KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, NM. -- On July 19th, 2006, the 71st Special Operations Squadron launched its first dedicated CV-22 aircrew training flight for Air Education and Training Command. Led by pilot Lt Col Lovell and flight engineers TSgt Lively and TSgt Pelhan, the training sortie provided upgrade training for pilots Maj Riddick and Captain Holder, and flight engineers TSgt Delgado and SSgt Hoye.
The flight culminated a process that began four months earlier with the arrival of the first CV-22 at Kirtland Air Force Base, tail number 04-0026, on 20 March, followed by an additional three planes by early May. The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, in cooperation with the 58 SOW and the 18th Flight Test Squadron, began Operational Utility Evaluation testing of the aircraft in June.
Prior to the beginning of testing, these organizations received an interesting request. During the same period, the 58 SOW and the US Air Force had agreed to provide support at Holloman Air Force Base for filming of the movie Transformers. Initially, two MH-53s for the opening scenes were requested, but during preparations, the Air Force entertainment liaison office suggested adding the CV-22s to the movie. After obtaining clearance to do so from Lt Gen Michael Wooley, Commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, two CV-22s participated in a one-day shoot on May 26th. They can be seen in the opening sequences of the film.
OUE testing completed by the end of July, and AFSOC began transferring the CV-22s to the 58 SOW. On July 14th, 2006, the 58th Special Operations Wing and the 71st Special Operations Squadron completed the final transfer, allowing the training flight to take place five days later. The 71 SOS spent most of the remaining months of 2006 in upgrade training for the instructor cadre. The first CV-22 mission qualification class, 07-01, consisting of Lt Col Breck, Capt Fronk, MSgt Lackey, and TSgt Brown, began instruction on December 12th, 2006, rounding out a busy first year for the 71 SOS.
As Lt Col Ashly Barnes, 71 SOS Director of Operations, noted, the sortie on July 19th 2006 “marked more than the first CV-22 training flight. It marked the beginning of a new era in aviation, one in which Air Commandos challenged our adversaries with the speed and range of an airplane and the flexibility of a helicopter,” profoundly transforming the conception of aircraft capability and performance.
Since the start of training, the 71 SOS has graduated over 875 students from its curriculums, including pilots, flight engineers, special missions aviators, and instructors, while the maintainers of the 71st Aircraft Maintenance Unit support this training by working around the clock to ensure these revolutionary platforms remain airworthy.
Even with these impressive numbers, “The legacy of 20 years of CV-22 training cannot be measured in sorties or flight hours alone, but in how fundamentally this aircraft has changed the way the world thinks about aviation,” Lt Colonel Barnes said. “I am incredibly proud of what this community has accomplished in just two decades, and even more excited to see where the CV-22 and special operations aviation takes us next.”