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Playing in google found this from them, 

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Official update from the 325th Fighter Wing
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Oct.10, 2018 4:50 p.m. 

Tyndall Air Force Base took a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. The base has sustained extensive damage. The Ride Out Element will conduct initial damage assessments when it is safe to do so.
Michael was a Category 4 catastrophic hurricane when it made landfall with catastrophic wind speeds. There have been no injuries reported on Tyndall at this time.

Teams will work diligently to recover base in the coming weeks. The storm brought down trees and power lines. It removed roofs from buildings and caused significant structural damage.

The conditions of the runway are unknown at this time.

 

https://www.tyndall.af.mil/Hurricane/

Edited by southwestforests
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Oh, had forgotten about that installation. 
In 1970s we lived in Macon, Georgia, in middle of state, while Dad did 2 tours at USN recruiting area headquarters there.

We used base facilities a bit south at Robins AFB.

Saw earlier today that Macon was having 65mph gusts.

Your mention of Fort Rucker connects with those thoughts to being up question of storm impacts, thankfully less than areas closer to the coast, at Robins.

Edited by southwestforests
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Yeah I remember when I lived there during my dad's UH-60 transition back in '89. Visited a few times after that, if you haven't been to the Army Aviation Museum there it is a MUST go to facility. One can only hope everyone is doing ok everywhere down there.

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2 hours ago, USAFsparkchaser said:

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/tyndall-afb-leveled-by-hurricane-michael-as-most-other-installations-avoid-major-damage-1.551072

I wonder if it will be worth it to rebuild. From the video in the link it doesn’t look like many facilities escaped damage.

 

Given the location, airspace, and mission (F-22 FTU, GCI training, and WSEP among others) I can't see them not rebuilding.  What will be really problematic is keeping the two student pipelines going during the process.

 

Regards,

Murph

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If the base is that bad off, would it not make sense just to cut their losses and relocate all the operations to a base inland?   If they rebuild, only a matter of time before it gets trashed again.  Leave it functional for access to the nearby ranges but move the flying units somewhere further inland.   Didn’t the AF do something similar when another base in FL got leveled back in the 90’s?   

 

On a related note, did all the aircraft get out of there before the storm hit?    Hate to think some poor F-22 was down for maintenance and was stuck riding out that monster in a sheet metal hangar.   

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Yeah I watched a video last night of them flying EVERYTHING outta there either yesterday morning or Tuesday.

 

Since the subject of relocating is coming up, why not move it all just west to Eglin? It would probably be cheaper to invest in infrastructure there than rebuild at Tyndall no?

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This morning I saw some film on Fox news that says the base commander says that there is not  one single habitable building on the base, including housing and hangars.

 

I would think that the USAF might decide to let this one go, except where else could you put training and coastal defense for the Gulf?

 

Ed

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Maybe it sounds silly, but I'm glad it was the display F-15 which got flipped and not the older jets -it is much easier to replace since there are a lot more surplused F-15 still around than there are of the older aircraft.

You take what good news you can get at times like this, anything which might even halfway begin to look like it might potentially be ponderable as being good news counts as a bright spot within the overall loss.

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1 hour ago, TheRealMrEd said:

This morning I saw some film on Fox news that says the base commander says that there is not  one single habitable building on the base, including housing and hangars.

 

I would think that the USAF might decide to let this one go, except where else could you put training and coastal defense for the Gulf?

 

Ed

McDill AFB is further south near Tampa....if they have the space......

https://www.macdill.af.mil/

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9 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

This morning I saw some film on Fox news that says the base commander says that there is not  one single habitable building on the base, including housing and hangars.

 

I would think that the USAF might decide to let this one go, except where else could you put training and coastal defense for the Gulf?

 

Ed

The F-22's are a national asset.  Stick them in the middle of the desert somewhere where they are safe from hurricanes and tornadoes.   As far as "coastal defense for the gulf", were any of the units at Tyndall assigned an air defense mission in the first place?  If so, maybe just stand up / relocate an ANG unit with F-16's at what's left of Tyndall or co-locate it at NAS Jacksonville.   As bad as Tyndall is, I don't think they can full close it since it's right next to those live fire ranges and you can't have drones flying over populated areas to an inland base.   That being said, it's a demonstrated fact that these storms are getting stronger and more frequent.  Seems crazy just to blindly rebuild the entire operation in the same coastal location. If they do, they need to really take a look at hardening the base.  Boxy sheet metal hangars don't cut it any more.   It's embarrassing that for a such a unique aircraft, the ones that couldn't fly were simply left in hangars to get destroyed or seriously damaged.  It sounds like a significant percentage of the USAF's F-22 fleet is now out of commission because of this.

 

 If nothing else, simply build some hardened aircraft shelters like they have at pretty much every base in Europe and if an aircraft can't fly when a storm approaches, just gotta tow it into a HAS and close the door.   They don't cost very much, the USAF built hundreds of them back in the cold war days. 

 

I wonder what this will do to the F-22 pilot training?  Even though it sounds like most of the aircraft got away, it's not like they can set up shop at another base next week and resume training.  All those classrooms, simulators, hangars, etc need to be replaced.    Not good. 

Edited by 11bee
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