Members of the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis inaugurated the unit’s transition from the C-5A transport to the C-17, reported Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal. The Feb. 2 ceremony featured two of the eight C-17s on display that the wing will have in place by 2015, according to the newspaper’s report from that same day. “Anytime you change from one platform to another is really a major thing within the military,” said wing spokesman Capt. Ben Alumbaugh. Wing maintainers began training on the C-17 last year at JB McChord-Lewis, Wash, in preparation for the arrival of the new airlifter type at Memphis.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.