German Tornados, one specially painted to commemorate the event, fly over the German air force Flying Training Center at Holloman Air Force Base, NM Oct. 13 2009 on the way to achieving the 55, 555th flight hour in a Tornado. Col. Peter Klement, German air force Flying Training Center commander and Col. Jeff Harrigian, 49th Fighter Wing commander, werer flying the painted Tornado. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Veronica Stamps) 
Some background, turns out the German Air Force trains its personnel here in the states. Since 1958 GAF candidates are brought to Lackland AFB in Texas where they undergo some screening and initial training. Back before 1992 the sucessful Air candidates would then be scattered accross the nation to get their specific flight training. In 1992 with the adoption of the Tornado as the primary strike and fighter aircraft for the German Air Force they consolidated all training at Holloman AFB under a single banner: 
Lovely, Great paint job. I love that Zia emblem too!!
UPDATE: Since I can't get Blogger to allow this pic to be enlarged here is the link to the picture which is available in HI RES. Third pic down, look for the blue Hi Res button to get the large size. Sorry All. Jimmy T
5 comments:
The Zia emblem is interesting for German fighters. Since you mentioned German pilots being trained in the USA, I thought I would share what Mike (frequent reader at Buck's blog) said in a comment at my blog:
...all of the pilots at Sheppard are in a program called ENJJPT (Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training), either as students or instructors. The program is for the best pilots among several NATO countries. That means that both the students and instructors are the cream of the crop...and I imagine that some of them are of the personality that they never really needed to be told how special they are.
Word verification: unquirki - sounds like Albuquerque.
Lou, the US seems to be the "place" to go when you want to learn about war! I work for a company that makes training devices and we have customers from all over the world buying our stuff ONLY because the US Army and Air Force use the stuff. They want what our boy's use.
I guess that's something to be proud of?
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Dang... that photo BEGS to be embiggened!
Buck, I put an update that has the link back to the Military network site, try that. I can't make blogger make it large even though I uploaded the pic 6 different times. Dang Blogger!!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Back in the sixties, when the GAF was mainly equipped with F-104s, ALL of their tng--basic plt tng AND active operational GAF unit tactical tng-- took place at Luke, AFB in Ariz. thru the early 80s due to the shitty wx in Northern Europe, IIRC. Times change....
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