180th FW Deploys to Iraq

Later this month, 220 members of the Ohio Air National Guard's 180th Fighter Wing, its 112th Fighter Squadron will take flight overseas to support ground troops for Operation "Enduring Freedom" in Iraq.

They will be stationed at Balad Air Force Base north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Their last overseas deployment was in 2007. About two dozen members of its security forces will station to Saudi Arabia. Not all members will be taking part in the deployment. There will still be a force of pilots to patrol the local skies as part of their new Homeland Security mission.

180th FW/112th FS Frequencies:

138.0500		AIR TACTICAL
138.1000		AIR TACTICAL
138.4250	V10	AIR TACTICAL
139.6250	V6	AIR TACTICAL
139.7500	V7	AIR TACTICAL
139.9750	V8	AIR TACTICAL
141.6000	V9	AIR TACTICAL
141.7000		AIR TO AIR
141.8750		AIR TACTICAL
143.8500	V1	COMMAND POST "BEEHIVE OPS"
285.4000		TOLEDO TOWER
307.0000	P5	TOLEDO APPROACH/DEPARTURE
317.5500	P4	TOLEDO APPROACH/DEPARTURE
338.9000	P1	COMMAND POST
343.8000	P7	OH ANG
379.2000	P11	CLEVELAND CENTER

180th FW Goes On The Alert

Since that faithful day on Tuesday September 11, 2001 the 127th Fighter Wing based at Selfridge ANGB in Michigan has been on alert status protecting the local skies to identify or intercept unresponsive or threatening aircraft. With the 127th FW transitioning to the A-10 Thunderbolt in accordance with the 2005 BRAC, they will no longer be flying the F-16 by the end of 2008. They have turned the alert mission over to the 180th FW of the Ohio Air National Guard based in Toledo. The offical mission hand off took place on October 2, 2008.

NY Air National Guard's 174th FW Last Manned Flight

When the unit deployed on June 10th for their last combat mission the MAZDA flights were heard taking to the skies on their last manned mission. When the nearly 200 members of New York Air National Guard's storied 174th Fighter Wing landed at Hancock Field last Tuesday from a two month deployment to Iraq, they ended over 60 years of manned flight.

The "Boys from Syracuse" will relinquish their F-16 C/D Fighting Falcons and take on a new mission of piloting the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper remote controlled drone.

179th Airlift Wing Gets A New Mission

The Ohio Air National Guard's 179th Airlift Wing base at the Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport has officially received new orders from the U.S. Air Force. Originally the 179th was to be disbanded as recommended by the 2005 Base Relocation and Closure Act. They will still lose all eight of their C-130 aircraft by 2010. Beginning in 2012 they will start receiving an as yet disclosed number of new C-27J Spartan joint airlift aircraft. During the transition however they will remain active flying the C-21 Learjet. The base was saved from closure with efforts by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and other local leaders working with the Ohio Air National Guard officials.

Further good news is that the 179th could possibly become the formal training wing for the C-27J. In the meantime you can still monitor the 179th on the following frequencies:


119.8000 MANSFIELD TOWER
121.8000 GROUND
122.9500 UNICOM
124.2000 MANSFIELD APPROACH / DEPARTURE
125.3000 ATIS
127.3500 CLEVELAND APPROACH / DEPARTURE
297.5000 HERC COMMAND POST
317.7000 CLEVELAND CENTER
325.8000 TOWER / GROUND
390.8000 APPROACH

Dayton Air Show 2008

The 2008 Vectren Dayton Air Show is underway. Rod Villari reports in with active frequencies and what he heard on Saturday:

124.900  -  Air Boss    This was an interesting choice since it is used
                                        here in Cincinnati. Some of the early  performers
                                        complained that they were picking up CVG when
                                        they were in the air. They never changed frequencies
                                        and I did not hear any more complaints later in the
                                        show. All of the aircraft communicated to Air Show
                                        Control on this  frequency.

                                        Discrete frequencies are listed below:

123.150   -   Aeroshell Aerobatic Team

128.475   -   Collaborators, Sean Tucker

280.800   -   Apache Demo Team

384.55    -   F-16 Demo, Heritage Flight

123.525  -    Starfighters

376.025  -   Heard the F-22 Raptor on this  frequency for a very few minutes.
                     He then indicated that he was switching to a  UHF discrete
                     frequency and never heard any more. I thought he indicated
                     378.475,  but did not hear any traffic on that frequency.


The F-18 did not appear to have any ground support frequency.

The Misty Blues did not appear to have any ground support either.
Their sole contact was on the Air Boss frequency.

Rod Villari
--------------

Thanks for that report Rod, if anyone catches any other frequencies, please post a comment.

Local public safety at the show appear to being using the Montgomery County TRS talkgroup 12656 I-OP 1. I have heard a lot of heat related issues reported on that tg. Also 12688 I-OP 2 is active with some event related traffic, but not as busy.

 

181st FW (RACERS) Is No More

In an official ceremony this past Sunday (7/13), the 181st Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard based at Hulman Field in Terre Haute was redesignated as the 181st Intelligence Wing. The nearly 200 air National Guard members are now part of the new wing.
The last of the 181st's F-16s left last December, some are now part of the 122nd FW based at Fort Wayne. Sadly there will be no more RACERS to listen to, but the 122nd FW still flies the skies of Indiana.

MI Air National Guard 127th AW Changes Mission

On Saturday April 12th, the 127th Airlift Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard based at Selfridge Air Force Base northeast of Detroit changed it's mission from flying C-130s to flying jet powered KC-135s. They are now designated as the 127th Air Refueling Wing. This change was established in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act. The base has had eight KC-135s for a number of years now that once belonged to the 927th ARW of the Air Force Reserves. Those members of the 927th have since been reassigned to the 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

New Unit Begins Operations At WPAFB

As part of the newly organized Global Logistics Support Center that regulate the supply of repair parts and aircraft engines to various air force bases worldwide, a new unit has begun service at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. On Monday March 31st, the 591st Supply Chain Management Group started operations. Its primary mission is supply chain strategy and integration of the Global Logistics Support Center headquartered at Scott Air Base in Illinois. This could mean several new talkgroups activating on the WPAFB Trunked Radio System.

445th AW Receives New Commander

At a change of command ceremony on Sunday (4/6) Colonel Stephen Goeman took command of the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Colonel Goeman comes from serving as vice-commander of the 459th Air Refueling Wing based at Edwards Air Force Base, where he served as the senior air reserve technician. At Edwards he was responsible for 1300 personnel in 20 wings operating eight KC-135R Stratotankers. He replaces Brigadier General Bruce E. Davis who is retiring.

Popular Communcations - My New Gig!

My first Popular Communications article has been published.
You can find it on page 57 of the April 2008 issue. I focused the
article on scanning Andrews Air Force Base. Check it out if you get a chance.

http://www.popular-communications.com/

The Silent Treatment

I apologize for the dormant period we have had on the Blog here.
I've spent several months preparing to move. That has been done,
but real life took over for a period and I have not been able to get
any new information of any importance to post on here. Keep in mind if you have anything to pass along concerning military activity in the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana area please send it along to ohioscan (at) gmail (dot) com.

I have not gotten the new shack up and running at my new QTH yet. I have however, purchased a new PSR-500 GRE handheld. So far I am very happy with it. I really haven't put it through its paces on the Milair side, but hope to soon.