As we began the second day of the NEWEN exercise, I was able to fly with the Gucci Boys from Travis once again.  Today’s mission: refuel the Chilean F-16 as the participate in the aerial war games with the US Air Force F-16’s and F-15’s.  With two “wars” to be fought in the skies today, the Chilean F-16’s were using the time in between to keep current on their tanking skills; an absolute necessity in any aerial battle.

But the secondary mission for this flight was a photo shoot showcasing both air forces.  With the help and cooperation from the higher ups at AFSOUTH, an F-15 from Mountain Home, Idaho and an F-16 from JRB NAS Ft. Worth, Texas joined a Chilean F-16 for a brief formation off the KC-10.   And much to my surprise, I was treated with the wing birds from each unit. 

And then it was back to tanking the Chilean.

I want to personally thank Col. James Russell, the pilots from the 457th Fighter Squadron and the 391st Fighter Squadron, and all the others involved in helping to get all these planes together for this most memorable shoot.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Aviation, Photography, Adventures, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.