In ‘Viper Out’ ceremony, Hill AFB remembers 38 years of the F-16 flying the skies of northern Utah

Hill Air Force Base • Thirty-eight years after they arrived in northern Utah, Air Force pilots remain in love with the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the raw sensations that arise as the jet races past the speed of sound.

“It’s like strapping into a rocket,” Col. Lee E. Kloos, commander of Hill’s 388th Fighter Wing, said Friday. “You are part of that aircraft.”

But the F-16 is leaving as the transition to a next-generation warplane, the F-35, continues for the 388th and the reserve 419th Fighter Wing. The remaining dozen or so F-16s stationed at Hill will be gone by the end of the month, most heading to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where Air Force officials hope to expand a pilot-training program.

On Friday, hundreds said farewell to the F-16 in what officials called the “Viper Out” ceremony — a reference to a nickname Hill pilots came up with before Fighting Falcon became the jet’s official moniker in 1980.

For Kloos, the F-16 holds memories similar to his first car as a teenager — “where I learned to be a fighter pilot.” “First love” was a phrase uttered by several other experienced pilots.

“A little part of us leaves with it,” Kloos said of the plane.

The first F-16 arrived in northern Utah in 1979. Much like the F-35, the F-16 suffered its share of technical issues and cost overruns in the early years. There were computer bits that didn’t work properly, and engines that needed modification.

But soon, Hill pilots were taking a dozen F-16s for their first foreign deployment to Norway, then on to various other countries around the world. In the early 1990s, pilots from the 388th tasted combat in the F-16 during the Gulf War, striking key targets in Iraq, including facilities related to the Iraqi nuclear program.

After 9/11, F-16s from Utah would join the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, helping support a brutal ground battle. All three 388th fighter squadrons deployed to Iraq between 2007 and 2009, supporting a troop surge. They flew thousands of hours in supporting numerous request for airstrikes, many in support of friendly forces under enemy fire, according to a Hill history of the F-16.

The iconic fighter started to be phased out in Utah as deliveries of F-35s began in 2015. F-16s from the base returned from their final combat mission in Afghanistan last year.

This spring, eight Hill F-16s and more than 200 airmen from the 388th and 419th finished their final foreign training mission in the planes as they participated in training exercises with NATO partners in Spain. The deployment ran concurrent with the F-35’s first foreign training mission, from Utah to Europe.

Hill officials have said jobs won’t be lost due to the F-16 departure. Many employees will transition to support the 78 F-35s expected to be based in Utah by late 2019. And northern Utahns will still notice the iconic planes flying in and out occasionally because Hill will continue to be a repair hub for F-16s stationed across the country, officials said Friday.

“They’re not going to stop flying,” said Col. Dave Smith, 419th Fighter Wing commander. He said young airmen would continue to train with the plane as they prepare to fly the F-35.

Capt. Tyler McBride, of the 34th Fighter Squadron, part of the 388th Fighter Wing, learned in the F-16 as a rookie pilot, spending four years in the plane before transferring over to the F-35 a year ago.

The 29-year-old compared the F-16 to a flip phone, the F-35 to a smartphone. On his first flight in the F-35, he had to remind himself of all the technological advances packed into the new jet.

“All good things must come to an end,” McBride said.

And the F-35, said Smith, “will hopefully be here for another 38 years.”