Luke Field/Air Force Base and 56th Fighter Wing Heritage Pamphlet ...

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14 July 2004 First purchase of 143 of 273 acres for force protection near
munitions storage area completed for $950,000.
15 July 2004 Maintenance of 21st Fighter Squadron jets converted from blue
suiter to civilian contract.
1 October 2004 Manpower office reassigned from wing to 56th Mission Support
Group in move to align specialties with similar functions.
1 October 2004 A test that reassigned 56th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels to
56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron to determine any benefits
to sortie generation ended with no significant results (see entry
1 September 2003). Fuels to be returned to 56th Logistics
Readiness Squadron.
7 October 2004 Group of West Valley leaders met with DoD officials to stress
area’s support for continued existence of Luke AFB.
12 October 2004 City of Surprise announced city land near Aux #1 to be rezoned
for airport preservation.
12 October 2004 Goldwater Range Task Force met by Congressional directive find
ways endangered species on range and military use of facility
could co-exist.
1 November 2004 186-person Army Guard contingent defederalized and relieved
from Luke security augmentee duties (see entry 11 February
2003).
1 November 2004 Augmentee Duty Program (READY) began drawing personnel
from various specialties to augment base security forces.
20 November 2004 LANTIRN confidence check flight path to calibrate instruments
prior to LANTIRN mission moved for second time (see entry
1 July 1995) due to planned developments.
30 November 2004 56th Medical Group announced planned major reduction in
medical services as directed by higher headquarters.
8 December 2004 Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano met with DoD official to
stress area’s support for continued existence of Luke.
9 December 2004 Wing officials noted range closed 37 times in 2004 so Border
Patrol could remove groups that wandered onto range.
28 December 2004 It was announced that an endangered species on range, the
pronghorn antelope, was rebounding from near extinction as its
numbers increased from less than two dozen to some 58 animals.
31 December 2004 56th Fighter Wing deployed 401 personnel worldwide in support
of humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.