Combat Talons Retired

Posted 25 April 2013

TAGS:

Photo by Samuel King, Jr.

The US Air Force's last four MC-130E Combat Talon I Special Operations aircraft were flown on a final training mission from Duke Field, Florida, on 15 April 2013. The Talons, assigned to the 919th Special Operations Squadron, the Air Force Reserve Command unit at Duke Field, were officially retired in ceremonies on 25 April and then flown to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. The 25 April date marked the thirty-third anniversary of Desert One, the attempt to free American hostages held in Iran. Several MC-130Es that were flown on that mission were later assigned to Duke Field. The MC-130E was first flown operationally in 1966 and took part in every major US conflict since.

Comments

U-2 Articles
U-2 News
U-2 Video
U-2 Photos

View All Articles

U-2 Anniversary
7/16/2015
For sixty years, the U-2 Dragon Lady has been America's eyes, ears, and nose in the sky. Code One looks back at the U-2 program on the anniversary of its first flight.

U-2 Pilot Describes Earliest Missions
4/30/2015
Vito’s mission took him directly over Moscow and its extensive network of newly built air defenses, which ringed the city in three concentric circles at twenty, forty, and sixty miles from the city center.

Today's U-2 Fleet
9/14/2014
The end of U-2 production in 1989 marked the beginning of a host of evolutionary upgrades.

U-2 Factoids
9/13/2014
Facts, figures, and other essential details about the U-2 Dragon Lady.

Interview With U-2 Stats Keeper
9/12/2014
Reliability maintainability, and supportability lead engineer, tracks statistics for the U-2 program.

U-2 Life Support In Palmdale
9/8/2014
Mark Schroeder has had the responsibility of prepping, maintaining, testing, and inspecting survival equipment for U-2 missions.

U-2 Early History
2/15/2002
The U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, though designed and developed in great secrecy in the 1950s, has somehow never fully emerged from the shadows even though it has outlasted one successor, the SR-71 Blackbird.

View All News