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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Fighters to leave Barksdale AFB


Barksdale AFB
The sight of twin jets buzzing low in northwest Louisiana skies soon will be a thing of the past as one of the most historic units in the Air Force readies to furl its flag and stand down once again, the victim of budget cuts.

The 47th Fighter Squadron, which as the 47th Pursuit Squadron was the only U.S. Army Air Forces unit to draw blood in the skies over Pearl Harbor in the Japanese attack in December 1941, will send its airplanes and most of its pilots and personnel to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Ariz., possibly as soon as late August and no later than the end of September.

The unit, which joined the local 917th Wing when it changed from C-124 transports and a troop-carrier mission in 1971, has flown A-37 Dragonflies and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, popularly called the Warthog, in training and combat roles over the years, with successful war deployments in the last two decades.

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