SOFREP Readers check out this awesome photo gallery on Fighter Sweep. 

FighterSweep Fans, every time I glance through the photos from Klamath Falls, I’m absolutely amazed. The amount of work  put into the 173rd Fighter Wing’s Oregon Air National Guard 75th Anniversary jet is absolutely staggering, and they’ve created the most exquisite paint scheme ever to adorn an F-15.

I mean that with the utmost respect, and though our friends in the JASDF have done some amazing work with their jets in the past, they don’t eclipse the greatness of 79-041 and its 75th Anniversary paint scheme. Even when the jet was still in the paint barn, with most of its surfaces still masked and in progress, it was nothing short of awe-inspiring. It was one of my first stops when I arrived in Klamath Falls, where I was introduced to the men behind this screaming Eagle.

The team who designed the scheme and actually painted the F-15 consisted of Airman First Class Carlos Ruiz; Senior Airman Spencer Bryant; Senior Airman Mike Vinson; Senior Airman Nick Johnson; Staff Sergeant Tim Bodnar, Staff Sergeant Sam Whitlatch, Technical Sergeant Zack Stone; and Master Sergeant Paul Allen. As we spoke of yesterday, these men worked tirelessly for weeks on end, overcoming significant obstacles in order to get it done. They were exhausted but smiling, and extremely proud of what they’d accomplished.

Truly humbling is the fact FighterSweep was the outside entity given the first real look at the airplane. Some would say it’s all about luck and timing, and while I’ll raise a glass to that sentiment, I honestly believe it’s more than that.

LMT0622-630x420
The 173rd Fighter Wing flagship, loaded with six AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two AIM-9X Sidewinders. (Pho… http://sumo.ly/iD0Z via @fightersweep

Brigadier General Pierce, Colonel Smith, and all of the great Americans at the 173rd Fighter Wing could have had their pick of who they wanted to showcase this Eagle to the world for the first time. There are some incredibly talented folks with a wealth of experience and some amazing bodies of work in this field, and any of them would have loved to have had the first crack at it.

They still chose us.

They trusted us with their vision, and believed we could execute the mission to publicize the jet and the Oregon Air National Guard in such a way that would do them justice. So to say we’re grateful would be the understatement of the year, and it comes back to our mission at the outset: to help units like the Oregon Air National Guard tell their story, and to be good stewards of every opportunity.

Like C.W. Lemoine speaks of in his latest, it isn’t a show-up-go-up type of event.This visit to the Land of No Slack took months of planning and coordination between multiple agencies. For example, in order for us to capture the Oregon Air National Guard and its 75th Anniversary as a whole, we needed to involve the 142nd Fighter Wing and their F-15s up in Portland. Their involvement meant deconflicting their operations schedule to match up with ours. We had a tanker to support us from Fairchild Air Force Base and the 141st Air Refueling Wing. We had the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center handling our airspace considerations. The list goes on…