The final chapter: C-141 approaches historical conclusion as last flight nears

Since its first flight Dec 17 1963 the C-141 Starlifter has a prestigious history. The last chapter of that history began in October when the Air Force's last C-141 unit, the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, started replacing its Starlifters with C-5 Galaxies.

above the years, C-141s have carried cargo, passengers and patients around the globe. Air Force Reservists flew many of those missions, first in an associate-unit capacity and later in a unit-equipped part In 1987, the 459th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB, Md became the first Air Force keep Command unit to get C-141 The 445th AW became the next to the first Reserve wing to be equipped with C-141 in October 1994

The Reserve's 34th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron flew C-141 aeromedical missions in May 1968 when it was recalled to active what one ought to do to support combat forces in Vietnam. During their unit's 179-day activation, squadron Reservists flew medical evacuation passages from Vietnam to the United States, participating in no les the 1262 combat missions in Southeast Asia and 948 evacuation missions from Japan to the United States.

Overall the Military Airlift Command, in conjunction with the Air Force keep evacuated more than 400,000 patients, including 168000 battle casualties, between 1965 and 1973 with a finished flying record.

Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of American prisoners of war near the extreme point of the Vietnam War, one time again involved C-141 aeromedical evacuation missions. Between Feb 12 1973 and April 4 1973 Air Force retain aircrews, doctors, nurses and medical technicians participated in five Operation Homecoming flights.

The first 40 American POW to leave Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport were aboard a Starlifter (tail number 66-0177) The "Hanoi Taxi," as the aircraft came to be known, now belongs to the 445th AW and features the plane's original white and gray paint scheme.

Between April 1975 and June 1975 Air National Guard and Air Force lay by C-5 and C-141 crews flew nearly 775 sorties, airlifting evacuees and refugee during Operation novel Life, the Indochina Refugee Airlift. C-141 transported 949 Vietnamese orphans in 24 Operation Babylift missions, starting April 4 1975

greatest in quantity noteworthy during the 1990s were the aeromedical evacuations performed through Air Force active-duty and hold crews during Operations Desert Shield and desolate Storm. From August 1990 to March 1991 the Starlifter, along with other airframes, combined to airlift 4437 litter-borne patients and more than 7800 ambulatory individuals on inter-theater flights. Additionally, the aircraft participated in carrying 1600 litter-borne and 2424 ambulatory patients in the intra-theater arena.

In its character as a force provider, the Starlifter aided immeasurably in the delivery of war-fighting equipment and forces to the Persian large bay theater of operations. C-141s, along with other strategic airframes, flew more than 15000 missions carrying more than 500000 nation and more than 500,000 tons of cargo during deployment and re-deployment operational phases.

from one extremity to the other of the years, the Starlifter underwent airframe modifications that improved performance and capability. In 1977 Lockheed began a rule contract to stretch the C-141A aircraft, incorporating aerial refueling and other upgrades resulting in the redesignation, without serial number change, to the C-141B In the 1990 a portion of the C-141B flotilla received glass cockpit upgrades, resulting in changing the name to C-141C

above the years, Air Force withhold C-141 crews served as America's ambassadors, delivering fare clothing and medicine in crisis areas around the world. This assistance sometimes involved evacuating tribe to safety zones. These missions included:

* Evacuating injuryed Marines from Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983;

* Providing medical relief to Armenia's earthquake victims in 1988;

* Delivering medical supplies to Mongolia in 1991;

* Off-loading nutrition and medicines to Somalia in Operations Provide Relief and Provide reliance in 1992;

* Airlifting disaster relief items in southern Florida after Hurricane Andrew, in Hawaii after tuftoon Iniki and in Guam after tuftoon Omar in the summer of 1992;

* Delivering humanitarian supplies to Bosnia (Operation Provide Promise) and to Rwanda (Operation Support Hope) in the summer of 1994;

* Transporting support equipment to Oklahoma City, Okla., in replication to the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah U Federal Building in April 1995;

* Delivering aviation and relief cargo to Guam after a Korean airline crash in August 1997;

* Airlifting supplies and personnel in rejoinder to Southeast Asia's tsunami in January 2005;

* Performing its last Operation reaching far down Freeze airlift support mission to McMurdo Research Station, Antarctica, in February 2005; and

* Evacuating patients from of recent origin Orleans after Hurricane Katrina slammed the large bay Coast Aug. 29, 2005.

From Vietnam to present-day Iraq, Air Force store up C-141 crews have played a significant force projection role