Description A squadron of 12 F-4 Phantom fighter-bombers flew back to the United States today at the end of a three-month joint training exercise with the Egyptian air force.
The Phantom squadron was expected back at their home base in Valdosta, Ga., on Saturday after an overnight stopover at the Azore Islands.
'It was 100 percent successful,' Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Wallace said of the exercise, dubbed 'Operation Proud Phantom.'
'We learned an awful lot of things about operating in a Middle East environment,' he said as the warplanes were preparing to take off.
'We learned how to operate over a desert, we learned how to operate despite sand and heat,' he said. 'We dropped an awful lot of ordnance. So it was a great training experience all the way around.
'The Egyptians learned an awful lot too' about flying and maintaining the Phantoms, he said.
Earlier this year the United States completed delivery of 35 Phantoms to the Egyptian air force. Egyptain officials denied reports in U.S. newspapers that the Egyptian pilots were finding it difficult to fly the warplanes.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Nasr, commander of this sprawling air base about 40 miles west of Cairo, told reporters Egyptian pilots flew Soviet-made MiG jetfighters as part of the joint exercise.
One of the American Phantoms crashed in the desert last August and its two crewmen were killed.
Wallace said the American squadron flew 877 sorties, dropped 300 500-pound bombs and 817 practice bombs, fired 17,000 rounds of 20mm cannon and five television-guided maverick missiles.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
May / 1980
To Month/Year
October / 1980
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Operation Proud Phantom Cairo West Air Base Egypt summer 1980
