Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says that the state’s Air National Guard wing at Key Field near Meridian, Miss., has a new lease on life. The 186th Air Refueling Wing is slated to lose its KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft under BRAC 2005, but now it appears the Air Force has decided to let the unit work with Boeing on a KC-135 safety modification project. Barbour says the work, which will start next month and run through January 2010, comes in addition to Air Force plans to create a 150-person warfighting headquarters and a 250-person RED HORSE engineering unit at Key Field. These new efforts, however, have not dissuaded the state’s elected officials from continuing to search for a new flying mission.
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.