W
E’VE BEEN A fi ghter
unit our whole
history. We’ve always
fl own fi ghters’, says
Col Patrick Hover,
the operations
group commander at the 120th Airlift
Wing, Montana Air National Guard. This
unit’s new airlift wing status alludes to
big changes for the Great Falls-based Air
National Guardsmen. Having transitioned
from the multi-role Block 30 F-16C to the
air superiority mission in the F-15C Eagle in
2008, a more fundamental shift was in store.
During 2013, it was decided that the 120th
would lose its F-15s and make the ambitious
transition from fi ghters to transport aircraft
in the shape of the C-130 Hercules.
Crew chiefs began seeing off F-15Cs as
they departed to the 144th Fighter Wing,
California ANG, at Fresno and started
welcoming C-130Hs to ‘Big Sky Country’,
as Montana is affectionately known. The
fi rst C-130H for the ‘Vigilantes’ arrived in
March 2014, and the last F-15C roared out of
Great Falls in October 2013, as the three-
year switch from Eagle to Hercules offi cially
began in earnest.
‘The change in mission has been huge’,
says Col Hover, ‘especially because we
were going from Air Combat Command to
Air Mobility Command MAJCOMs [major
commands]. We’ve changed from F-15 air
dominance to C-130 air transport, and what
is, of course, an entirely different role.’
It’s not just about the aircraft. This has
been a huge change also for the people of
the unit and for the mindset of the Montana
ANG. ‘Precision air-drop and combat airlift
missions are a big culture change [for us]‘http://www.combataircraft.net May 2015 6362-69 AMC part 1- Montana C.indd 63 20/03/2015 11:52