Rob Raine, the chief public affairs person at AMARG, gave us a rather animated safety briefing on Tuesday evening at the Radisson Hotel near Tucson International Airport, complete with a closing slide showing a jackrabbit with blood red fangs, as a gag. Rob was nowhere near this animated at our briefing in 2005. The only airplane that they requested we not photograph, were some B-1s, that were being fitted with sniper pods. Everything else was fair game.

The schedule went like this: On Wednesday we were to go out to AMARG and check out the ramps, then go to lunch. Afterwards we would then explore the storage areas where the Phantoms were. Thursday’s plan was to go out to one of the Davis-Monthan EORs to watch A-10s, then return to the ramp for the group shot in front of a QF-4 drone. Each day we also were allowed out to the base’s airpark, containing a pretty good handful of restored jets, including an F-4B being passed off as an F-4C! Our bonus was that we were able to see two separate RF-4C launches - one from an ex-Bergstrom aircraft, the other an ex-Zweibrucken aircraft. RF-4Cs are the photo recon version of the Phantom. As you can imagine though, schedules and timing do not always go 100% according to plan. Wednesday morning we were split into two busses, one went to go see the RF-4C launch, while the other group went to one of the storage areas. Well I was lucky enough to be sitting near the front of the bus that went to the launch. We got there just in the nick of time to see the plane takeoff, however that also meant anyone sitting in the back of the bus was not able to get off the bus soon enough, and lift their cameras in time to get photos, so only about the first twelve of us off the bus were able to get the shot. Imagine the wrath of those Phantom Phans! Another plan was to get us all back out on the final processing ramp where we saw that RF-4C start up and taxi out. This ramp also had eleven other Phantoms, just begging to be photographed. One bus did make it back to the ramp, however, the second group was not so lucky - we got instead what amounted to be an extended Pima bus tour, staying out amongst AMARG relics, most of which were NOT Phantoms, to the chagrin of most. We would’ve all gladly traded that in order to get back to some Phantom drones on the ramp. Later on, we were allowed to walk through the “SLEP” hangar, which was interesting, too.

On Thursday, we were out on the Davis-Monthan EOR, watching A-10s and after about 90 minutes, we then got together for the group photo, and were greeted by someone playing the “Spook” character, complete with a middle finger (in good fun) as he walked up to take his place in the photo. Just after taking the group photo, we saw the second of two RF-4C launches. This time everyone got the shot.

For those of you who have not driven by AMARG recently, or haven’t taken the Pima Air Museum’s bus tour, I recommend you do so, soon. The number of F-4 Phantoms is dwindling rapidly. At the rate they are going, I would not be surprised if they are all gone in the next 10 years. The Air Force is already beginning to look at the F-16 as the next FSAT, or Full Scale Aerial Target. Most of the Navy and Marine Corps birds are now gone, or moved to areas where the tours do not go. Only a handful of F-14 Tomcats remain as well. I would estimate the number of Phantoms left to be under three hundred airframes. That’s half of what it was in 2005! If you are familiar at all with the base, and you’ve gone over to Kolb Road and the facility’s eastern perimeter, you’ll know that up to about the fall of 2005, that area, known as storage Area 10, was completely full of F-4 Phantoms, F-14 Tomcats, and A-10s, with a splash of C-130s and KC-135s behind that. Well, now that area only has a few rows of C-130s and a fraction of the green A-10s.

The Phantoms are gone, as are the Tomcats. Scrapped! All of them. Most of the remaining Phantoms are now in Area 7, which is just around the corner from Celebrity Row.

Hopefully in 2009, the group will go to Holloman AFB and the priority will be placed on photographing Phantoms, (at least more than what we got in 2008), not socializing, going to officer’s clubs, etc etc. Otherwise what’s the point in having people shell out $150 for fees and then shell out even more on travel from such far distances as both coasts or even the UK and Europe?