A seven-hour mission on 12 September 2012, marked the end of HC-130P King personnel recovery tanker operations at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. Squadron and family members greeted the 79th Rescue Squadron crew on the flightline at the base in Tucson after landing. Capt. David Lendhart, a 79th RQS instructor pilot, and Lt. Col. Christopher McCarthy, an instructor with the 563rd Rescue Group and the aircraft commander, were on the flightdeck for the squadron’s last HC-130P flight. The sortie also marked the pair’s fini flights in the US Air Force. The 79th RQS is scheduled to begin operations with the HC-130J Combat King II in October 2012.
