Bomber recall: reservists help bring B-1B back from the boneyard.

A crew of Air Force Reservists from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., completed the first step in a process to bring a "retired" B-1B bomber back to active duty. The aircraft, nicknamed "Guardian," was the first B-1B authorized by Congress to return to active-duty service after being placed in inviolate storage at the Air Force's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. AMARC is commonly called the boneyard.

"Inviolate storage allows us to indefinitely preserve national aerospace assets," said Col. Lourdes Castillo, AMARC commander. "Our AMARC team can rapidly return them to service in response to emergent needs."

Reservists from Tinker's 10th Flight Test Squadron, led by Lt. Col. Steve Adams, flew the aircraft from Arizona to Dyess AFB, Texas, Sept. 2. Despite several pre-existing maintenance issues, Maj. Mike Tamez, chief of B-1 operations and a Reserve flight test weapons systems officer with the 10th FLTS, said the 1 1/2-hour flight went off without a hitch.

"It was awesome to have her airborne again after such a long downtime at AMARC," Major Tamaz said. "The engineers, mechanics and crew chiefs from the Tinker AFB maintenance crew, along with outstanding AMARC support, made this first of several B-1B regenerations a great success."

The Tinker maintenance crew responsible for preparing the aircraft for its flight to Dyess AFB was from the 654th Combat Logistics Support Squadron.

"The aircraft was in great shape," said Tech. Sgt. Jerome Howard, 654th CLSS team chief. "Very little maintenance was required beyond the required time change items that were due."

At Dyess, the aircraft will undergo an acceptance inspection. Once that is complete, the plane will be flown to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB for programmed depot maintenance before returning to service later this fiscal year.

Guardian was placed into storage in early 2003 as part of a plan to downsize the B-1 fleet from 92 to 60 aircraft and improve overall mission-capable rates. The plan worked, as the fleet's mission-capable rate improved nearly 20 percent. However, changing world events had an impact on B-1 operations, resulting in a need for additional aircraft to maintain "an adequate number of combat, training, test and attrition reserve B-1s," said Gen. Hal Hornburg, Air Combat Command commander.

Earlier this year, General Homburg directed that Guardian be recalled from storage to active service to support the global war on terrorism.

The 10th FLTS is directly assigned to the Oklahoma City ALC. It's primary mission is to provide test crews to perform functional check flights of B-l, B-52, E-3 and KC-135 aircraft after depot maintenance overhaul and repairs are complete.

"The Air Force Reserve 10th Flight Test Squadron was proud to deliver this asset back to the war fighters at Dyess AFB, and we look forward to working with AMARC and the Tinker regeneration team again in the near future as more B-1s are called back into service," Major Tamaz said.

(Maj. Rich Curry, chief of public affairs for the Reserve's 507th Air Refueling Wing at Tinker AFB, and 1st Lt. Daniel King and Rob Raine of the AMARC public affairs office at Davis-Monthan AFB contributed to this story.)