F15s Leaving Langley For Good

It's been half a generation, but the F15s are leaving Tidewater.

For 34 years, Peninsula residents could look skyward and spot the familiar silhouette of the F-15C Eagle.
Enemy pilots never found the sight as comforting. The fighter has compiled a combat record of 104 victories against zero losses.

Now an era is coming to end — two eras, really.

The 71st Fighter Squadron at Langley is being inactivated, a move that was announced in June 2009 as part of a service-wide restructuring.
And because the 71st flies the F-15, those jets are being parceled out to other Air Force and Air National Guard units.

The last F-15 will leave Hampton in mid-September The squadron will be officially inactivated on Sept. 30.

By: Brant