148th Fighter Wing Paints Plane in Honor of 75th Anniversary
DULUTH, MINN. — When the 148th Fighter Wing’s base began in 1948, the planes were the latest, for the time, p51s.
Now as the Duluth base marks 75 years, there’s no better way to tell everyone than to create a Heritage jet, a jet with non-standard markings that represent the unit.
The idea of creating a Heritage jet was the brainchild of a group of airmen from the base
Master Sergeant Ben Riordan said, “This all started a little over a year ago now with a crazy idea for a design that I’d never seen on a jet. We put a mockup together and put it before the commander and he liked it.”
When the group had finalized its design, approvals were the next step
“Extremely proud,” said Base Commander Nate Aysea. “You know that people had a vision from the lower ranks and they came forth with their vision and this is what they produced. It shows that we have good people at all ranks.”
From the Base Commander’s approval, it was on to the Pentagon for a waiver
Riordan explained he had a secret weapon at the Pentagon. .“I am truly lucky enough that I was able to have a kind of special relationship with the approval office out there before I submitted the final waiver. She gave me feedback and suggestions.”
To ensure the plane would be completely ready for the official 75th-anniversary date, the team didn’t wait for official approvals, they got busy.
“We ordered the paint before the waiver was approved. We started sanding it before the paint got here and then they were only able to give us yellow. The day we got done painting the yellow parts the blue paint came and we were able to paint the blue parts,” said Riordan. ” So it has been tense for some moments of this project, but we got it done.”
Last weekend the plane was unveiled for the 148th as the entire unit was on Drill. Riordan says the reactions from the airmen last weekend made all the work worth it. “My team put everything they could to make this jet as perfect as they could to live up to the standards that the wing has set over the last 75 years.”
