20 Feb 2020

The Laughlin Heritage Corner with the 47 FTW Historian

Here at Laughlin, we started training pilots for the first time in February 1943. We had spent all summer and fall in 1942 constructing and preparing the base for occupation, and it was finally time to fly. These first classes were small and had irregular start dates, but this was the very beginning of our training mission. In these early days, we taught pilots and co-pilots how to fly bombers—WW2-era B-26 Marauders, to be precise—and these first classes lasted about four-and-a-half weeks. Over the course of World War 2, nearly 3,000 bomber pilots would graduate from Laughlin.

3 Apr 2019

Leaders in air, space and parachutes

Airmen from the 47th Operations Support Squadron aircrew flight equipment flight have gone geospatial. Well – kind of. On March 26, 2019, Tommy Sondag and Staff Sgt. Jake Strait, 47th OSS aircrew flight equipment parachute technicians, made their way east to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, America’s hub for human spaceflight training, to share what they know about packing T-38 Talon parachutes.

18 May 2017

Astronauts visit MDG commander for space suit demonstration

A NASA astronaut and a flight surgeon dropped into Laughlin to check out the new space suit designed by the 47th Medical Group commander Wednesday, May 17, 2017.