FighterControl

A few pictures of the 474TFW,429TFS deployment to Bentwaters in May 1985

NA 429TFS by 80560, on Flickr

NA 80-484 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 80-474 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-406 by 80560, on Flickr

NA F-16 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-405 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-403 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 429TFS,474TFW by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-399 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 429TFS by 80560, on Flickr

NA 80-484 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 80-474 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-406 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-403 by 80560, on Flickr

NA 79-406 by 80560, on Flickr

Great to see those

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

Nice shots, thanks for sharing these with us. Never got to see them myself, at that time didn't have a car.

This would have been a Coronet deployment of some sort. Sadly, the absolute treasure trove of information on such subjects, the sharpshooter.maj website, was discontinued a couple of years ago. Not sure if anybody took screenshots of the site before it was taken down? I'd love to be able to do something along the same lines but I simply don't have the time at the moment.

EDIT: In the event of the Cold War turning "hot" in the 1980s, the Nellis F-16s, along with those from Myrtle Beach, SC, would have deployed to Bentwaters, as the based A-10s would have already forward deployed to the Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) in West Germany. The F-16's role would have been to carry the US B-61 freefall nuclear bombs that were allegedly held in reserve at either Bentwaters, or Woodbridge, or, most likely, both!

Wow they look nice

Bring back great memories

I saw those, took a day off work and went up with my mate Frank - he drove a mk 1 cortina like Nigel Mansell but by the mid 80s he had a Ford Orion company car and believe me he would have passed Mansell as we rocketed up for these - Frank, where are you?

I missed one as it sadly crashed the day before

Great to see those, thank you for taking the time to post them. Twelve aircraft were deployed by the 474 TFW/429 TFS under Coronet Crusader from 21 May - 19 June 1985.

For info you can still access the Sharpshooter website using the web.archive facility, try the following url:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230516184 ... oronet.htm

Cheers, Tom

TomG wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:01 am

Great to see those, thank you for taking the time to post them. Twelve aircraft were deployed by the 474 TFW/429 TFS under Coronet Crusader from 21 May - 19 June 1985.

For info you can still access the Sharpshooter website using the web.archive facility, try the following url:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230516184 ... oronet.htm

Cheers, Tom

Thanks for that Tom, that's excellent news! I wasn't aware such a facility existed!