WEBVTT

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Master Sergeant Mike Long has spent 39

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years at the Portland Air National

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Guard base and has seen it all , from

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worldwide deployments to fighter jets

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on a golf course . The flood of '96 and

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moving all the aircraft out of here ,

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the ones that couldn't fly towing them

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up to higher ground , basically . When

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Long first arrived here in 1985 , he

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was a crew chief on the F-4 Phantom ,

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an aircraft that first took flight in

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1958 . It's kind of fun . The guys

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kinda poke a little bit of fun at me

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and the old , uh , dinosaur days with

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the F-4s and things like that in 1990 .

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And not quite a dinosaur yet . Young

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airman Long had the privilege to bid

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farewell to the F4 and welcome in a new

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generation of aircraft at the base ,

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the F-15 Eagle . A lot of the old guys ,

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they were like , well , I'm gonna get

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ready and retire here soon , so , you

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know , this is your generation . The

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F-15 Eagle proved to be a long-term

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staple in his career , spending 34

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years with that airframe . I've been

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working on these jets , uh , since 1990 .

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And I feel like I've got such a level

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of comfort , kind of like working in

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your old car when the F-15 came in like ,

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oh my gosh , you can open up the four

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doors and and the components come out

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so much easier . So they learned a lot

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from the F4 when they designed the F-15 .

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But just as the Phantom vanished , so

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too will Long's cherished eagle as the

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1402 wing has become the first

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operational unit in the Air Force to .

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Up to the F-15 EX Eagle 2 , it was

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exciting . It's just like it was when

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that first uh B model that came in from

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Accord and landed here and so I kind of

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feel like with the EX I'm going out the

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door and talking to the new guys I'm

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like , well this is your generation now

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it's different . We got some really

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good young guys out here and they're

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just great forward thinkers and so I'm

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very hopeful for the future for this

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unit . Long now retires as the last

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remaining F-4 Phantom crew chief at the

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Portland Air National Guard base , but

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has paved the way for the first F-15 EX

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crew chiefs at the wing . For the 142

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wing , I'm Stephen Conklin .