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A Fort Wayne fighter jet made its final ascent Wednesday, though it didn’t travel far.
The F-4 fighter-bomber had been sitting in a parking lot in front of the Indiana Air National Guard base on Ferguson Road.
Under cloudy skies, a crane lifted the 25,000-pound, 60-foot-long jet onto two concrete slabs, where it will stay mounted – its nose pointing northeast – 15 feet above the ground.
The F-4 Phantom II is the second jet to be mounted in front of the base belonging to the 122nd Tactical Fighting Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard. Last Friday, an F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet was placed on similar slabs.
The 122nd hopes the planes will become part of a larger air park outside the base, a place where as many as seven planes will be on display.
"The dream is to have every type of aircraft this unit has flown," said 2nd Lt. Rebecca Metzger, spokeswoman for the 122nd Tactical Fighting Wing. "We want it to be a place where people can come with their families, walk around, and immerse themselves in the history of the unit. … We want to show the Fort Wayne community our heritage. A lot of people don’t know we’re here."
The 122nd Tactical Fighting Wing – the Blacksnakes – has 300 full-time employees and hosts 1,000 military personnel, Metzger said.
In 2006, 400 wing members were sent to Balad, Iraq, the unit’s largest deployment since the 1960s. Members have also served in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, among other locations.
The F-4, developed for U.S. Navy fleet defense, was first flown in 1958 and was used in both Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, according to the Air Force.
The 122nd had 29 F-4s until they were replaced with F-16s in 1991, according to Staff Sgt. Steven Bush. The unit used the jets, which can travel up to 1,400 mph, to participate in NATO training exercises in Turkey in the 1980s, he said.
The F-100, which now sits behind the F-4 at the Fort Wayne base, was the first operational aircraft capable of flying faster than the speed of sound (760 mph), according to the Air Force. The Fort Wayne base had several F-100s before they were replaced with the F-4s.
The 122nd will move an F-16, which the unit now flies, and an F-48 into the parking lot by the end of the year, Metzger says. But the jets won’t be mounted, she said, because of budget concerns.
Eventually, Metzger says, the unit wants to tear up the parking lot and cover the area with paths and grass. But for now, she said, the unit doesn’t have enough money to meet its goal.
"We have no idea how long it will take us to get the funding to operate the air park," she said.
The 122nd can trace its heritage to World War II. Its predecessor, the 358th Fighter Group, based at Richmond Army Air Base in Virginia, flew bombing escort missions from England during the war. In May 1946, the group was renamed the 122nd Fighter Group and assigned with all honors and colors to the Indiana Air National Guard.
In a few months, the 122nd expects to get at least four A-10 Warthogs, low-flying tank destroyers that will replace the unit’s F-16s.
