BARNES AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, WESTFIELD, Mass. -- BARNES AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, WESTFIELD, Mass. - The 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard will conduct night training flights from Monday, Dec. 11, 2017 through, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. Area residents will see and hear F-15C aircraft taking off and landing until about 9:00 p.m. during this period.
The missions will launch from Barnes-Westfield Regional Airport in Westfield, Mass. F-15C Eagle Pilots and maintenance personnel are required to conduct night operations as a part of their overall readiness training.
“We appreciate our community and their continuous support of the 104th Fighter Wing’s mission,” said Col. James Suhr, 104th Fighter Wing Commander. “We want to ensure the community understands how important night currency is in protecting our nation both home and abroad.”
The pilots will be training on both critical homeland defense and overseas wartime aviation skills.
“Our Homeland Defense mission is a 24-hour mission, and as such, we need to be trained and ready to respond both during the day as well during the night at a moment’s notice,” said Maj. Brett Vanderpas of the 104th Fighter Wing Operations Group.
We would appreciate your help in sharing this news, to help alleviate the local residents from being alarmed. With our 24/7 alert posture, our Airmen could respond to an airborne threat at any time protecting one-quarter of the nation's population and over one-third of its Gross Domestic Product.
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The 104th Fighter Wing provides highly trained personnel ready to provide Air Superiority on demand anywhere in the world with 21 assigned F-15C Eagle Aircraft. The 104th also sits 24/7 Aerospace Control Alert, providing armed F-15 fighters ready to scramble in a moment's notice to protect the northeast United States from any airborne threat protecting one-quarter of the nation's population and over one-third of the Gross Domestic Product. The Wing is always on call to provide emergency response to include security, logistics, communications, explosive ordnance disposal, firefighting, and medical support to the nation and Commonwealth of Massachusetts.