C-141 schoolhouse closes at Wright-Pat

  • Published
Air Force Reserve Command officials shut down the C-141 Starlifter schoolhouse here Oct. 14.

A ceremony marked the closing of the school, officially called the C-141 Formal Training Unit. It was managed by the 445th Airlift Wing. Use of the facility, the only one of its kind in the Air Force, ended because all C-141s will retire by 2006.

The school opened in January 2002 for C-141 pilots, loadmasters and flight engineers. The Air Force moved the school here from Altus Air Force Base, Okla., in 2001.

Although the school closed, the Reserve unit will still run a flight simulator for training.

"Eventually the C-141 simulator will be dismantled, and the space made available for the C-5 [Galaxy] simulator," said Maj. Linda Moore, AFRC acquisition adviser.

Wing officials said they expect to get the first C-5A in October 2005. C-5s are the largest aircraft in the Air Force. (Courtesy of AFRC News Service)