Bringing Tigers Home from Switzerland Reserve C-130s Answer the Call

摘要

The Transport Navy gets cool missions all the time, but one of the coolest missions was bringing back an F-5 Tiger Ⅱ jet fighter from Switzerland. In 2000, the Navy via NAVAIR signed a reverse Foreign Military Sales deal with the Swiss to buy 44 Swiss F-5 Tiger Ⅱ aircraft - the Navy Reserve paid for 12 of the 44 aircraft. These aircraft were brought back to the US to upgrade and replace the Navy's inventory of aging F-5E Tiger Ⅱ Aggressor aircraft. Each Swiss aircraft was returned to the US via Navy Reserve C-130T aircraft. As a Navy C-130 Loadmaster, I (along with a couple of pilots, a flight engineer and a second loadmaster) brought back a Swiss F5 Tiger Ⅱ SAF# J-3046 in VR-62 "Nor'easter" (now known as the "Nomads") C-130T, Bureau Number (BuNo) 165314, in March of 2006.