Mildehall Air Base (by Chris Smith)
12 May 15
There were some spare seats going on a base tour of US Air Force Base Mildenhall organised jointly by Cleveland Aviation Society and Friends of Leeming Aviation Group, so I snapped a place up. Mildenhall was fairly high up on my airport 'wish list', especially since it's planned closure has recently been announced. A previous attempt by me to visit this Air Base led to a lengthy drive around the perimeter in an effort to find a vantage point which ended unsuccessfully, hence my enthusiasm to return as I almost felt I needed to bring closure to that whole sorry episode!!
It was an early start, with the coach leaving Middlesbrough Municiple Golf Club dead on time at 5.30am for the four hour drive down to Suffolk. We stopped at Wetherby Services and Barton Mills Services to pick-up the rest of the group, with a 45-minute breakfast stop at Grantham Services, arriving at Mildenhall at about 10.20am.
We were met by our hosts and went through the air lock and on to the base. The tour began with a talk about the base on the sports field, followed by an early lunch in the very American food hall (there's a Taco Bell and a 'proper' Pizza Hut) - you can pay in Pounds but get Dollars back in change. A visit to one of the resident Units was cancelled as they were involved in an emergency exercise, so instead we went to the 100th Maintenance Unit where we received a talk and presentation on air-to-air refueling, which included this rather amusing BMW advert. The presentation also included a number of interesting facts, I can't remember them all but the one that stood out was the fuel contained in a full KC-135R could power an average car for 46 years - WTF!
After the presentation the 100th maintenance unit took us out to a KC-135R and we were given a talk by the Boom Operator and the Pilot - who had just transferred from the US a month ago where he had previously flown MC-12s - that's one hell of an upgrade in aircraft type! We were allowed to freely roam in and around the aircraft.
We couldn't visit the CV-22 Ospreys (five were out) or MC-130Js (only one out) of 352nd Special Operations Wing because of the nature of their missions, we didn't even get all that close, nor did we see any RC-135s (62-4132/OF pitched up as "Tommy 27" not long after we left!), though these were the only disappointments on an otherwise exceptionally fun base tour. Our hosts had insisted that we only photograph aircraft with the distinctive white 'D' in a black box on the vertical stabiliser as these were based aircraft, now normally I'm one for obeying the rules, often so a future return visit doesn't get refused, however today it was a case of "challenge accepted" and I think we all probably came away with more photos of non-based aircraft! I can't speak for everyone but for me personally this was because A) this doesn't apply to spotters taking photos from the official viewing areas (yeah I know what you're thinking, why didn't I find these spots the last time I was here - I don't know either!) and B) the base is closing anyway so a return visit is much less likely.
A final point worthy of note is when Lakenheath is using runway 24, all of their departures can be seen from Mildenhall due to the close proximity of the two bases.
The first aircraft noted was the Gate Guard at RAF Wittering.
RAF Wittering (EGXT)
| SERIAL | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| ZD469 | British Aerospace Harrier GR7A | Royal Air Force | Gate Guard |
Mildenhall Air Base (MHZ / EGUN)
| SERIAL | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| 11-5737 | Lockheed Martin MC-130J Commando II | US Air Force - 67th SOS / 352nd SOG | Hammering the circuit |
| 12-0062 | Bell Boeing CV-22B Osprey | US Air Force - 7th SOS / 352nd SOG | |
| 12-0063 | Bell Boeing CV-22B Osprey | US Air Force - 7th SOS / 352nd SOG | |
| 57-1432 | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 191st ARS / UT ANG | "Utah" |
| 58-0100/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 58-0104/ANG | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 108th ARS / IL ANG | "Illinois" |
| 59-1464/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 59-1492/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 60-0337/AMC | Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker | US Air Force - 92nd ARW | |
| 61-0299/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 61-0315/AMC | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 92nd ARW | |
| 61-0321/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | Our static aircraft |
| 62-3524/AK | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 22nd ARW | "Alaska" |
| 62-3530/AFRC | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 72nd ARS / 434rd ARW | "Grissom" |
| 62-3545/AMC | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 22nd ARW | "McConnell" |
| 62-3551/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | Hammering the circuit |
| 62-3565/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 63-7999/AMC | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 92nd ARW / 141 ARW | "Fairchild" |
| 63-8027/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 63-8871/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 63-8884/D | Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | US Air Force - 351st ARS / 100th ARW | |
| 86-0030/AMC | McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender | US Air Force - 305th AMW | "McGuire" |
There is some doubt over the prefix of the Ospreys, they may be 13- or even 11-
Click here for a selection of photos or visit my website for the full set. As always thanks for reading if you got this far! A massive thank you must go out to both CAS and FLAG.