Photo By Airman 1st Class Kyle St Pierre | U.S. Air National Guard 1st Lt. Seth Chambers, pilot, 163rd Fighter Squadron, taxis to...... read more read more
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JOE FOSS FIELD, SD – The 114th Fighter Wing recently agreed to exchange F-16’s with the 122nd Fighter Wing based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, creating a great opportunity to exercise mission readiness and improve relations with other units.
“By building good partners and relationships, we can work off each other's strengths for anything that comes our way,” said Maj. Anthony Demma, director of operations, 175th Fighter Squadron.
The 122nd FW began transitioning from the A-10 ThunderBolt II aircraft to the F-16 Fighting Falcons in October 2023. The Indiana based unit requested assistance with their current mission in order to get pilots and maintainers the training and experience necessary to utilize their new aircraft. With the 122nd FW training period approaching, they requested to exchange a select number of F-16s from the 114th FW for its upgraded radar and avionic systems.
“We have a wealth of knowledge here since we've been flying F-16s for multiple years now,” said Demma. “Their squadron recently converted to using the F-16s so this exchange will help ease the learning curve as they’re standing up their base.”
This is a great chance for both units to work on teamwork, mission readiness, and capabilities as a total Air Force.
“The jet exchange is a really cool opportunity that we are learning from as we contribute to the total force,” said Bak.
Overall, this exchange has presented both the 114th FW and 122nd FW a great way to build relations and help prepare us for future missions against threats known and unknown.
“Fostering a good working relationship with another base is always beneficial,” said Bak. “We've been there, done that, and the fact that we're going to be able to join forces as two separate guard units to utilize our resources is going to make it much, much easier.”
| Date Taken: | 01.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 01.12.2025 15:55 |
| Story ID: | 488964 |
| Location: | SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 160 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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