WESTFIELD – The 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base will be conducting evening training flights as part of standard homeland defense exercises at the beginning of next week.
According to Senior Master Sgt. Robert Sabonis, public affairs manager for the 104th Fighter Wing, there will be night flying sessions going on from Monday through Thursday, November 17-20.
The evening missions will launch from Barnes-Westfield Regional Airport between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., with expected landings between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
“These missions are a critical part of our required reoccurring training,” said Sabonis. “The night-training is required to ensure our pilots are ready to respond to any airborne threat in the Northeastern United States, at any time, in any condition.”
In a release, the 104th Fighter Wing asks for assistance in sharing the news in an effort to help alleviate local residents from being alarmed.
“With our 24/7 alert posture, our Airmen could respond to an airborne threat at any time protecting one quarter of the nation’s population and one third of the its Gross Domestic Product,” said Sabonis.
These night flights aren’t the only the exercises being conducted by the 104th.
Social media exploded Thursday in Boston, as residents and visitors posted pictures and video online of five of the 104th’s F-15 Eagle fighter jets flying over the city as part of a training and media exercise shortly after 8 a.m.
According to Lieutenant Colonel James Sahady, spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, the five 104th fighter jets began the day in Westfield, flying to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford before charting a regimented course that saw the jets fly over Salem at 8:13 a.m.; the State House, 8:15; Fenway Park, 8:18; turn at Norwood Airport, 8:21; Gillette Stadium, 8:25; Cape Cod, 8:32; Nantucket, 8:42; Martha’s Vineyard, 8:50; and then back to Westfield base around 9:15 a.m.
Photographer Jim “Hazy” Haseltine was on board one of the five jets, snapping photographs for National Guard Magazine, Air Force Magazine, and Combat Aircraft Monthly.
“The intent of this event is twofold: To enhance the pilots training, and to also promote the mission of the Massachusetts Air National Guard,” Sahady told The Boston Globe earlier this week, adding that while the jets typically fly at an altitude of 10,000 feet or higher, the F-15’s were flying an unusually low 1,000 feet Thursday.
