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 Red Flag 9-2 was held at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, for the past few weeks, and on Feb 2 and 3, I was able to get on base with press credentials for their media days. About 100 of us showed up to be bussed out to a spectacular location - right in between the two runways! Later on day two we were taken over to one of the EORs (End of Runway) for landings. No limits on photography, we could shoot anything that flew. Even though there were very few foreign players this time around, this was one of the bigger Red Flag exercises. I photographed 134 different aircraft, and 62 of those alone were F-16s! Here’s the breakdown of participating aircraft: F-16s (62) - 23 from Shaw AFB; 13 from Spangdehlem, Germany (sp?); 12 aggressors from Nellis; four aggressors from NAS Fallon; a handful from Edwards AFB; four Thunderbirds were spotted practicing in their newer model Vipers; and one Nellis test bird. Twenty eight F-15s included the following: four aggressors from Nellis; 13 aircraft from Seymour Johnson AFB back east; and eleven test birds from Nellis. One of the primary highlights of this particular Red Flag, were the TWELVE F-22 Raptors  - from the 525^th FS in Alaska, and four test birds from Nellis. There were six British-based Harriers here, as well as two of their E-3 AWACs birds, along with one American E-3. Originally there were three B-2 stealth bombers present, but later that dropped to two, the Spirit of California and Spirit of Ohio. Unfortunately only one of them flew while I was on base, but it was good enough! I’d never been that close to a moving B-2 before! Four B-1 Lancers from Ellsworth AFB were here, including ‘Nighthawk’, ‘No Antidote II’, and ‘Dakota Demolition’. What a rush it was to be within 150 feet of the takeoffs! We were so close that we could've easily photographed the larger aircraft with our wide angle lenses! For the most part, a 75-300mm lens was perfect. Other aircraft types involved with this session included a C-130, several KC-135s, and an RC-135. Transient a/c seen included a C-17, and T-38.

My thanks go out to the Nellis public affairs staff for the priviledge of attending this event, and for taking time out of their days to assist us in getting out there. Hopefully those budget cuts won’t hurt too bad, and they’ll be able to offer us this opportunity again sometime in the future.