An airman with the 1st Special Operations Maintenance Squadron runs to get in place as an MC-130P Combat Shadow finishes preflight checks during an exercise on the flightline at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on July 25, 2011.

HURLBURT FIELD — Early Friday morning before the guests arrived, Lt. Col. Doug Distaso took his 11-year-old son, Colby, out to the flight line for a final, quiet tribute to the stalwart MC-130P Combat Shadow.

The pair circled the hulking aircraft, Distaso pointing out its specialized radars and the doors where special forces troops hopped out into remote war zones.

In less than an hour, with all the pomp of a military ceremony, Distaso and the rest of Northwest Florida would say goodbye to the 9th Special Operations Squadron and their long ties with the Combat Shadow.

But, first, a few moments of reflection.

“If I had time to be sad before, I didn’t know it,” admitted Distaso, the squadron’s commander, as he eyed one of the last planes at Hurlburt Field. “It would have been a lot harder if we had been sitting around and staring at each other.”

As the squadron has ramped down its ranks — cutting from 125 airmen to about 30 in the past few months — it hasn’t let up its pace, meaning most members have been deployed for the past year and a half. There wasn’t much time for nostalgia.

“Now looking at it here, this plane has been in the air for thousands of hours and had so many days deployed to get stuff moved overseas and put people in the places they need to be,” Distaso said. “It was a very good aircraft.”

On Friday, the 9th SOS shut down at Hurlburt Field, leaving its personnel and aircraft behind and moving in name only to Cannon Air Force Base.

The Combat Shadow, a special mission aircraft used for moving special forces troops and supplies, returned from its final overseas deployment late last month. It will be retired next June.

The aircraft has a long and storied history in Northwest Florida, where it arrived over 25 years ago. It’s flown countless missions refueling helicopters and dropping off or picking up special forces troops and supplies.

Master Sgt. Rico Watkins, who has flown the plane since 2002, said he will miss being a part of the squadron’s mission.

“You feel like you are close to the battle,” he said. “We can put troops on the ground almost anywhere to help with the fight.”

He did note, though, he would not mourn the aircraft’s lack of good air conditioning.

One of Watkins’ fondest memories was when the squadron deployed at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

“It was a good lesson in camaraderie,” he said. “We were in this isolated place with basically nothing. We had to work together to do everything, build a gym, a chow hall, all that. It was a good time.”

Watkins doesn’t know yet exactly what his next job will be.

The Combat Shadows will be replaced with the newer MC-130J Commando IIs, but they will not be located at Hurlburt.

“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “This is the only plane I’ve ever flown. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but now it’s time to look to what’s next.”

Combat Shadow's tour of duty

The 9th Special Operations Squadron and the MC-130P Combat Shadow have a long history in Northwest Florida. Here are a few key events over the years:

March 1988 — 9th Special Operations Squadron stands up at Eglin Air Force Base to fly the MC-130P Combat Shadow (then HC-130P).

Feb. 1990 — On the first night of Desert Storm Combat Shadows flew as low as 500 feet to refuel helicopters.

May 1995 — Combat Shadows from Northwest Florida helps enforce a no-fly zone over the former Yugoslavia.

Aug. 1998 — Local Shadows support enforcement of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq.

March 1999 — The 5th Special Operations Squadron at Duke Field merges with the 9th Special Operations Squadron at Eglin.

Feb. 2002 — A Combat Shadow from Northwest Florida crashes in a remote part of Afghanistan. Eight U.S. service members are injured, but none of the wounds are life-threatening.

Spring 2003 - 9th Special Operations Squadron is sent into Iraq for the first days of Operations Enduring Freedom. Their deployments continue without cessation for the next 10 years.

May 2013 — About 400 people with the 9th Special Operations Squadron and the 1st Special Operations Maintenance Squadron moved from Eglin to Hurlburt Field, taking their fleet of MC-130P Combat Shadow aircraft with them. As a team, they ran their flags about 15 miles to their new home.

Fall 2013 — On one of its final deployments with the Combat Shadow, the 9th Special Operations Squadron helps set up operations in the Horn of Africa for the first time.

Spring 2014 — It was announced that the MC-130P Combat Shadow would be eliminated and replaced with the newer MC-130J.

Sept. 2014 — Last team returns to Hurlburt Field from their final combat deployment with the Combat Shadow.

———

©2014 the Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) Distributed by MCT Information Services

