouds thing.. black looks better i think. And thanks to everyone who sends E-mails whether it is saying they had a relative that served in the wing, or asking for a higher size picture.. I love reading them, so keep them coming.

(THANKS MARK FOR THE PIC)

About 5 Weeks Left....

Only Five Week's Remain Until The 131st Fighter Wing is no more. Currently There are 4 F-15's Left, Two Of Which have three external tanks on them, and will depart for there new home in Hawaii within the next week or two. During UTA Drill Weekend Last Weekend, One Flight was flown at 12:40 P.M. Saturday. The Arch Bird Took Of For a 30 Minute Solo Flight, Before Buzzing Runway 11/29 and Runway 12/30. (I ended up missing it, I gave up to early and did not wait long enough) The 131st Now For The Most Part Only Fly's Solo Flights, but you get the occasional two ship formation still.

Gotta Love The Arch Bird/Boss Jet/Lead Plane, Whatever You Want To Call It.

120th Fighter Wing going Full Force Into The F-15

Flights Now Range From 2-4 Eagles at a time for the base and pretty soon as much as eight on Drill Weekends.

One Thing That Don't Make Sense is that BRAC was made to conserve money for the future of the Air Force. But When it Costs "Over 50 Million" just to get the base ready for the new F-15 Mission, isn't that defeating the purpose. Not to mention building the new facilites at Whiteman For The 131st Bomb Wing. Sure Maybe its the long term (really really long term) but it seems that For all the Air Guard Units that are being changed or converted it is costing more than keeping there original mission.

Six F-15's Left In St. Louis. Depressing. Maybe The Stealth Eagle will get picked up by Boeing from some country like South Korea, that way there will be at least more than one F-15 every few months.

Go To:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903170338

and

http://www.the-two-malcontents.com/2009/03/22/changing-of-the-guardfrom-f-16-back-to-f-15-fighter-jets/

for info on the 120ths New (Our Old) Mission.

Final Flights, Small Unit

Col Jon "JB" Kelk, and Col. Leeker have all had there final flights the past few weeks. At Least five more pilots are having there final flights in April. Also there are now seven eagles left (soon to be six).

(thanks mark for Col. Leeker's Picture)

NEW UNRELEASED AIR FORCE PHOTOS OF THE 131ST!

There are over 60 New Unreleased Photos Of the 131st that were taken along with the "Flying with the eagles" Photo Shoot In September 08. They are only found at 131stfighterwing.webs.com. Check Them Out!

I would like to thank Capt. Tim Reinhart for these sweet pictures.

And New Video of on base as well as a Boeing EA-18 and Super Hornet Flight Test. Capt. Tim Reinhart is one of the people that flew during that flight test as well.

Drill Weekend On and Off Base...

So This Drill Weekend was pretty darn good. On Saturday they did total combat take-offs in the afternoon. That was a sight to see. It was also a very special flight because it was Col. Leekers final flight In an F-15. (Think Arch Jet) After a series of missed approaches and fly-byes he was hosed down when he returned to base. And i got all the landings and total combat take-offs on video. So all in all Saturday was pretty good with the exception of the airport police yelling at me during the morning take-off and making me miss it.

Then came Sunday. Sunday was really really good. Because I got to go on base for the first time! It was so cool, I shot videos and pictures from the tower along with two very nice people who "escorted" me Fred and Mark. But the biggest thanks is to Col. Morh (Sorry If Spelling is Wrong), for giving me permission to tag along. They flew two at a time again (that's about all they can do) and I learned that there are nine jets instead of seven left. The Pilots did a pair-take off with total combat which I have never seen the two do together before. Then they did a few missed approaches. The afternoon was just a normal flight but still very cool to see.

Check Out The Base Video and Saturday's Videos at youtube.com/131stfwfan. Sorry for the quality of the base one, I had to switch the file format in order to post it on youtube and it really made it fuzzy.

Pictures coming soon to the site to.

A Few Pictures At Base...

I Took Some Pictures At The Base On Sunday, since they took down there security fence that blocked everything. There were four eagles on the ramp three for sure unmarked. Its Better Than Just One, like there was a few days ago.

Go To 131stfighterwing.webs.com To See All The Pictures as well as other HQ Exclusive Pictures That I have been allowed to post on the site thanks to Mark and Jetdoc.

You Can't And Wont Find any other site on the internet that has the most up-to date information and the most pictures of the 131st Fighter Wing.

And Don't Forget About Youtube.com/131stfwfan for all the video clips.

Montana Is Now Flying Our Eagles...

Sad. Sad. Sad.

Only 8 Eagles Remain.

FINALLY...

The "Official" Website of the 131st Has Updated Its Homepage Picture. Instead of the old picture with the first few eagles in the early 90's they replaced it with the new picture flying over the arch that was taken in September. Why its four months late I don't know but it makes the page look so much better. But it still says 131st Bomb Wing...

You Know they actually had a real website that was all there own as well, but that was taken down i believe in July.

Drill Weekend

The Pictures Above Show Unmarked and Marked 79-0057 From the 131st Fighter Wing. It previously flew at Nellis AFB Before 2004;I Learned from Scramble On The Web.


So This Weekend was Drill Weekend instead of the first of the month. This weekend was alright. They Flew Both Weekends But Only Did One flight On Sunday, which I missed. This is also the first drill weekend where only two F-15's Flew. Yup, they just flew two that were unmarked. But it was not all bad. On Saturday Morning They did a pair take-off which is always nice to see, and then coming back they both did a low approach followed by the lead man doing a second. Then came the afternoon, where I missed the take-off by a minute because they took off earlier than I anticipated. That was just a normal take-off and the landing was normal two. You can tell they are really winding down because they don't fly as much as they used to. I'm thinking most of the people are now at Whiteman and they only have a minimal flight requirement during the last few months. Out of the (at least) 8 jets we have left most of them are now unmarked. Goodbye SL Tailcode, however I do hope they keep the Arch Logo Jet painted during the final flight. It is really sad to see them go. Watching these planes has always given me a "high" if you know what I mean and without them its not going to be fulfilled. You can't rely on Boeing to fill it because they make about 1-2 jets a week now and its mainly Growlers which always fly during the weirdest and worst times of the day. (Theres never real pattern to know when to go and watch them) I was surprised the St. Louis Arch Jet did not fly this weekend. And it figures I get a new camera where you can actually see the tail-markings and its not blurry and they fly two unmarked planes. The base is pretty much empty they don't even have enough fighters on the ground to fill up the five portables they have, since the other four or five or probably kept in the hangar for ground drills and taking all the markings off.

I hope that by the grace of god I will catch one of those rare days where they fly a four-ship still, but that only happens early on in the week in the morning and I'm always busy during those hours so I guess good-luck with that.

Maybe they will still offer a base tour of the unit since there are still a few fighters left? But I don't even think the 131st Fighter Wing has a public affairs office anymore I think its all for the 131st Bomb Wing Now.

Well Anyways Most of Saturday morning is now on youtube so check it out at youtube.com/131stfwfan and I will hopefully add part of Saturday afternoon two if the video ever uploads...

NEW WEBSITE!

PLEASE GO TO WWW.131STFIGHTERWING.WEBS.COM FOR ALL THE PICTURES AND INFO ON 131ST, I HAVE NOT DECIDED IF I'M MOVING MY BLOG THERE YET...

AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT

MYSPACE.COM/131STFW- ADD ME/THE UNIT!

AND

YOUTUBE.COM/131STFWFAN FOR ALL THE LATEST VIDEOS!

FIRST WEEKEND OF THE MONTH, THIS WEEKEND DRILL WAS...

I have to say it was alright. I got some good videos in and they are all at youtube.com/131stfwfan.

There are around nine or ten jets left out of the 20 we had at the unit. I would say six or seven of them still have the SL markings, two for sure are bare. They did not fly on Sunday because of the wind conditions and there was an upcoming ice storm, which hit stl hard later that night. The confirmed date for them to be leaving is late July 2009 however i think the aircraft will be gone a few months before that.

That picture of the flightline shows them in July 2008, the base don't look like that anymore...

It is November 1st and 2nd, You Know What That Means AGAIN...

Alright So This Time I Came 100% Prepared so No set backs would happen. And for Sat. it really helped, I got some of the best videos I have ever gotten of them. Then on Sunday, Well The Unit Switched There Runway Operations, and I missed the total combat takeoff's after staking out the end of the runway for nearly 15 min. Overall after a half tank of gas, lots of almost driving accidents, and 5 videos later, I would say this weekend was worth it. I just wish I would of gotten those total combat take offs.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS ON THE YOUTUBE PAGE, I AM SAVING ONE OF THEM THOUGH BECAUSE I ONLY GET TO DO THIS ONE WEEKEND A MONTH, SO I NEED SOMETHING IN BETWEEN THEN TO POST.


I need a new camera though, but by the time i get one, there will only prob be a bout 8 jets left. Maybe a Scanner, so I know which runway there going on? Either way this guess and check thing is always a risk.

Farewell 131st Fighter Wing... (At Least the Name)

Although We Still have 11 jets left (10 after the end of this week) the air force/ANG has officially announced that the 131st Fighter Wing is now the 131st Bomb Wing.

In a press release issued this week...

10/5/2008 - Lambert IAP -- The 131st Fighter Wing formally recognized it's transition to the 131st Bomb Wing in a ribbon cutting ceremony held Oct. 4 at Whiteman, AFB.

The ceremony celebrated the first official drill for traditional guardsmen at Whiteman and the grand opening of building 3006, the 131st Bomb Wing's headquarters there.

"We are proud of our members and proud of our lineage as we transition from an Air National Guard Fighter Wing to a Classic Associate Bomb Wing," Col. Robert L. Leeker, 131st BW commander, said.

Brig. Gen. Craig D. McCord, Missouri Air National Guard commander, explained, "This transition will serve as a template for the future of Air Force and Air National Guard integration."

Congressman Ike Skelton described how this integration between the Air Force and Air National Guard is a "dream come true" for the Air Force, Air National Guard and himself. The Missouri Air National Guard and the Air Force will come together and "like a marriage their two hearts can beat as one."

"Today signifies the coming together of one of the finest Active Duty bases and one of the finest Air National Guard bases in the Air Force," said Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak, 509th BW commander. "You will join us as brothers and sisters and no enemy of America will have sanctuary anywhere in the world."

Members from the 131st FW have been transitioning to Whiteman since the summer of 2007. The 131st has about 10 B-2 pilots fully qualified and over 80 personnel currently working at Whiteman.

"The 509th BW and 131st BW are a premier team," said Colonel Leeker. "And together we can hunt down and destroy America's enemies."


Well at least that flying with the eagles took my mind off of them leaving for good for a week or so.

St. Louis will never be the same. Ima have to move to Montana where those F-15's are going.

NEW ANG 131ST PROMO PICS!

In a Picture Article Called "Flying With The Eagles" The ANG takes us and shows us a mission with the 131st Fighter Wing. They are all stunning and some of the best 131st pics ever taken. You can find them on the ANG website, or just go to youtube.com/131stfwfan, i made a video with all of them in it. The pictures Include A Training Mission, Flying Over STL, Bush Stadium and Lambert Airport/There Base.

I POSTED A LITTLE PREVIEW ABOVE, THIS IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HOW GOOD SOME OF THE OTHERS ARE.

1st Weekend Of The Month Again...

This Month Was Great! I got some really good videos since this is about the only time I am able to Film Them. Saturday Morning Brought Seven Jets Into The Air For A Morning Flight, and Then Four More For An Afternoon Flight. Sunday Brought Four In The Morning And Four In The Afternoon. Both Days Had At Least Two Jets doing paired landings, then one of the jets would to a touch and go. It was a pretty good weekend.

Out of all the jets two were bare without the "SL" Tailcode and Missouri Banner On Them. The Next Jet Will Leave On October 23rd followed by two more on December 12th.

Check Out Some Of The Videos I Got At Youtube.com/131stfwfan

The Cards Final Weekend...

Not a good season for them this year.

Above: An F-15C For The 131st Fighter Wing Is painted in Cards Livery. However it did not last long, because they got into some legal troubles with the team, so after a few months, it was changed from the Cards F-15 to the St. Louis Blues F-15. Ill post that sometime later.

So Last Weekend...

I was right. There was more flying. I attempted twice to film them, both were just misses. Guess ill wait til next month. This week however there was a glimpse for two days of the old amount of flying they used to do. It was great to see. But now that we have Ike coming our way it looks like flying will be at a super low for the next few days. But hey they only fly one weekend a month anyways so I guess it don't make a Difference.

First Weekend of the Month, That Means...

That there will be lots of flying. Actually the flying in the weekends now is about the same as it used to be every day. We get about two jets a day now (if lucky) and then about 4-8 Jets 1 Weekend a Month. It used to be about 4-8 Every Day and 8-12 On Weekends.

The Base Is Also Very Empty, I only counted six Jets, but I know there is more because only 8 have left at the max so far. So there should be 10 left.

Lets Hope the flying increases just a little bit.