JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas —
For the 12th Flying Training Wing, the corrosion control paint shop provides the opportunity to repurpose and reuse select aircraft. Their capabilities allow planes to be in service longer by appropriately balancing operational needs and long-term sustainment of Air Force assets.
For the third time this year, the paint shop has repainted an aircraft to mimic another, much older aircraft. This time they repainted a T-1A Jayhawk to appear as a WWII B-26 Marauder bomber.
“This aircraft [T-1A] is assigned to the 451st Flying Training Squadron in Pensacola, Florida,” said Daniel Rodriguez, 12th Maintenance Group paint shop supervisor. “Once it got here, we evaluated the paint using a scoring system [1 to 5] five being the worst, and this aircraft fell into that category. Looking at the history of this aircraft, this time it will be sand-scuffed.”
Sand scuff describes how the paint shop scratches the paint that is present.
“To determine which paint scheme is used, there is a process of submitting a Form 1236 to get approval from higher,” Rodriguez said.
The 451st FTS requested to have the original color, markings and insignia to match that which the 322nd Bomb Group applied to their 451st Bomb Squadron B-26 fleet for the D-Day bombings. This paint scheme greatly enhances the ability of the 451st FTS to accomplish the squadron vision of “exemplifying pride in our service and heritage” by celebrating the squadron’s success stories and will serve as a visual reminder of Air Force heritage throughout its tenure.
“We affect the flying mission by a lot of little things that people don’t think about,” Rodriguez said.
The mission of the corrosion control shop is to produce, deliver and sustain assets to meet or exceed their service lives at acceptable cost and reduce the negative impacts of corrosion on operations, resources and safety.