Greek Phantoms on rotation with 10^th  Gruppo
During the first two weeks of September 2003 four Greek Phantoms from 339 Mira Pantos Kerou rotated with Italian Starfighters from the 10^th Gruppo at Grazzanise. Phantoms and Starfighters together at one base? For us, this was a good reason to leave our homes in Holland for Italy.

First we have been checking for best way to get there. This didn’t take much time. At www.ryanair.com we found cheap tickets from Frankfurt-Hahn to Roma-Ciampino. We discovered that they fly twice a day from and to Roma. This means that we were able to make this a day-trip. After we booked the tickets we contacted the 10^th Gruppo at Grazzanise. A very friendly Lieutenant let us know that we were more then welcome to visit their unit.

So it happened that we left our homes on the 9^th of September at 02.30h AM to drive to Hahn, some 280kms. We reached the airport in time and at 06.30h we departed in a Boeing 737-800 for a 01.30 hours flight heading Rome. At 8 o’clock we left the plane and only having hand luggage to carry we drove away in a rental car at 08.15h. We decided to make a short stop enroute at Frosinone, the airfield where the NH500s are based. The 72° Stormo did not appear to be very busy, only three choppers were actually in the air. Having spend some 45 minutes along the fence we decided to travel on, we were halfway Grazzanise, our main target for the day.

Exactly in time we reached the main gate of the 9° Stormo which is the wing controlling the 10^th Gruppo. This unit is worth a visit anyway, they will be the last front line squadron to operate the F-104 Starfighter in the world. Since the 5° Stormo from Cervia and 37° Stormo from Trapani traded their F-104Ss for F-16As, the 20^th Gruppo from Grosseto and the 9^th at Grazzanise are the last to operate this remarkable aircraft. Recently the 20^th gruppo trained their last students ever on the F-104 and will soon start focusing on the Typhoon which will be introduced soon at Grosseto. It is expected that the last Starfighter movements at Grazzanise will be at the end of 2004.

The majority of the F-104 pilots don’t really mind that the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI) will retire the aircraft soon. Although they realize very well that they fly in a very unique aircraft they consider it to be very outdated and not capable anymore. It doesn’t meet the high standards of modern tactical aviation by far. Aviations enthusiasts of course don’t care at all about this but for the AMI not being able to keep up with serious threats of today’s reality is a real pain. This made the staff decide to retire the F-104 even earlier than expected and leased F-16s from the USAF.

The same kind of problems can be found with the Hellenic Air Force (HAF). Although they retired the F-104 Starfighter in the early 90s already, the HAF is also dealing with outdated aircraft. Among them is the F-4 Phantom, which was on rotation at Grazzanise. The F-4 is currently undergoing a modification program called ‘Peace Icarus 2000’ to keep the aircraft flying until 2010. 

As we entered the base we noted 4 Greek Phantoms and two C-130s. Since we saw the C-130s being loaded with cargo, we draw the conclusion that this was the last day of the rotation. The Phantoms were almost ready for departure to Andravida situated in the north of the Peloponesos, Greece largest peninsula. We were lucky, our escort told us about do’s and don’ts and wished us a pleasant day, which we had. After photographing the Spooks on the flight line we enjoyed the sound of J79 engines at departure. After take off, they formed for a four ship low pass over the 9^th Gruppo squadron building and they were gone.

In the afternoon there was also flying activity with the Starfighters. Just before some severe rain showers invaded the area we were able to catch them on slide film. At the end of the afternoon we left Grazzanise for Rome. Our actual plan was to drive back via Latina to catch a few SF-260s but the weather was to bad for even thinking of leaving the car…

Up north the weather seemed to be improving. Since we were back with the airport early we decided to go downtown for a couple of hours. So we ended up in the centre of Rome to do a tourist d-tour. We saw lots of really old buildings, among them the Colloseum. Really impressive to see this real in life at last. Of course we had a nice pizza before we departed from Roma-Ciampino at 22.00h to Hahn, where we landed around 23.30h. After a 3 hour drive back home we fell asleep contended. It was a long and tiring day but if we could do it again tomorrow, be sure we would!