And the C-5s are also still in use to this day. Use Flight Radar and look around the area of Dover AFB, Ramstein AFB and Mccellan in California. Still carrying cargo every day.
Some old man who read a story in 1972 doesn’t have a clue.
I still go on base from time to time (the BX food court) and talk to pilots at Maxwell AFB. That’s where the Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College are located so the base get almost every O-3, then every O-5 and every O-6 coming thru as part of their professional military education.
As a FReeper who is also a retired Senior Master Sergeant, I get to talk to these kids who are pilots (they can wear their flight suits to class). I always talk to them and ask them what aircraft they fly and do they like it?
F-35 pilots LOVE their planes.
Don’t listen to Sputnik Indian about these things. These USAF pilots are not bullshitting me. You can see the enthusiasm for their aircraft and the fun they have flying it in their eyes and demeanor. Ask the source, not some Russian blog.
IIRC, it saved Israel's butt in the Yom Kippur War delivering M1 tanks to the battlefield.