[Ashrunner]

When I was stationed in Alaska the second time, the 21st TFW flew F-15A and B models. I got to know some of the aircraft well having provided tours of the base giving people up close and personal looks at the wing aircraft.

Ten years later, after I retired, I was at the Rose Festival Air Show near Portland, Oregon, and saw an F-15 on static display. It was from the Oregon Air Guard unit and low and behold, it was one of the A models which I remembered well from my tour days at Elmendorf AFB. Talking to the pilot, I learned all the 21st wing's aircraft were transfered to the Oregon guard.

For a number of years, I would approach the Eagles on static display with an obvious reverence and spend several minutes running my hands along parts of the body I had run my hands over a decade earlier.

I was saddened to learn the Oregon ANG A model Eagles had been replaced with C models. Although the C is still a beautiful aircraft, my heart still belongs to the F-15A.