Boneyard tour, Pt. 2--now with more spraylat!

AMARG's got it all, from the big to the small! Look, they got C-5 Galaxys just like the ones that fly out of my home field. In fact, this is where that squadron gets many of it's repair parts.

They got B-1 Bombers, too. Quite a few. And for some reason, every one of them is missing it's nose.

They have F-18s in storage, too, mostly older F-18A models since those have been replaced by the later F-18E and F-18F Super Hornets.

But you know who still flies A models? The Blue Angels. And this is where they get their replacement planes, and where their planes are returned to when they put too much time on them.

Look--lawn darts! Oh, wait--those are General Dynamic F-16s.

And there's even a 747 with something on it's nose.

Hey--they even have a two-seater!

Yep--that's the YAL-1, the Boeing 747 modified to carry and fire an airborne laser system capable of intercepting missiles in flight.

It actually worked, but it's range was too short to be of much actual use. Stil, the technology continues to develop now that YAL-1 has proven that it can be done.

And what's that I see behind the YAL-1? O-2As!!!

Sorry for the crummy long-distance shots. The bus driver would not go back there even when I begged, and for some reason, they won't let us off the bus. It's like they're afraid that we're going to steal a plane or something.

Of course if I was going to steal a plane from here, it'd probably be an O-2. Not that I would or anything...just saying.

Supposedly there are contractors who can and will come into this yard and bid on certain aircraft like this that the Air Force no longer needs. I must find one. An O-2 fresh out of the boneyard would be just too cool.

These days, much talk is heard in Washington DC about a need for airborne tankers. I have to point out that there are quite a few KC-135 tankers in here.

As my dad used to say: "You don't need new toys. You've got plenty of perfectly good ones already."

Of course if Putin doesn't mind himself, we might want to pull old 63-052 out of mothballs.

The tour guide forgot to mention this gem, but I recognized it off in the distance as an EC-135 early-warning aircraft, code-name: "Looking Glass". These served as emergency airborne command-and-control centers capable of controlling our nuclear forces during wartime and during the Cold War, one was in the air constantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just in case the White House got knocked out by a surprise attack. They don't fly around the clock any more, but apparently there's still a few of them in our nation's hall closet.

Gotta run out for a bit now but check back later--still more preserved goodness to come!