BST, BRG, and John, thanks for the welcome.
warhammerdriver: It's a long story on "while they were still flying". The short story is budgets cuts, budgets cuts on the budget cuts, and further cuts on the afore mentioned budget cuts.
It's to the point the USAF can no longer support the majority of the Airborne personnel, and they (Airborne) have had to resort to contracting civilians and their aircraft to maintain parachutist currency.
Pope AFB is being turned over to the Army (Fort Bragg), and it's Wings deactivated or moved. Hence "While they were still flying".
Bandit
