C-5 departure ends era at Altus Air Force Base

  • Published
  • By Gwen McElwee and Michael Fletcher
  • 97th AMW
ALTUS AFB -- --  An early morning takeoff of a C-5A Galaxy July 20 brought to close 38 years of training C-5 aircrews at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. A West Virginia 167th Airlift Wing Air National Guard aircrew flew the last remaining C-5, tail number 70-0462 to its new home at Martinsburg, Air National Guard Base, West Va.
C-5 training at Altus formally came to a close on June 29 with a symbolic C-5 Fly Away ceremony.
Altus'C-5s were among the first off of the Lockheed Marietta, Ga. assembly line. The first was delivered to the 443rd Military Airlift Wing's reactivated 56th Military Airlift Squadron which became the first operational C-5 flying unit on Dec. 17, 1969. The base was the site of the Military Airlift Command's Airlift Training Center with aircrew training for the C-141 Starlifter, and now the C-5. The 56th later became the 56th Airlift Squadron under the 97th Air Mobility Wing. The Air Force Reserve 433rd Airlift Wing at Lackland AFB, Texas, will continue where the 97th AMW left off, training and providing mission-ready aircrews for the C-5 Galaxy. Altus AFB continues to train aircrews for the KC-135 Stratotanker and the C-17 Globemaster III.
Prior commanders and aircrew joined Altus AFB Airmen June 28 for a farewell dinner inside Hangar 285 with the open nose of the last of the eight Altus C-5s as the centerpiece. Col. (ret.) Gary Baker, commander of the 56th MAW from 1976 - 1977, was a guest speaker and spoke nostalgically about developing aerial refueling procedures for the C-5.
"We literally wrote the tech order for air refueling the C-5 while in the air," Colonel Baker said. "The procedures we developed at Altus AFB 30 years ago are still being used." Past and current aircrews, C-5 maintainers from several bases and guests chalked their names on the side of the C-5 and autographed a cloth drawing of a C-5 in flight.
For 38 years Altus C-5 instructors trained more than 16,000 pilots, navigators and loadmasters for both active duty, guard and reserve units. The Altus C-5s participated in world-wide contingencies to include Southeast Asia, the "7 Day War" in 1973 between Israel and Egypt, Operation Just Cause in 1989, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 - 1991, Operation Provide Comfort I and II 1991 - 1992, Operation Provide Hope to former Soviet Union republics in 1992, Operation Enduring Freedom starting in 2001, Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and current operations support in Southwest Asia. Altus C-5s airlifted several thousand tons of relief supplies and heavy equipment during the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.