The USAF's 325th Fighter Wing (FW) at Tyndall AFB, Florida, is well into its transition from an air dominance training and F-22A conversion mission towards being a fully combat-capable fighter wing equipped with more than 70 F-35A Lightning IIs and this was furthered during Exercise Checkered Flag 24-1.
This transition began with the arrival of its first three F-35As on August 1, 2023. Col George Watkins, commander of the 325th FW, heralded the arrival of the F-35A as “a new chapter for Tyndall,” marking the introduction of the “most advanced and technologically sophisticated fighter aircraft into the 325th FW’s operational fleet.” Held in November, Exercise Checkered Flag 24-1 was on of the US Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) largest air-to-air combat exercises in 2023 and provided premier access to the Gulf Range Complex – located off the coast of Florida – allowing multiple aircraft, units and countries to train and prepare together.
The exercise provided a useful opportunity for the 325th FW’s recently reformed 95th Fighter Squadron ‘Boneheads’ to continue its work up towards full combat-ready status. The unit includes a mix of pilots – some of them with experience standing up F-35 squadrons at Eielson AFB, Alaska, and RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, UK; along with some former Tyndall-based Raptor pilots returning to the 95th as Lightning II pilots; and some ab-initio pilots.
The squadron also includes a pair of recently disinterred, full-scale, medical school-quality imitation skeletons, each wearing a flight jacket. The two skeletons, both called ‘Mr Bones’, were previous mascots for the ‘Boneheads’. The first ‘Mr Bones’ was buried in 2010, when the unit – then an F-15C/D training squadron – was deactivated. The second was purchased when the 95th was reactivated as an F-22A training squadron in 2013 but was then buried when the unit was disbanded again after Hurricane Michael devastated Tyndall in 2019.
