PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The Pease National Guard Base is ready for a new era.
Seacoastonline.com reports current and retired New Hampshire Air National Guard men and women said farewell Sunday to the last KC-135 tanker plane on duty at the New Hampshire base.
The Stratotanker, an Eisenhower administration-era aircraft that’s the oldest plane on duty in all of the U.S. Air Force, was bound for redeployment at Goldwater Air National Guard Base in Phoenix.
RELATED
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/66IBDI4VWNBUHGMFOAJQDPXXUA.jpg)
The new KC-46A Pegasus air refueling tanker is arriving later this year.
Among the last plane's missions was its part in Operation Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing of North Vietnam over a three-year period.
RELATED
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/UFBORJWXCJDIPGQNW2IPOEHCMY.jpg)
“Bittersweet” was the word of the day as several hundred active duty Guard and Air Force members, retirees, family members, and others attended the ceremony.