Unexpected news for those of us in the Northwest.
McChord cancels air show
Thunderbirds can't make it, airmen busy with operations in war on terrorism
Tacoma News-Tribune 01/19/06
author: Michael Gilbert
There'll be no Thunderbirds zooming through the South Sound skies this summer - or next summer, for that matter.
McChord Air Force Base said Wednesday that it won't stage its annual summertime air expo again until 2008, canceling events that in past years have drawn about 150,000 visitors.
The base commander, Col. Wayne Schatz, said he made the decision based on a number of factors:
* McChord airmen are too busy supporting the war on terrorism and conducting other operations. An average of 700 a day of McChord's roughly 6,000 active-duty and reserve airmen are deployed around the world.
* The Thunderbirds - the Air Force's precision flying team - isn't available to perform at McChord this year.
* McChord will undergo an inspection in June, an intensive, top-to-bottom examination of all base operations.
"With all our workload, and our operations tempo, and not having the Thunderbirds, or another big-draw act, I thought it just didn't make sense," Schatz said Wednesday.
McChord will host another air mobility rodeo - a sort of international airlift Olympics - again in 2007, as it did in 2005. But the rodeo is not open to the public.
Schatz said he decided it's too much to plan and conduct a rodeo and put on the air expo in the same summer, so the next expo will wait until 2008.
The base played host to both events last summer, but "we wore people out," Schatz said.
McChord is one of two home bases for the Air Force's fleet of C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets, the mainstay of the American military's airlift capability.
Wednesday's announcement is disappointing news for the thousands of area residents who flock to the base for the air show each year. Last year's version drew an estimated 150,000 over two days. About 600 airmen typically are involved.
"I think people will be disappointed because they certainly look forward to going out there, knowing it's a first-class show. A family event," said Ruthie Reinert, executive director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Convention & Visitor Bureau. "It will be missed."
McChord isn't alone.
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., has canceled its 2006 air expo, and other Air Mobility Command bases might opt to do so as well, said Mark Voorhis, a spokesman at command headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
The McChord air show was an annual event until 2002, when base officials canceled it due to a heavy workload supporting U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and the buildup to the Iraq war.
The show returned in 2003 but was skipped again in 2004 while McChord's runway was resurfaced.
Schatz said he would look for ways to open up some of next year's rodeo event to the public.
He said he understands people see the air show as a fixture on the local list of summertime events. But the commander figured it made the most sense to wait.
"When people come to the base they want to see a lot of airplanes, they want to see the Thunderbirds, they want to see a lot of acts.
"We'll miss it, too," Schatz said. "It was a hard decision."
