With the Green Mountain Boys over New Hampshire!

October 4, 2006 was a beautiful day for flying over New Hampshire! With the sun shining and the foliage at its peak, this was going to be a gorgeous autumn day in New England. The idea of capturing on film in the air two specific F-16s as shown on the above photo came to me during the 60th anniversary air show and celebration in Burlington, VT. After having the pleasure of designing a special tail flash for a/c 1275 to commemorate the unit's 60th anniversary, I was kind of hoping to get an opportunity to do some air-to-air photos of that particular jet. During the air show weekend, I did pitch the idea for the shoot with the Wing Commander and a few other officers. The idea was well received and support was granted for the project. Since the 158th FW was about to deploy to Pease for a period of time due to runway resurfacing at home, the timing seemed pretty good. Pease ANGB is home for the 157th ARW and its KC-135R from the New Hampshire ANG. Second step in this plan called for tanker support to refuel the 158th FW's commander aircraft and the 60th anniversary jet. Since it had been a few years since my last visit to the 157th ARW, the PAO from the 158th kindly made preliminary contact for support from the 157th ARW's PAO.

At this point, the shooting plan was to get both 1275, the anniversary jet, and 0403, the 158th's flagship, both in the air with the KC-135R. Planning something like this took a lot of coordination between both wings and great efforts were done by many so the mission would be a success for everyone. Date was set for October 4! When I showed up on base in the morning, weather over Pease ANGB was great and things were looking good for the flight later that afternoon. Our two F-16s were Code One and unless something went wrong during the launch, it was gonna be another great day for flying and shooting (with a camera, that is!).

After meeting earlier with POCs from both units and attending a briefing with the 134th FS commander, it was time to get briefed by the tanker crew about safety aboard and get some specifics on the flight. Our Take off time was 15:00 local and we were heading in AR 631 and Lazer South over New Hampshire. The 158th FW launched not two but six jets that afternoon and all six were going to get fuel! When our refueling altitude of 22,000 feet was reached, the waiting game for the receivers began. Was not long before the first cell of four F-16s showed up behind the tanker. A few shots taken and already they were positioning themselves for receiving fuel. After all four jets got their needed few thousand pounds of fuel each, they broke away to continue their training mission. The excitement level rose one notch when our two featured subjects formed behind the tanker. With the aircrafts in communication with each other, request were made for the receivers to position differently according to the sun, both behind and on the side of the KC-135R. As usual during such flight, things went pretty quick and soon, the shoot was over. Both F-16s returned to Pease for recovery followed by the tanker. At 17:00, we're back at our parking spot on the ramp.

Overall, the mission was a success and it was exciting to get those two jets on film! I hope you will enjoy this selection posted on this page!

Special thanks to "Baz", "Bunker", "Duck", Brad and Lloyd from the 158th FW, Sherri and the crew of "Pack 11" from the 157th ARW.