E-Model Leaves C-130 Schoolhouse for the Last Time

The Air Force’s Hercules schoolhouse at Little Rock AFB, Ark., retired its final C-130E, aircraft 62-1855, in a ceremony at the base. “This airplane . . . has seen it all. Yet, as special as 1855 is, she is not unique for she actually represents the entire C-130 fleet old and new,” said Col. Mark Czelusta, Little Rock’s 314th Airlift Wing commander, during last week’s retirement ceremony. This C-130E served for 47 years. The oldest airframe competing earlier this year in the 2011 Airlift Rodeo at JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., the 314th AW’s flagship earned one of only two perfect inspection scores there. Before the aircraft departed for storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., on Sept. 20, the wing christened a newly delivered C-130J as its new flagship. The wing received its first E-model Hercules in 1964. Little Rock continues the training mission with C-130H and C-130J models. (Davis-Monthan report by 2Lt. Mallory Glass)