Retired Jet At Patriots Point Called Back To Duty
Retired fighter jet on display in South Carolina museum called back to duty
http://www.postandcourier.com/201605...d-back-to-duty
The F/A-18 Hornet on display on the Yorktown at Patriots Point (above) in Mount Pleasant is on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum
The Yorktown at Patriots Point hasn’t seen combat action in decades.
But the “Fighting Lady” is still standing by, ready to serve its country as needed from its silted-in berth along the Mount Pleasant waterfront.
In fact, the big ship answered a call to duty recently without any local fanfare — but its response resonated all the way to the Pentagon and the halls of Congress.
Mac Burdette, who runs the star-spangled naval museum and tourist attraction, shared the aircraft carrier’s latest war story last week, during National Military Appreciation Month.
The central character is a borrowed F/A-18 Hornet now pulling static-display duty on the flight deck overlooking Charleston Harbor. The retired strike-fighter hails from the same creaky clan of McDonnell Douglas warplanes that are still flying real-world missions from, among other U.S. defense bases, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
Burdette recalled the request that came across his desk about two months ago. The brass from Beaufort was inquiring about a part they needed ahead of an overseas deployment of a vintage F/A-18 that flew in the 1986 raid against Libya. According to a report on the website BreakingDefense, they were prompted by a tip from an officer who spotted the Hornet while touring the Yorktown.
“They knew we had it,” Burdette said.
“It” was a forward left nose landing gear door hinge that’s no longer manufactured.
The state-owned maritime museum was more than happy to lend a hand, as was the National Naval Aviation Museum, which owns the twin-engine jet on loan to Patriots Point.
“We said, ‘Come on down. She’s yours,’” Burdette said Wednesday at the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s annual military update, which highlighted the broad impact the Pentagon makes on the regional economy.
A team of Marines from Beaufort removed the part and replaced it with a manufactured duplicate that was suitable for display purposes but not for flight, said Patriots Point public information officer Chris Hauff.
“The Marines don’t tell us everything ... but their plane is now fixed,” he said. “Whether they used the part, we don’t know.”
Word of this unorthodox scavenger hunt soon made its way to Capitol Hill, where it became a symbol in the debate over U.S. military readiness and cuts in defense spending.
The South Carolina parts swap was mentioned in passing at a House Armed Services Committee meeting in late March. Among those in the room that day were U.S. Defense Secretary Ashford Carter and Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“As with every problem, you need an easily understandable and shocking example of just how bad things are to jumpstart jaundiced and overworked lawmakers,” BreakingDefense said in its report.
Leading the charge was the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry, who heard about the hinge search during a visit to the Beaufort air base. The Texas Republican trotted out the anecdote to make a point about the downside of military spending cuts.
BreakingDefense quoted Thornberry as saying he had “heard first-hand from service members who have looked me in the eye and told of ... trying to cannibalize parts from a museum aircraft in order to get current aircraft ready to fly the overseas mission assigned.”
The F/A-18 program is particularly shaky. Citing data provided by the Marine Corps, Fox News Channel reported last month that less than a third of the service’s 276 Hornet fighters were ready to fly.
Defense pundits say the life of the aging jet is being extended because decision makers are saving their financial firepower for the new but long-delayed F-35 joint-strike plane.
For the Flying Leatherneck community down in Beaufort this Memorial Day weekend, that can’t come soon enough.
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