2010s: See more missions, new aircraft

Travis Air Force Base spent the 2010 decade balancing missions between two major military campaigns, a host of natural disasters both at home and abroad, and continuing improvements to the base’s infrastructure that soon included preparations for a new aircraft, the KC- 46 Pegasus air tanker.

Travis continued to fly missions supporting Iraq and Afghanistan when the decade opened, which included a February 2010 f light that had Travis land the first C-5 at the German-run base at Camp Marmal in Mazar-i-Sharif with its just-completed longer runway.

Deployments to Iraq continued, such as one that involved about 150 a irmen from the 21st Airlift Squadron, who returned in July 2010 from locations in Iraq and southwest Asia. Their work there involved flying more than 4,000 sorties and more than 11,000 hours carrying 142 m illion pounds of cargo and 197,000 personnel.

The Air Force Reserve’s 349th Air Mobility Wing continued to be a vital part of Travis’ mission. For example, the activation of more than 1,600 reservists in April 2010 to support the Afghanistan surge, which involved moving 30,000 t roops to that country ordered by President Obama.

Travis also again proved it could carry any load when a Travis C-5 loaded an F/A 18 Super Hornet at Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Aug. 18, 2011.

“Having it transported back to the States and repaired will most likely cost a third of what a new aircraft would cost,” said Charles Miller, F/A 18 deputy program manager, in a base news item. “Since this transportation task had never been attempted before, the plan to load the aircraft was not taken lightly.”

The personal cost of such deployments was highlighted when the base awarded the Purple Heart medal to