News / Military
By Howard Altman / Tampa Bay Times / June 20, 2016
PHOTO: MacDill is home to 16 KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling jets, which will be moved temporarily while runways are resurfaced. Resurfacing at MacDill takes place about every 15 years. (Times files 2012)
TAMPA — MacDill Air Force Base and the skies above it will be a much quieter place this fall.
The 75-year-old installation, normally boisterous and booming with the sounds of planes taking off and landing, is having its runways resurfaced. And that means flying operations will cease for two months beginning around the middle of October.
MacDill is home to 16 KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jets, which are flown by the 6th Air Mobility Wing and the 927th Air Refueling Wing. They are helping refuel the fight against the so-called Islamic State jihadi group, among other missions.
The work also will displace three C-37 twin-engine jets belonging to the 6th Air Mobility Wing. Military versions of the civilian Gulfstream V, they transport high-ranking government and Defense Department officials.
Also displaced will be fighter planes and other visiting aircraft taking part in training missions around the region.
The resurfacing, which usually takes place about every 15 years, will cost $8.1 million, said Capt. Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the 6th Air Mobility Wing, the base host unit. That money will come from the Air Force headquarters budget, not MacDill’s, she said.
The wing’s missions and training will continue during the resurfacing, Brown said. But it won’t happen at MacDill. The wing is still trying to determine where the jets and personnel will go, but she had no details because of operational security concerns.
Brown also could not say how many personnel might have to relocate temporarily.
Each of the 16 tankers has a crew of three, with several additional airmen needed to maintain it. The planes first rolled off the assembly lines when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House.
In addition to the KC-135s and C-37s, other aircraft operating out of MacDill also will have to relocate temporarily.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aircraft Operations Center flies three hurricane hunting planes out of MacDill and those, too, will have to move, said NOAA Capt. Michael Silah, commander of the center.
NOAA is in talks with the Coast Guard to see if it can share space at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, Silah said.
The choice depends on whether the Coast Guard can host all three NOAA aircraft — two P-3 Orion propeller planes called Miss Piggy and Kermit and a Gulfstream IV called Gonzo.
If not, NOAA will consider Tampa International Jet Center, Lakeland Linder Regional Airport and even Sarasota International Airport as backups, though Sarasota is less desirable because of the distance crews would have to travel to get to the airplanes, Silah said.
The temporary move is unrelated to a permanent relocation required by the pending arrival of eight additional KC-135s to MacDill, he said.
Wayback image
