Reserve Wing Bids Farewell to C-5 Mission

The last C-5A Galaxy assigned to Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing left Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, for good, setting off on a trip into retirement at the Air Force’s aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. “I’m glad it has found its final resting place,” said Lt. Col. Philip Pierce of the wing’s 89th Airlift Squadron, the pilot for the Jan. 31 mission. This C-5, tail number 70-0457, was the last of the wing’s 10 C-5s to depart to make room for the nine C-17s that the unit will now operate. The wing flew its last formal C-5 mission, a training sortie, in September and hosted the farewell ceremony for its C-5s in October. The Air Force is now proposing retiring all of its remaining 27 C-5As between Fiscal 2013 and Fiscal 2017 to shed excess strategic airlift capacity. (Wright-Patterson report by Stacy Vaughn)