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15 hours ago, Stitch said:

I was stationed at Nellis when that storm hit Homestead. The Homestead guys had just finished a Flag and rode the storm out in Vegas. Can't imagine the horror of watching/seeing the devastation on TV from a hotel room while your family was so far away and no easy way to contact them in the pre-cell phone era.  

Even worse, there was a group of folks who had recently PCS'd to Homestead from Clark AFB when Mt Pinatubo erupted.  Many of those folks lost all their stuff for a second time in just over a year.  Andrew hit in August and there were still people completing the summer PCS cycle.  A good friend was just arriving and was initially told his household goods were safe as they had not yet arrived only to find out a few days later they were actually delivered to a storage place downtown that was destroyed by the storm.

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1 hour ago, Bode said:

I bet the only ones left were sitting in hangars which are now probably open roof structures. Absolutely unreal.

A similar thing happened when Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead.  There were several jets (nearly brand new C model vipers), that were unflyable so they parked a few in a hangar and four more in the ANG alert facility at the north end of the field.  The alert facility pictured below was designed to withstand 160MPH and obviously it failed.  There was a weather gauge about 100' from this facility and it measured a gust of 214MPH then failed (likely a mesovorticy).  All of the damaged jets eventually returned to service although it took several years to repair a few of them.

120829-F-NM954-002.JPG

Homestead-Air-Base-Hurricane-Andrew.jpg

 

Andrew.JPEG?m=1371929950

636386769512857708-AP-VAUSA-USA-TODAY.jp

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A similar thing happened when Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead.  There were several jets (nearly brand new C model vipers), that were unflyable so they parked a few in a hangar and four more in the ANG alert facility at the north end of the field.  The alert facility pictured below was designed to withstand 160MPH and obviously it failed.  There was a weather gauge about 100' from this facility and it measured a gust of 214MPH then failed (likely a mesovorticy).  All of the damaged jets eventually returned to service although it took several years to repair a few of them.
120829-F-NM954-002.JPG
Homestead-Air-Base-Hurricane-Andrew.jpg
 
Andrew.JPEG?m=1371929950
636386769512857708-AP-VAUSA-USA-TODAY.jpg?width=540&height=405&fit=crop


Everything “built to withstand” was pointless with Andrew. NOAA only has best guesses at its maximum wind speed really was because whatever measurement equipment was out there it died in the process of doing its job.

Well intentioned to at least try to protect stuff no doubt since you could and did eventually put the pieces of some of that stuff back together, but yeah that storm was a wrecking ball. This one would probably have been easily as bad except it’s path made landfall and didn’t hold or revisit water so it’s a one shot punch as oppose to Andrew which came across the peninsula and gathered additional strength from the gulf.


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38 minutes ago, Tank said:

It’s been said before but we just didn’t build enough -22s.  3 damaged from that article, plus the gear up incident at Fallon earlier this year.  That’s a 4 ship out of commission, probably for years.  I’m sure there’s others I’m not thinking about/aware of.

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7 hours ago, DirkDiggler said:

https://www.stripes.com/1.551628

hope they were able to fly most of them out, crazy that a single hurricane could possibly have an impact to national security.

Always wondered how the USAF justifies basing just about all of the E-3 fleet in the heart of tornado alley.  All it takes is one bad afternoon...

...granted half the fleet is deployed or TDY somewhere, but still.

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Always wondered how the USAF justifies basing just about all of the E-3 fleet in the heart of tornado alley.  All it takes is one bad afternoon... ...granted half the fleet is deployed or TDY somewhere, but still. 

 

 Same could be said with Dyess.

 

Then again if Rainer ever blows it’s top, half the ground combat power in PACOM goes with it. Along with like 1/3 of the population of Washington.

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, olevelo said:


I can’t believe they left all those F-22 Joint Strike Fighters there when they knew a hurricane was coming and they could fly them out of there or put them on a truck...


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What is a F-22 Joint Strike Fighter?

A156C869-80F2-4492-ACAF-777C0235CC61.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Lawman said:

 Same could be said with Dyess.

 

Then again if Rainer ever blows it’s top, half the ground combat power in PACOM goes with it. Along with like 1/3 of the population of Washington.

 

 

 

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The 1991 tornado at McConnell AFB, KS apparently just missed a flightline full of B-1s when it went through.  I shudder to think of a F-5 tornado hitting Whiteman or one of the major depots (Hill, Robins, Tinker).  

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Air Force decides to cut its losses with Tyndall....

Tyndall foot print to be moved to new location to support mission.....

Panel of experts chooses (after way too much political participation) Patrick AFB to receive most of Tyndall’s mission....

Billions spent to renovate Patrick housing and infrastructure reestablishung it as an active duty base.....

2022 Hurricane Season hits and rocks the everloving piss out of Titusville (almost happened multiple times when I lived there).

 

”God Dammit that’s Twice! Why the F didn’t we go to god damned Moody or something.....”

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In the same vein as Lawman's post:

1.  If KPAM is a write-off - buildings, sims, etc., does it make sense to A) rebuild it?  B) Move it?

If B) to where and why?

Separate but definitely related to B) is where politically does it make sense for the F-22/ABM schoolhouse/other KPAM missions to go?

I throw the political card because the spoils for rebuilding/moving are going to benefit someone's state/districts.  So who wins and why?

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http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2018/October%202018/Tyndall-F-22s-Left-Behind-Before-Michael-Hit-Possibly-Damaged-Beyond-Repair.aspx

Think anyone will be held responsible for this? It seems the only thing you can be fired for these days is sexual harassment or assault. Something could have been done to move these jets off the base. When we only have 187 of them, they need to be treated as the important national security assets that they are.


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