Gathering of Eagles celebrates 42nd anniversay

  • Published
  • By Amy Rollins
  • Skywrighter Staff
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Oh. --  An event celebrating the men and women who helped develop the McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle prompted the arrival of a pair of the fighter jets at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The F-15Cs flew from Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass. in celebration of the Gathering of Eagles, held July 25-27 to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the first flight of the tactical support aircraft. The weekend's privately sponsored events included a first flight celebration, golf tournament, reunion banquet and farewell brunch, based at the Hope Hotel.

About 75 program managers engineers, contracts, logistics and finance employees from the F-15 System Program Office turned out July 25 for a stat ic display with the aircraft and pilots at Base Operations, Bldg. 2, Area A.

Col. Edward Koslow, F-15 System Program manager, said the weekend's events and arrival of the F15s "show we are one big, big family with a lot of pride in this jet. It's an opportunity, spanning the generations. Today, the F-15 that we have is not the same one that was developed 40-plus years ago. We stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us when the (initial) work was done. This is a great chance to gather together the F-15 community and see how far we've come from that initial paper drawing to celebrate this awesome machine. We plan on it being a part of the Air Force inventory for a long time as we augment our fifth-generation fleet and continue the strike role of the F-15E."

Cara Miller, F-15 development system manager responsible for F-15 modernization, said the fly-in was a wonderful event. "This allows everyone that works here at Wright-Patterson AFB that is involved with all of the different modernization efforts that we have ongoing with the F-15 C, D and E models to see the fruition of all of the efforts that they put forward every day. Having the F-15s fly in is a great way for them to be able to see and touch the new capabilities they worked so hard to develop. They can also talk to the pilots and understand the effects the new technologies and new warfighting capabilities have been able to provide for the weapons system and for the pilots and our warfighters."

Master Sgt. Jeremy Snell, F-15 acquisition logistics manager, arrived at Wright-Patterson AFB three months ago from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, after working on the flight lines with F-15s for 18 years.

"Coming to Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and seeing the brain trust of the people who make everything happen as far as modernization is incredible," Snell said. "There are only two of us enlisted maintainers who come here to do this and help keep the maintenance perspective in the forefront as the modernization team develops new capabilities supporting the actual field. We make sure that ease of maintenance isn't forgotten and the F-15 operational maintainers receive proper support."

Flying one of the F-15s to Wright-Patterson AFB for the first time was Lt. Col. Morris Fontenot Jr., 104th Operations Group.

"On behalf of the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base, we are happy to support this event and participate throughout the weekend. We're glad we could put some Air National Guard Massachusetts tails on the runway," Fontenot said.

He spent time greeting Gathering of Eagles participant Bob Gobble of Beavercreek, who worked from 1971 to '92 on the F-15 and has served as a spokesman for the Gathering of Eagles for 11 years.

Gobble said, "This is 50 years of the best airplane that's ever flown."

Fontenot also spoke with Ed Horn of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., who was on hand with his son, Christopher. Horn, 89, was an F-15 consultant and worked at Wright-Patterson AFB for 30 years after serving as a B-26 bomber pilot during World War II and being held as a prisoner of war in Germany and Poland.

Also watching the F-15s come in was Jon Eckert, who lives near Lakeland, Fla. He worked on the F-15 for three years during his 34-year career - his original F-15 assignment was air-to-ground, "when we didn't admit we were going to do air to ground ... we made the airplane into an F-15E," he said.

Eckert has attended every Gathering of Eagles, he said.
 
"Hopefully we'll be able to continue with the young people here and have them continue celebrating how great an airplane it is. It's going to be around for a long time. These guys need to understand where it came from and where it is going," Eckert said.

He added, "So many of these kids have never seen the airplane up close and personal. Today is the way it should be, why they're here."

Nadine Thomas, an F-15 program manager, said, "Watching these planes fly over and come in, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I got goosebumps, got tears, just seeing them. They are such beautiful planes, and when I think about what they do for the defense of our country, what they do for the defense of other countries, it's wonderful to see them."