After greater than 5 a long time of superior jet coaching, the fiftieth FTS is inactivated and its legacy absorbed into a brand new ‘super-squadron’ at Columbus AFB.
The fiftieth Flying Coaching Squadron, often called the ‘Strikin’ Snakes,’ was inactivated in a proper ceremony at Columbus Air Power Base, Mississippi, on July 2, 2025. The inactivation is one in every of many adjustments to the way in which formal flight coaching is carried out throughout america Air Power. Columbus AFB is the implementation base for a lot of of those adjustments.
The inactivation of the fiftieth FTS is a significant change for the bottom because the unit has skilled 1000’s of pilots within the superior undergraduate pilot coaching position because it started flying the Northrop T-38A Talon at Columbus on June 1, 1972. By means of the years the pilots skilled by the Strikin’ Snakes have gone on to fly quite a lot of plane, however after the introduction of Specialised Undergraduate Pilot Coaching within the early Nineteen Nineties, the fiftieth FTS was the subsequent step within the pipeline for fighter and bomber pilots coaching at Columbus.
Nevertheless, the closure of the fiftieth FTS doesn’t imply the fighter/bomber pilot coaching mission at Columbus ends.
The plane, seasoned teacher pilot roster, gear and amenities will likely be mixed with the co-located forty ninth Fighter Coaching Squadron, ‘Inexperienced Knights’ into what Lt. Col. Nicole ‘Jose’ Jansen describes as Air Schooling and Coaching Command’s first ‘super-squadron’ of T-38s. Jansen was the fiftieth FTS Commander at inactivation and officer chargeable for casing the colours on the finish of the formal ceremony. Casing the colours is a time-honored army custom of rolling the unit guidon and marketing campaign streamers and inserting them in an olive-drab material sleeve for long-term storage.
Initially shaped on Nov. 20, 1940, and activated on Jan. 15, 1941, because the fiftieth Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Military Air Corps, the Strikin’ Snakes flew the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk from Hamilton Discipline, California, tasked with protection of the West Coast from a possible Japanese invasion. That is the place it gained a ‘Fighter Squadron’ designation in Might 1942.
The squadron then moved to Iceland Base Command in late 1942 the place it carried out aerial intercepts of German assault, bomber and reconnaissance plane as its main mission whereas offering anti-submarine patrol and ship convoy escort by way of the North Atlantic as a secondary mission. Pilots of the fiftieth FS downed 5 enemy plane in fight together with a Junker Ju-88 bomber. Because the conflict in Europe wound down, the fiftieth FS was assigned to the Eighth Air Power, ‘Mighty Eighth,’ in England earlier than inactivation on August 9, 1944.
The fiftieth Fighter Squadron was dormant till reactivation at Columbus over 50 years in the past because the fiftieth Flying Coaching Squadron flying all-white Northrop T-38A Talons. Starting in 1998 the AETC T-38 fleet moved to a two-tone tactical camouflage scheme often called the ‘Shamu-scheme’ because it intently replicates the location of the contrasting colours of Killer Whales and its most well-known Killer Whale—Shamu. In 2002 the fiftieth FTS transitioned to the T-38C Talon.
The closing of the fiftieth Flying Coaching Squadron and merging of plane with the forty ninth Fighter Coaching Squadron permits the USAF to streamline the administration and management workers into one, creates a single superior undergraduate pilot coaching syllabus for fighter/bomber pilots which mixes the supersonic, superior flying course beforehand taught by the fiftieth FTS with the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) course.
College students collaborating on this single, superior fighter/bomber fundamentals syllabus will proceed working the 60 AT-38C/T-38C Talons assigned to Columbus underneath a redesignated forty ninth Flying Coaching Squadron for the close to future. The brand new syllabus continues to be being refined by AETC and could also be tweaked barely to ship the most effective coaching for the Air Power and allied nations attainable.
Point out of the primary ‘super-squadron’ of T-38s on the fiftieth FTS inactivation ceremony signifies this can be the unannounced path ahead for AETC Flight Coaching Wings working the getting old T-38 fleet.
Many, however not all, USAF T-38s have already undergone main upgrades underneath a sequence of upkeep and sustainment applications which transformed many T-38As to T-38C requirements. The T-38C designation took place by way of the Avionics Improve Program (AUP) with the addition of recent digital cockpits, radios, ADS-B, and related help gear plus a video knowledge switch system and heads-up show.
The Propulsion Modernization Program (PMP) upgraded the Common Electrical J85-GE-5A afterburning engines to -5R requirements. On the similar time the Pacer Basic III Service-Life Extension Program (SLEP) addressed structural fatigue points and redesigned intakes to stop compressor stalls. The Escape Techniques Improve Program (ESUP) added Martin-Baker US16T zero/zero ejection seats. Pacer Basic is scheduled till 2029 with the Talon Restore Inspection and Upkeep (TRIM) Program is a simultaneous program to rapidly establish and deal with points throughout the Talon fleet as a part of sustaining upkeep. These applications are designed to take the T-38Cs to the end line and permit a clean transition as soon as the T-7A Crimson Hawk enters service.
Whereas the closure of the fiftieth FTS Strikin’ Snakes was a mandatory step within the eyes of Air Power management to streamline coaching and get monetary savings, it was a tragic ending for the Strikin’ Snakes.
Acknowledgments: Mr. Adam Prince, 14th FTW Public Affairs Officer, 2Lt. Doug Armstrong, 14th FTW Public Affairs, Capt. Austin ‘Noticed’ Dreyer, fiftieth FTS Teacher Pilot, LtC. Michael Coghlan, 14th Medical Group and LtC. Nicole ‘Jose’ Jansen, fiftieth FTS Commander.
