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Show Utah Air National Guard Will Hold Open House SStefc Utah's Air National Guard will hold an Open-House on January 7 to give the public an opportunity to view its op-perations op-perations and tour one of its new airplanes. According to Colonel R. Parry Greenwood, base commander, com-mander, the Guar J Base at 765 Ncrth 20C Wert, will be open to the public from noon until 3 p.m. next Saturday. A KC-135 Tanker, currently being phased into operation by the Utah Air National Guard, will be on the base and open for public inspection. Greenwood encouraged local citizens to "drop by" and get an idea of what Utah's Air Guard does on a day-to-day basis. "It would surprise many of our citizens to find out that we are a highly proficient, combat com-bat ready unit which flies missions on a regular basis with the active Air Force," he said. The Air Guard is currently converting from the Korean War vintage KC-97L tankers to the newer, all jet KC 135. The older planes are familiar to many people in the Salt Lake Valley who have seen them land and take-off from The KC-97's will be retired to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, a place fondly known as the "boneyard" to Air Force personnel. per-sonnel. The first plane was taken to the storage depot in mid-December and the remainder will be transferred by March 1 . The planes will join other obsolete aircraft and will either be used for spare parts or recycled as scrap metal. By sheer number, the depot has the world's third largest air force and the planes have an aggregate value of more than $6 billion dollars. Greenwod, who piloted the first Utah plane to be delivered to the "boneyard", is himself a World War II pilot and a veteran of more than 30 years of flying. "We are sad to see the old planes go because they were so safe," he commented, "but the newer planes certainly add a new dimension to our mission and we look forward to the future." He added that with the conversion, con-version, approximately 300 more openings are available requiring virtually every skill. the Salt Lake airport the past five years. The newer plane is a military version of the popular Boeing 707. It has a top speed in excess of 600 miles per hour and a range of 5,000 miles, because of the conversion, Greenwood said, the Utah Air Guard has joined the prestigious Strategic Air Command (SAC) and will fly missions world-wide with the new airplanes. |