Rocky Mountain Helping Hand

A contingent of pilots from the Colorado Air National Guard’s 200th Airlift Squadron at Peterson Air Force Base will deploy to Southwest Asia within the next several weeks to help fly C-21 distinguished-visitor transport aircraft already operating from an air base in the region. This will be the ANG unit’s first overseas deployment, said Capt. Kristin Haley, spokeswoman for the squadron’s parent unit, the 140th Wing. The group of deploying pilots all volunteered for this tour, Haley told the Daily Report Tuesday. The Air Guard squadron works closely with the active duty 311th AS, another C-21 unit, located at Peterson. Although the 200th AS is the smallest C-21 unit in both the active duty and Air Guard, it has the most experienced pilots, said Haley. In fact, its pilots average more than nine years and 3,000 hours flying C-21s. (Includes Peterson report by Capt Kristin Haley)