Last Dyess C-130H Deployment Ends

Photo by A1C Peter Thompson

Crews from the 317th Airlift Group at Dyess AFB, Texas, completed more than 3,000 consecutive days of C-130H deployments on 20 May 2012, as the last deployed H-model crew returned to the base in Abilene. The aircraft (Air Force serial number 63-1598) had been used for combat delivery and humanitarian relief missions in Southwest Asia during the last deployment. C-130H crews from the 317th AG had been continuously deployed since 20 December 2003. During that time crews had carried out passenger and cargo lift, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and medical air evacuation missions. In addition, 317th AG crews dropped more than 20 million combat leaflets during psychological warfare missions. Dyess crews are now deploying in their group’s new C-130Js.