A little over a week ago approximately 65 Air National Guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing boarded 3 C-17’s from the 446th Airlift Wing and began a 4 month journey to provide combat search and rescue support for Operation Enduring Freedom.  The McChord based C-17’s were fully loaded with pilots, aircrew, maintainers, support personnel, three [...]

Yesterday approximately 30 Air National Guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing based at Moffett Field, CA boarded two MC-130Ps and left behind their friends, family and coworkers and headed off to Djibouti, Africa. While heartbreaking for their families, these brave Guardsmen deployed to provide combat search and rescue support for Combined Joint Task Force Horn [...]

With the scream of jets and the skies over Vegas filled with aircraft, it can only mean one thing!  It’s Red Flag time again!

At 1440 PST VDA4571 checked in with Moffett Tower and was cleared to land on Runway 32R. 10 years ago, this would have never happened and if it did, it surely would have been the end of our way of life here in the Bay Area.

As with many missions where lives are at stake, teams often work in pairs. Last week I was allowed a rare opportunity to fly aboard one of the 129th Rescue Squadrons’ HH-60G Pave Hawks and witness some of the skills and maneuvers that they constantly practice when they are called upon to save lives.

“JOLLY92, cleared for take off.” With those words, the aircrew of a lone helicopter sets off on another ‘routine’ mission where lives could be hanging in the balance. Mission planning, equipment, and training all become second nature and a tool to accomplish the mission: Saving Lives.

You’re a 21st Airlift Squadron C-17 coming home from an overseas tactical mission, bringing back essential supplies and wounded victims from Afghanistan. Your callsign is COVERT 33. It’s pitch black outside, and you are running low on fuel, AND thousands of miles from the nearest land. There is only one option: Aerial Refueling. Off in [...]

N.K.A.W.T.G. – Nobody Kicks Ass Without Tanker Gas! The elixir of life, and the stuff thirsty planes need to fight and fly. And just an hour drive away is one of the finest US Air Force refueling squadrons, the 6th Air Refueling Squadron from the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base, CA.

VFA-122 “Flying Eagles” was in town after their flyover for the SF 49ers game on Sunday. After the two ship of F/A-18F Super Hornets buzzed the football fans at Candlestick, EXPRT 99, flight of two, landed at Moffett. They brought their CAG (Commander of the Air Group) Bird, NJ 100 for the festivities and it [...]

When I heard that the C-32, a specially modified Boeing 757-200, was at Moffett recently, I ran down to capture a couple of images of this rare bird. With only 4 in existence, these C-32’s operated by the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md, fly the vice president, using the distinctive call [...]