New year has Iowa Airmen back at work deicing aircraft following holiday snow

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot
  • 185th Air Refueling Wing
Sioux City, Iowa --  

Iowa Air National Guard Airmen are back at work getting aircraft ready to fly following the recent holiday break that was plagued by several ice and snow weather events in Western, Iowa.

Continuing cold temperatures had crew chiefs deicing 185th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 aircraft during the first week of January into the first training weekend of the new year. 

Since the return of air operations to Sioux City this past fall, the 185th ARW also revealed a new aircraft sporting a huge bat tail flash. The bat tail  painted on tail number 58-0057 is similar to what appeared on 185th F-16 Fighter Aircraft during the 1990’s.

The 185th originally commissioned a bat tail rendering on a previous KC-135, tail 57-2606 in celebration of their 75th anniversary in 2021.

Without warning 2606 was earmarked to be decommissioned and sent to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group last fall.

Since 2606 was sent to the boneyard, plans were made to create a replacement. The new bat plane can now be seen on the flight line in Sioux City, when it is not refueling aircraft around the world.

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