December 2016 will forever be remembered as the month that saw the end of US Air Force F-4 Phantom II operations. The F-4 was a stalwart of the USAF for five decades, before the last example bowed out of service with the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron Detachment 1 at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.
BACK IN APRIL 1996, the USAF ended its operational use of the Phantom II when the Idaho Air National Guard at Boise retired its last F-4G Wild Weasels. Over the following two decades the USAF continued to operate these charismatic jets, albeit as manned/unmanned full-scale aerial targets (FSATs) to help facilitate the testing and evaluation of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. It was a career that could lead to these old warriors being literally blown out of the sky.
Lt Col Ronald ‘Elvis’ King is a historymaker. Not only is he the last ever airman to command a USAF F-4 squadron, but he was also the last pilot in the USAF to convert to the type.
‘I was in the right place at the right time’, King smiles. ‘They really wanted an F-16 guy in place as the 82nd ATRS, Det 1 commander during the transition between the QF-4E and the QF-16. I was a current F-16 instructor with lots of experience, and initiall…
