Pave Low From Son Tay Raid Retires

Pave Low From Son Tay Raid Retires: An Air Force Special Operations Command MH-53 helicopter flew its last combat mission in Iraq March 28 and is being retired after 38 years of service. This particular airframe, tail number 68-10357, has a distinguished past, having been the lead command-and-control platform for the daring raid into North Vietnam in November 1970 to rescue US prisoners of war from the Son Tay prison camp west of Hanoi. Although the raid was a tactical failure because no POWs were found, it was also considered a success because its symbolic significance boosted POW morale and led the North Vietnamese to change the way that they held prisoners. The helicopter, the last of the five MH-53s from the raid still around, will be transported to the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where it will sit on display in the Cold War gallery. The Air Force expects to retire all of its remaining MH-53s by October. (Includes Hurlburt report by TSgt. Kristina Newton)

4/11/2008

Verbatim

Instill Value
“When you get down to our airmen, they are not looking for praise, glory, and accolades. But they are looking for value—value in them as human beings. And to do that, we have to put value in the mission. When the nation, at the leadership level and every American’s level, places value in the mission, they will put value in the people. And that is what I find important to the airmen inside of the world that I live in.”
—Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, during a four-star forum at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2008.

Verbatim

What Does the Nation Expect?
"The question for us is, ‘Should a force that is extremely relevant and in very high demand in this very difficult environment of the global war on terrorism have airplanes that are 30 or 40 years old?'"
—Lt. Gen. Donald Wurster, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, commenting on the command’s aged fleet of gunships and special-mission airlifters and tankers, during a four-star panel discussion at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Sept. 17, 2008.