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President’s Corner 1-2 Reunion News 7

F-117 Static Display 3 F-117 Archive 8

Operation Desert Shield 4-6 Join The SFA 9

Volume 12 Issue 3

Winter 2015

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Inside This Issue

Stealth Fighter Association Newsletter

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and

Happy Holiday Season with the opportunity to

spend time and make memories with those closest to

you. Thanks to the internet and social media, we

got to see many friends as they celebrated with fami-

ly.

During this time between Christmas and the New

Year, the media has annual reviews of the year and

it always surprises me how many leaders and celeb-

rities we lose each year. It causes me to take time

to remember the friends and relatives that I have lost

over the year. Unfortunately, a few of our stealth family are no longer with us. I

am not raising this issue to bum anyone out but I certainly would like to point out a

couple of things as they relate to the SFA and our upcoming reunion. For most peo-

ple, family comes first but next is usually close friends, and none are closer than

those with whom we share a common history, mission, and lifestyle. Our families

are also linked by similar challenges and a common frame of reference.

The F-117 program was not just a unique military mission and organization, the se-

curity and national importance surrounding the program bound us all (including the

contractor team) much closer than most programs and the camaraderie has flowed

across all generations. The further I get from my military days as well as my days

in the F-117, the more I gravitate to that group of friends and look forward to getting

together.

The SFA has agreed on a date for the next reunion and even though it is about 18

months away, we hope that you block-off your calendar and plan to come to Vegas

to catch up with old friends or make new ones from a different generation of the pro-

gram. We will be officially announcing the specifics of the reunion through a

“Save the Date” notification within the next couple of months, but unofficially,

please plan to attend the 35th F-117 SFA Reunion on 23-25 June 2017 at the Sun-

President’s Corner

SFA Board of Directors

2012-2017

Andy Papp, President

Lou Gum, Vice President

Mary Burris, Secretary/Treasurer

Kent Burns, Board Member

Greg Meland, Board Member

Nighthawk Newsletter Team Editor: Greg Meland

Web Site: Dave Walker Graphics: Dave Walker

Newsletter: f117sfa@gmail.com Contact us

F-117 Stealth Fighter Association PO Box 151196

Ft Worth, TX 76108-1196

Web: www.f117sfa.org Info: f117sfa@gmail.com

President’s Corner (continues from previous page)

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 2

coast Hotel and Casino.

The “Save the Date” and future mailings will have more information, but the board has visited the hotel

and we think this will be an outstanding venue. The board, led by the expertise of Tnle McCloskey, is

busy putting together the specifics of the reunion and we’ll keep pressing with that but I would like to in-

vite (request) anyone that would like to help us, to please let a board member know. Some of the places

we could use some help are welcome table, membership, hospitality suite, golf tournament, events plans,

etc.. Please let one of us know if you can help and what you’d like to do.

Finally, as we approach what I think will be a great event in 18 months, please contact your friends that

may not have stayed connected. Let’s make this the best reunion yet…a tough challenge…but doable!

I wish all of you and your families a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2016!

Andy

Andy Papp

President, SFA

25 Years Ago...

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 3

F-117 Display for the Soviet Union’s First Deputy Minister of Defense

Oct 3, 1990

During six days in October 1990, the Soviet Union’s first deputy minister of defense, Gen Mikhail Moiseyev

toured several United States military units from all four services and traveled to New York, Michigan, South

Dakota, California and Colorado. General Moiseyev was also the Chief of the Soviet General Staff, a rank-

ing equivalent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The General was escorted on his tour by General

Colin Powell, (CJCS).

“It’s been my great pleasure to host General Moiseyev on his first visit to the United States,” General Powell

said. “We’ve tried to fill every hour with new sights and new sounds which would give General Moiseyev

an understanding and appreciation not only of the armed forces of the U.S., but as well the people of the

U.S., what we’re about, what we’re like.” One stop on the visit was Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota and in-

cluded a static display of several of the USAF frontline aircraft including the F-117A.

25 Years Ago...

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 4

Chronology of Events

OPERATION DESERT SHIELD

Special Study 37FW/HO-91-1

Compiled by Harold P. Myers, SMSgt (Ret), Historian

Revised and Edited by Vincent C. Breslin, SMSgt, USAF Historian 9 Jan 1992

October 1990

1 Oct The 1880th Communications

Squadron became a TAC unit and

joined the 37 TFW as the 37th

Communications Squadron.

3 Oct Colonel Whitley initiated

Sneaky Sultan I, a limited oper-

ational readiness excerise, to

challenge the 37 TFW’s response

capability.

3 Oct His Royal Highness, Prince

Sultan Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Sau-

di Defense Minister, conferred

with Colonel Whitley and viewed

an F-117A static display.

18 Oct Colonel Whitley returned

to the Tonopah Test Range to

requalify in the F-117A. The

Deputy Commander for Operations,

Col Klaus J. Klause, assumed

command over the deployed forc-

es.

November 1990

12 Nov Colonel Klause initiated Sneaky Sultan II, an exercise to test the

wing’s ability to recall and generate aircraft on short notice to support

D-day planned operations.

15-18 Nov The 37 TFW flew thirty-two sorties for Imminent Thunder, a six

day joint and combined exercise that enhanced warfare skills. Headquar-

ters, Central Air Forces tasked coalition air forces to attack a simulat-

ed “mirror image” of Kuwait and Southeast Iraq.

December 1990

3 Dec At 1903 hours, the 416 TFS Commander, Lt Col Gregory T. Gonyea,

25 Years Ago...

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 5

took off from Langley AFB, Virginia, leading an element of six F-117As to

King Khalid Air Base. Another six sircraft left 30 minutes later, fol-

lowed by two successive groups of four on 30 minute intervals. Colonel

Whitley flew with the third group on his return journey to Saudi. The

entire group of 20 F-117As arrived in Saudi on the following day.

5 Dec Central Air Forces underwent an internal restructure resulting in

the creation of the 14th and 15th Air Divisions. The Command assigned

the 37 TFW to the 14th Air Division.

11 Dec Team Stealth received a “how goes it” visit from Lt Gen Charles A.

Horner, the Commander, Central Air Forces.

14 Dec Representative Dave McCurdy (D-Oklahoma), accompanied by Brig Gen

Buster Glossen, 14th Air Division (Prov) Commander, visited the 37 TFW.

20 Dec To standardize and stabilize organizational structure, Central Air

Forces redesignated all wings as provisional units. Thus, the 37 TFW de-

ployed became the 37 TFWP (Provisional). The Command also established

provisional combat support groups under each wing.

21 Dec Headquarters, Cetral Air Forces initiated Threat Condition Charlie

to heighten the command’s security posture during the Christmas holiday

period.

23 Dec Colo-

nel Whitley

initiated

Sneaky Sul-

tan III to

evaluate the

wing’s abil-

ity to ac-

complish

taskings

outlined in

the D-Day

air tasking

order.

Continued from Page 4

25 Years Ago...

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 6

OPERATION DESERT SHIELD (continued from last newsletter)

History of the 37th FW 5 Oct 1989 – 31 Dec 1991 Volume I

By Vincent C. Breslin, SMSgt, USAF

Historian

22 May 1992

On 29 November, the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorizing

the use of force against Iraq if Iraqi forces failed to withdraw fro Ku-

wait by 15 January 1991. President Bush called the UN resolution ‘a

strong and powerful message’ to Iraq that shows the world is ‘deadly se-

rious.’ The next day, the President demonstrated just how serious he was

as he called for the deployment of 300 additional combat aircraft

(including F-117A Stealth Fighters), bringing the total US air strength

to 1,00 aircraft in the Persian Gulf area.

Beginning on 5 December, Headquarters CENTAF underwent an internal re-

structure resulting in the creation of the 14th and 15th Air Divisions

Provisional (ADP). The Command assigned the 37 TFW to the 14 ADP and on

20 December redesignated the wing as the 37 TFWP (Provisional). CENTAF

also established provisional combat support groups under each wing in the

Command.

On 24 December, the wing stood down to observe the Christmas holidays,

with the exception of 10 aircraft and pilots standing alert duty. On 26

December, both Stealth squadrons resumed flying operations on a daily ba-

sis through the end of the year. The calendar year ended with the wing

having flown 1,366 sorties and 2,664.8 hours in support of Operation DE-

SERT SHIELD.

Please see the original document for citations and references. Opera-

tion DESERT STORM will be covered in the next newsletter.

Reunion News

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3 Page 7

Start making your plans now for the Stealth Fighter Association’s reunion celebrating

35 years of the Nighthawk

June 23—25, 2017

F-117 Archives

Page 8 V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3

Dec 1, 1977 - XST-1 (Have Blue # 1001) made it's first flight with Lockheed chief test pilot Bill Park at

the controls.

Nov 16, 1978 - Lockheed signed the contract with the US Air Force to build five full scale development

stealth fighter aircraft.

Oct 15, 1979 - The 4450th Tactical Group (A Unit) was activated at Nellis AFB, Tonopah Test Range, NV

with Col Robert A. Jackson as the commander. The Group was assigned to HQ Tactical Air Command.

Dec 18, 1981 - Aircraft 79-782 made its first flight.

Oct 28, 1983 - The 4450th Tactical Group achieved limited IOC with 10 aircraft on hand in the 4450th

Test Squadron.

Dec 14, 1985 - Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger traveled to the United Kingdom and briefed Prime

Minister Margaret Thatcher on the F-117 program.

Nov 10, 1988 - The Pentagon announced the existence of the F-117A and released the first photo.

Dec 20, 1989 - Six F-117 aircraft deployed to support operation Just Cause. This was the first combat use

of the F-117.

Nov 19, 1997 - Six F-117s and 220 support personnel were deployed to Al Jabr, Air Base, Kuwait in sup-

port of Operation Souther Watch.

Oct 24, 2004 - President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush visited the 49FW on a brief stop to

campaign at a local Alamogordo NM high school.

Nov 14, 2005 - Aircraft 782 made it's final flight from Palmdale, CA to Holloman AFB, NM where it was

scheduled to become a maintenance trainer.

http://www.f117sfa.org

Web Site Info

Join The Stealth Fighter Association

Page 9

For those folks reading this

Newsletter who are not current

members of the SFA, membership is

open to all personnel, civilian or

military, who at some time in their

career were associated with the F-117

Stealth Fighter Aircraft program.

Additional info is available on the

SFA web site, and hard copies of this

newsletter are available for mailing to

interested folks. Please ask a member

or drop a line to:

Stealth Fighter Association PO Box 151196

Ft Worth, TX 76108-1196

V O L U M E 1 2 I SS U E 3

Stealth Fighter Association Mission

Statement

The Stealth Fighter Association is an

affiliation of individuals brought to-

gether by the common bond of asso-

ciation with the world’s first stealth

fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-117,

produced by the Lockheed Martin

Skunk Works for the United States

Air Force. Our mission is to preserve

the memory of our struggles to attain

a stealth combat capability second to

none, maintain the legacy of the F-

117 “Nighthawk,” maintain the

bonds of brother and sisterhood be-

tween those who contributed to make

the awesome combat capability of

stealth a reality, and act as a govern-

ing board to oversee the planning and

execution of periodic reunions at ei-

ther five or ten year cycles.

If anyone of you out there have experience and would like to volunteer to help out with the web site,

please let me know via email (f117sfa@gmail.com). Also, let us know if you would like see any-

thing particular on the web site.

You can reach us at: f117sfa@gmail.com