FReeper Canteen ~ Road Trip: Luke Air Force Base, Arizona ~ 27 March 2018

laurenmarlowe and the Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

 

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~

Road Trip: Luke Air Force Base, Arizona

Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located seven miles west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, Arizona. It is also about 15 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona. Luke AFB is a major training base of the Air Education and Training Command, training pilots in the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

The 56th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Luke. It is part of Air Education and Training Command. The wing is composed of four groups of 27 squadrons, including eight fighter squadrons. There are several tenant units on base, including the 944th Fighter Wing, assigned to 10th Air Force and the Air Force Reserve.

The base population includes about 7,500 military members and 15,000 family members. With about 80,000 retired military members living in greater Phoenix, the base services a total population of more than 100,000.

The mission at Luke Air Force Base is to train the world's greatest F-16 fighter pilots and maintainers, while deploying mission ready warfighters. The 56th Fighter Wing, one of the most highly decorated aviation units in history, traced its history to the 56th Pursuit Group which first activated Jan. 15, 1941, at Savannah Air Base, Georgia.

Today, the 56th Fighter Wing, a unit which historically has proven to have fighter pilots second to none, continues a mission that has been identified with Luke AFB since 1941: "Training Fighter Pilots Second to None."

The F-16 is the world's premier multi-role fighter; the product of high-end technology and inputs from fighter pilots the world over. It emphasizes flight performance--range, speed, payload, endurance and maneuverability--in the heart of the flight envelope where air combat occurs.

The F-16 introduced many very successful technologies, such as fly-by-wire and relaxed static stability, which gives it a quantum leap in capability over other fighters and still makes it a fierce competitor today.

It has the range, payload, agility, and systems required to reach, locate, and destroy its targets as well as the survivability and sortie rates to return to the fight again and again. 

But the heart of the aircraft lies not in the cold hard metal frame or superior technology--it can be found in the everyday men and women that fly this outstanding machine every day. The students who are training to fly one of the world's most advanced and capable aircraft receive some of the most realistic training available at Luke Air Force Base. They go through a structured syllabus totaling over 265 hours of classroom training, 55 hours of simulator and 80 hours of flight time.

Luke Air Force Base trains more than 470 F-16 pilots per year, and takes pride in each one of them. It is a process which develops well trained pilots that will go on to their first operational assignment ready for the fight.

Learn More About Luke Air Force Base Here!

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT~Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. 

Please remember: The Canteen is a place to honor and entertain our troops. The Canteen is family friendly. Let's have fun!

We pray for your continued strength, to be strong in the face of adversity.

We pray for your safety, that you will return to your families and friends soon.

We pray that your hope, courage, and dignity remain unbroken, so that you may show others the way.

God Bless You All ~ Today, Tomorrow and Always

 

 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Today’s problem is that multiple timeclocks all over the state ceased working. The timeclock folks swipe their cards and the clocks keep track of time worked. The ones that didn’t work, but probably ARE recording the time correctly, are waiting to function correctly. We learned from experience NOT to enter time by hand to make the 4p deadline. When the clocks start working again, they “enter” the time hey have stored already and we end up with double entries.

And in my old age I am trying to not pay as close attention and worry about fixing stuff later. I hate this method, but no time and a tired me. LOL!

And yes, bed early with meds.

Hope you get some drying going on soon.

[luvie]

That sounds like a wonderful ceremony for the Vietnam vets and I’m sure they’ll appreciate it! Hope you do have good weather for that. It’d be an icky walk if not.

[radu]

WHOA! Wonder why so many went out at once. That’s not cool.
I hope they work again by morning or things will really be messed up.

Early to bed is a great idea since you might not get much sleep tomorrow night. A cold on top of all this doesn’t help a bit.

No drying out for at least another week. At this point, Sat. is the only day with no chances for rain but that could change between now and then and be wet Sat. too. *sigh*

[radu]

I think it’s wonderful too. I really hope the weather cooperates, just once for a change. But if not, that’s what umbrellas are for.
It’s only a block to City Hall from the American Legion but it’s preferable to do it in the dry.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mooch...only a few more days to get Passover cleaning behind you.

Hope you are done with snow.

[luvie]

Yeah, especially if it’s windy. Umbrellas do better when there’s little wind. LOL!

I don’t know if we do something like that around here or not. It would be a good thing.

[radu]

Yeah, if it’s still windy, it’ll be bad. I so want this to be a nice day for them. To my knowledge this is the first time the DAR has done this. They have other events to honor the military though.

[radu]

Maybe?

[radu]

Maybe?

[radu]

Maybe?

[luvie]

I'll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well. 🤞🏻

[radu]

Thanks!
Got all my appendages - fingers, toes, arms, legs - crossed for luck too. LOL

[luvie]

Well, that should work! LOL!

[radu]

I hope so! Otherwise everything will have cramped up for nothin’. LOL

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Tuesday morning to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.
((HUGS))Good morning, Ladies. Thanks for this morning’s thread, Lauren. How’s it going?

[luvie]

Yup!

I totally forgot about it. LOL!

WoooHOOOOOOO!

Now I’ve gotta go. If I follow my usual pattern, it’ll take at least an hour to go to sleep and I’m running late. See ya for the quiz tomorrow night!

[radu]

LOL! I figured I’d better make the jump while it was there.

Hope you can get to sleep a little quicker than usual tonight.

I’ll be up a while yet. Keeping a close eye on Milda as it looks like egg #2 might be on the way. :-)

Catch ya tomorrow night.

[luvie]

Aww..now you KNOW I have to go look! LOL!

[radu]

Oops! Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it. LOL!

[beachn4fun]

Good morning, Everyone.

Good morning to our

Military, our Allies, and their families.

Thank you, Lauren, for preparing the
Canteen for today’s activities.

Road Trip! Climb aboard.
Sure hope this old jalopy can make it
there and back. heh

Ahh, somewhere warm!!!
I think spring-like temps are finally going
to make an appearance this week.
And wet along with it.

Dropping in to say hi
and catch up on what's been happening in the Canteen.
After four or five days of slacking,
I'm going to try to get back into the gym thing.
So, by the time most of you get up, I'll be gone.

Y'all have a great day.

I'm off...

Please stay.
Grab a cup of joe or tasty tea.
Chat with the military and/or the family they left behind.

The FR Canteen is

Come on in and sit for a while.
There's always plenty of coffee, tea,
pancakes, conversation,
silliness,
and plain old BS

REMEMBER THEM ~ DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT

Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above Honoring those who have served before.