For this week’s Burner Friday we’re taking a look at an Air National Guard unit with a long tenure in the mighty McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle, going all the way back to 1995.
Over 20 years ago, the Florida Air National Guard began writing its chapter with the Eagle when it transitioned to the WGASF from the F-16. In the summer of 2008, when this image was taken, they were in the process of phasing out their older F-15As in favor of the F-15C.
Thus, the 125FW brought mixed bag of Eagles into the fray for the Red Flag exercise 08-4 at Nellis AFB and again to Alaska for Red Flag in June 2010, but soon the A-models were all gone from the inventory.
Even though 493 no longer belongs to the Boxin’ Gators out of Jacksonville, it still serves proudly with the 173rd Fighter Wing out at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls. In fact, the jet was recently deployed to Finland!
Here’s a couple FANG F-15s scrambling out of Homestead ARB during an airshow.
We hope you all have a very fun and safe holiday weekend, FighterSweep Fans!