C-141B Retirement Ceremony
9/16/2004
The retirement ceremony of the last two C-141's on
'active duty' took place at McGuire as planned.
On a brighter note, as of 9/20/2004 there are still 20
C-141's flying for the ANG...They are all C-models.
Sixteen are operating out of Wright-Patterson, and four
are at March AFB.
I'm sure a few of these (like 177) will end up in
museums across the country when the final reckoning
comes. A few might not be saved, and will end up here
in Tucson with the others.
The updated list below was provided by John Holder at
Warner Robins. John comments:
"I am the only remaining C-141 Program manager at AFMC.
We at Robins have been managing and maintaining this
aircraft since it came into the inventory. I started at
Robins in 1977 as an aircraft mechanic on the C-141. I
have been involved with the C-141 in some capacity ever
since. I plan on retiring in 2006 when the last C-141
retires. I love the old bird and am going to miss her."
These four tail numbers are at March AFB.
| 65-0229 |
| 65-0248 |
| 65-9414 |
| 66-0152 |
These 16 tail numbers are operating out of Wright Patterson, Ohio.
| 64-0620 |
| 64-0637 |
| 64-0645 |
| 65-0226 |
| 65-0249 |
| 65-0250 |
| 65-0261 |
| 65-9412 |
| 66-0132 |
| 66-0177 The 'Hanoi-Taxi' |
| 66-7950 |
| 66-7953 |
| 66-7954 |
| 66-7959 |
| 67-0031 |
| 67-0166 |
If you are one of the lucky few who are still associated with the C-141 on line missions, it would be great to get some photos of the 'day-to-day' experience. This includes maintenance activities, loading operations, passengers, flying, the places you go, etc. Please put those nice new digital cameras that you convinced your spouse (or significant other) that you could not live without to good use and document the final days of the greatest airlift machine that ever flew.
I have received a few photos of the McGuire wake from
the very helpful Captain Renita Menchion at the McGuire
public affairs office, and William Quiqley who was able
to attend the ceremony. I also took a few "long
distance" photos of 67-0012's approach and landing from
my vantage point about 15 miles due north of DM here in
Tucson (sorry about the fuzziness...my wife won't let
me get that new telephoto lens I need for real first
class spy work!).
The link to these pictures
is here. I have not had time to add any captions to
these photos yet. I hope to get more pictures posted as
they drift in from folks who were at the ceremony. If
you have any, please send them to c141heaven@gmail.com so
we can all see them.
Here's a link to a large set of photos taken by the McGuire Public Affairs office at the retirement ceremony. Thanks to Joe Preiss for submitting this link. At some point I will download these photos to the c141heaven.info site to insure they stay available, as you never know how long the AF will keep them posted.
Derrick Mendenhall was kind enough to send me a copy of
the brochure they handed out at the McGuire Ceremony on
9/16/2004. Here are the links to each page:
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4
In addition, he sent along a poem written by Msgt Bill
Hodges that pretty well sums up the whole idea of C-141
Heaven: Click to read:
More Than
Metal
Please see this link for
an interesting story about one of the last trips of
67-0012, one of the two planes retired on
9/16/2004.
Another one #1, please see this
link for another story on this topic.
Another one #2: please see this
link for another story on this topic.
Another one #3: please see this link for another
story on this topic.
Mike