Posted on 10/14/2018 11:59:51 PM PDT by robowombat
Air Force uncertain how long devastated Tyndall will be closed; F-22s possibly damaged in hurricane
By COREY DICKSTEIN | STARS AND STRIPES
WASHINGTON How long Tyndall Air Force Base will remain closed is unknown after the coastal Florida installation sustained catastrophic damage from Hurricane Michael, which left nearly every building and some aircraft wrecked, service officials said Friday.
While the vast majority of Tyndalls operational aircraft were evacuated from the base before the storm, some aircraft were left in base hangars for maintenance or safety reasons, said Erica Vega, a spokeswoman for the Air Forces Air Combat Command. The extent of the damage to the planes was still unknown Friday, she said, but all of the hangars at the base suffered severe damage.
We anticipate the aircraft parked inside may be damaged as well, but we wont know the extent until our crews can safely enter those hangars and make an assessment, Vega wrote in an email.
Embed code: In Panama City Residents begin to assess the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Michael. For those who evacuated, it means wondering if their homes remain standing.
Many of the planes left behind were F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets, said a defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But the official did not known how many planes were at Tyndall during the Category 4 storm. Some of the fighters, which cost more than $130 million each, were likely damaged in the storm.
Other aircraft left at Tyndall included QF-4 drones, former fighter jets that have been converted into unmanned aircraft to serve as targets for training missions.
Meanwhile, Air Force personnel who rode out the storm at Tyndall, which lies on the Gulf of Mexico just between Panama City and Mexico Beach, were still assessing the storms impact on the base. Among their primary concerns Friday was establishing reliable communications channels with officials outside the Florida Panhandle, an Air Force official at the Pentagon said Friday.
Much of the base was left in tatters, including the housing, Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters in Washington on Friday.
One hundred percent of the housing for that base is uninhabitable, he said, adding Tyndall and the region around it would require assistance for at least weeks.
The cleanup effort began Friday, when a service Red Horse Squadron, an engineering unit, arrived at Tyndall from Hurlburt Field, some 80 miles west of Panama City. The squadron was outfitted with heavy construction equipment.
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Air Force special operators, also from Hurlburt Field, were able to open Tyndalls airfield late Thursday to allow aircraft to deliver needed supplies to the area, an Air Force spokeswoman said Friday.
The Air Force said airmen and their families who evacuated before the storm should remain where they are for the foreseeable future and to retain contact with their chains of command.
Our base took a beating, Col. Brian S. Laidlaw, the commander of Tyndalls 325th Fighter Wing, wrote in a letter to the bases about 3,600 airmen. By now you already know that Tyndall Air Force Base requires extensive cleanup and repairs. I will not recall you and your families until we can guarantee your safety. At this time I cant tell you how long that will take, but Im on it.
Air Force officials preached patience for Tyndall evacuees, asking them to keep an eye on Tyndall and other Air Force social media for updates. Additionally, the Air Forces Personnel Center has established a website where the latest information will be posted at www.afpc.af.mil/Hurricane.
Officials pledged the base would eventually return to normal.
Today is better than yesterday and that is how it is going to continue to be, Laidlaw said Friday in a statement. We will continue to persevere.
By Friday, Hurricane Michael, which tore rapidly across Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia on Thursday, was blamed for at least 11 deaths across the southeastern portion of the United States. Brock Long, the top administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he feared the number of fatalities would continue to climb as first responders reached areas devastated by the storm.
Bottom line, it was one of the most power storms that the countrys seen since 1851, he said Friday during a news conference. And I think that the TV cameras are revealing what that looks like, particularly in the Mexico Beach area, but theres a lot of damage inland.
Some 3,655 National Guard personnel were supporting hurricane relief efforts in Florida and Georgia on Friday, Lengyel said.
The bottom line is the Florida National Guard will be in place as long as it needs to be, the general said. And thats the beauty of the Guard.
Outside Tyndall, most military bases hit by Michael across the Southeast began returning to normal operations by Friday. Tyndalls neighbor to the west, Naval Support Activity Panama City reported damage on the base but appeared to be in better shape than the Air Force post, said Navy Cmdr. Jay Sego, who conducted an assessment of the Navy base just west of Panama City on Thursday.
At first glance, we have many trees down and some structural building damage, he said, adding officials had not determined when it would reopen.
Aircraft evacuated from Tyndall before the storm remained at several bases across the United States on Friday. It remained unclear how long they would stay at those locations in Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.
It also remained unclear how long F-22 pilot training, which is centered at Tyndall, would be suspended. Vega, the Air Combat Command spokeswoman, declined to speculate on the program, but she said the hurricane did not impact the Air Forces immediate combat readiness.
The Air Force remains capable of executing its combat mission across the world with aircraft from other bases, as well as those that were evacuated from Tyndall in advance of the hurricane, she said.
Stars and Stripes reporter Caitlin M. Kenney contributed to this report.
I think it would make sense to relocate everything the Eglin AFB and close Tyndall. I am not a big fan of base closures but they are already very close to each other and it would cost a fortune to rebuild the base.
Saw photos of the base after.....lots of destruction to be sure. Looked like a bad tornado went through the place.
Just based on photos, you can start adding up the funding requirements. You would be talking about 700 million-plus on repairs or complete replacement of buildings. Time to achieve this? Two years?
My guess is that they will fix the runway and hangers...maybe put up a barracks for the aircraft maintainers and some limited support personnel, then move the bulk of support folks over to Eglin.
I’ll even add this comment. It’s only a question of when Eglin gets a major hurricane to come through, and lay it flat as well. All of these installations along the coast make no sense.
It should take them no longer than a week to get things back to order...What about a bombing of an airfield during a war? Building that are wacked...put up tents or something....
I bet it gets closed like Homestead was.
I believe in group punishment
Tyndall should be closed.
and those involved
should be tossed out
Moving things to Moody, vs. Eglin, would seem to make more sense.
“But the official did not known how many planes were at Tyndall during the Category 4 storm.”
If no one kept a record, a lot of folks in the chain of command need to be sacked.
The major problem is that no one thought to make concrete hurricane shelters or hangers for the planes. See the Drive-the war zone for more indepth
Except that Eglin is a major testing base. Real estate on which mil systems can be tested is at a premium in this country these days.
Can you imagine having a missing F-22 on your property sheet?
The air miles distance between Eglin and Tyndall is minimal as far mission requirements for basing aircraft.
“Henderson Field was shelled nightly by the Japanese navy but was always open for business the following day.”
I’m guessing that some physics guy could figure out the amount of energy per shell x 100 shells per hour x 12 hours compared to whatever a hurricane produces.
I imagine it is at a ratio of 1:1,000,000
Of course a military field during wartime just needs some potholes filled to keep the planes moving.
Moving the base to another one would cost about the same. Base housing would need to be built, hangers for the increased aircraft, etc, etc.
Better to rebuild with more hurricane resistant buildings and keep a more dispersed target area.
Bingo.
I was through there on Saturday, and at first my knee jerk reaction was to simply move to join up with Elgin AFB. Then I thought about 2 things;
1) Military bases are huge anchors in local economies
2) Redundancy. It was easier for the Japanese to wipe out our pacific fleet att Pearl Harbor when assets were lumped together.
Back in the day, aircraft would be flown to other bases to avoid any possible loss due to storm damage. I talking about F4 Phantoms. The base commander decided it was ok to let F35 aircraft remain??? Geez, tens of millions for an aircraft that still is working out the kinks!!!!!
I correct myself...F22 aircraft. No difference in my book though.
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