Planes from all four branches of the military, NASA, and the US Forest Service
Posted on 02/18/2019 2:07:54 PM PST by jazusamo
TUCSON, Ariz. -- It's nicknamed the Boneyard. It sits on 2,600 acres of desert land, with more than 3,000 military aircraft on the Air Force’s Davis-Monthan Base. It's more than a retirement home for planes from all four branches of the military, NASA, and the U.S. Forest Service. It's a sort of memorial with multiple uses. Many of the planes are scrapped for parts and some completely refurbished.
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) is the only place in the country authorized to store military-grade planes.
“We’re looked at as a national air power reservoir…How do you make sure that what you’re keeping there is what’s of value to the service,” said Col. Jennifer Barnard, commander of the 309th AMARG. “So, there’s a really rigorous process by which it’s determined the assets should be stored here and what needs to come out of here, as well.”
The staff at AMARG call themselves the “boneyard wranglers.” There’s just under 700 of them on base and Barnard is in charge of the whole operation, which includes demilitarizing and recycling, along with restoring the fighter jets, planes, and helicopters.
“There’s so much great use that happens,” Barnard said. “Because we’re behind a fence and we’re an active military installation...people perceive there to be a great amount of mystery about what happens here. Getting to be the commander of this place, I see there’s a lot of amazing things that happen here. We’re able to reutilize as many assets as possible out of here and nothing goes to waste.”
Some of the aircraft are reclaimed and refurbished as part of projects for the U.S. military or are sent abroad — then are sent back ready to fly again.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Planes from all four branches of the military, NASA, and the US Forest Service
In the Boneyard is one of the planes that carried JFK when he was president.
And when its number comes up, an a/c goes across the road to one of the scrappers...
Thanks, that’s a great pic giving perspective of the place.
Just imagine the billions of dollars paid out for those planes when new.
Best way to understand its size is to look it up on google earth, or similar programs.
CC
I wouldn’t mind taking a refurbished F4 off their hands.
Why, it’s only taking up space there...
Yep, there’s a fortune in aluminum sitting there.
Wow.
Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!
this is impressive...reminds me of the picture one of my shipmates sent me of the area where all the reactor compartments for all the decommed subs are
There’s at least one KC-135 should have never been in the boneyard. Ted Kennedy came to Wright Patterson in the 2005 timeframe. I wondered why is this POS here. At the time I was supporting a KC-135 SatCom flying testbed that had a very recent digital cockpit upgrade and had some very unique capabilities. He got it sent to the boneyard. Seems a certain Massachusetts Laboratory didn’t like having to interface with Wright Patterson because they wanted their own plane. Most galling, they tried to strip certain unique parts off that bird to be supplied to the lab after the fact. One wonders where General “Speedy” Martin is today, the one traitor Ted visited at WPAFB that day.
I grew up in Tucson and remember sneaking into this place to play in the late sixties and early 70s. Completely awesome. Tucson was a great place to grow up for plane buffs. All the U2 flights going over our house. They did some flight testing of the 747 there too. I was stunned that something that big could fly.
If you read my last comment, how ironic is that.
"Yeah, could you get me the 737 in Aisle 6, Row 18 of Plot 9, County 101 ... and make it snappy."
Yes, ironic.
I remember that scene from the movie “Can’t Buy Me Love”.
That was a really cute girls too.
There were 109 aircraft carriers in the Pacific at the end of WW2.(Albeit, most were smaller escort carriers)
In 2004, Martin was nominated to succeed Admiral Thomas B. Fargo as combatant commander of U.S. Pacific Command, the first non-Navy nominee for this prestigious post. However, he suffered collateral damage from the Darleen Druyun procurement scandal. During his October 6 confirmation hearing for the Pacific Command post before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain asked how Druyun’s deceit had gone unnoticed. Martin, who had worked closely with Druyun in 1998-99 while he held the position of Principal Deputy in acquisition said in response “I’m not an expert in contracting,” and “I saw nothing that she was doing that was inappropriate or in any way illegal, and if I had, I would have immediately raised a Red Flag!.” McCain replied, “Now I question whether you have the quality to command”. McCain called the Boeing deal “a national disgrace”, and vowed to hold Martin’s nomination in the Senate Armed Services Committee “until we get all of the e-mails and all of the answers.” Committee Chairman John W. Warner supported McCain, and Martin withdrew his name the same day and returned to his duties as the Commander of the Air Force Materiel Command until his scheduled retirement in August 2005. Seven months later, Senator McCain completed his review of the e-mails and there were no indications that General Martin had any knowledge of Druyun’s improprieties. Prior to this setback, Martin had been considered the likely successor to Air Force Chief of Staff John P. Jumper. Martin retired from the Air Force on September 1, 2005. He is currently a chair of the National Academies Air Force Studies Board, has served as an unaligned advisor to John Edwards’ presidential campaign, is on the advisory board of a consultancy firm The Four Star Group, is board member and retired chairman of the Durango Group, and has served in other Pentagon capacities and been a consultant to “many defense sector firms.”
I think of all the long hours spent by the men who crewed those aircraft.
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