While the sound of aircraft roared overhead Tuesday, instead of looking to the skies, a crowd of more than 200 people at Columbus Air Force Base had their eyes focused on one jet stationed in a hangar.
The final T-1 Jayhawk, with a fuselage covered in the signatures and send-off messages from current and former airmen, community members and public officials, was stationed before making its final takeoff.
“(Today is) about the T-1, but behind the T-1 is the people,” Eddie Altizer, 48th Flying Training Squad commander, said during the event. “… I know this is more than just an airplane to y’all. This is a legacy. This is your bloodline, and y’all live that every day.”
The T-1 Jayhawk, which first arrived at the base in 1996, has been one of the primary aircraft for training nearly 5,500 pilots that have come through the base over the last 30 years. As a part of updated training, CAFB has been transitioning the jets off base over the last year to welcome in T-7A Red Hawks, which are expected to be on base by 2027, said Col. James Blech, commander for the 14th Flying Training Wing.
“We actually initially bought this airplane to offload some of the hours we were flying on our T-38s, which we’re still flying out here,” Blech said. “… We’re sad to see it go, but it is an indicator of a new generation.”
The pivot toward the T-7 Red Hawks will ensure pilots are getting more modern and effective combat training than they were on the T-1 Jayhawks, Blech said.
“It’s not just a fast jet trainer that’s going to train our fighter and bomber pilots, but it’s also one that’s going to train our mobility pilots, and it’s going to teach them how to use some of the advanced systems,” Blech said. “… It just gets them more used to operating in that type of system. … We still have to teach people how to land. We still have got to teach them how to fly low levels and in formation. But in the T-7, it’s going to be doing it in a way that is more directly applicable to combat.”
As part of the send off Tuesday, Blech performed the final flight on the last T-1 Jayhawk from Columbus to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
“(It is going) to the proverbial boneyard to be preserved in the deserts of Arizona,” Blech said. “And it will rest there until it’s ever needed again.”
Blech said taking the last flight was an honor, one he viewed as a full-circle moment.
“(I am) super stoked that I get to take the last one out,” Blech said. “Twenty-one years ago, I got my wings flying the T-1 out at Laughlin Air Force Base. And so it marks … kind of a capstone to my flying career (and is) a pinnacle flying assignment here as the wing commander.”
John Goff, maintenance supervisor at CAFB, was an aircraft mechanic when the initial T-1 Jayhawks were brought to the base in 1996. While he said Tuesday was “bittersweet,” Goff said it felt right for him to be the one to help taxi the plane out for its final flight.
“I’ve been giving it some thought for the last few days and … seeing that last one leave after everything that’s been done (is challenging),” Goff said. “… It’s a great aircraft for what it was made to do. I get the privilege of marshaling the last one out, and that’s a privilege I take for all the guys that I’ve worked with here for years.”
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