Six C-130Hs from the Delaware Air National Guard’s 166th Airlift Wing conducted a mass-formation training sortie from Newcastle ANG Base, the unit’s largest group flight since 2003, reported WMDT News on Monday. More than 40 aircrew executed a cargo airdrop over Pennsylvania during the April 12 mission, before flying on to New Jersey for low-level navigation training. “It’s not a very common occurrence that one of our [air]planes isn’t dispersed somewhere,” said 166th AW Commander Col. Mike Feeley. “We’ve been to Africa for the Ebola outbreak, we’ve been to South America for natural disasters, we’ve been pretty much all over the world,” he added. The wing’s C-130s conducted a joint tornado response exercise the previous day, receiving simulated victims from Army National Guard UH-60 helicopters for onward evacuation, according to a unit release.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.