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Elephant Walk/Art Appreciation Dat to take place April 6

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Rachel Martinez
  • 305th Air Mobility Wing
MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  All of Team McGuire and our joint base partners are invited to watch the 305th Air Mobility Wing and 514th Air Mobility Wing team up to display their Total Force mission readiness capabilities during an Elephant Walk April 6. 

The Elephant Walk will feature many KC-10s and C-17s lining up to take-off one right after the other, thanks to the efforts of the Team McGuire operations, maintenance and support personnel. 

"Elephant walk" is a unique Air Force term that grew out of World War II and became institutional memory in the new Air Force. The Army Air Forces had the luxury of large amounts of bombers by 1944, and would regularly generate attacks in excess of 1,000 aircraft from its Numbered Air Forces.  Observers commented that the nose-to-tail, single-file taxi movements of the heavily-laden bombers paralleled the nose-to-tail trail of lumbering elephants on their way to the next watering hole. The term stuck -- and was even used to define maximum sortie surge operations in Air Force regulations. 

"The 305th Air Mobility Wing is no stranger to the concept of an elephant walk," said Gary Boyd, 305th Air Mobility Wing historian. "The Can Do wing started as a B-17 bomber group in World War II and actually had more B-17s assigned to it during its history than any other Air Force unit. 

"The Can Do 305th Bomb Group of World War II would often generate as many as 36 bombers for its missions over Europe in World War II -- each combat group had four squadrons of aircraft from which to draw," he said. "Elephant walks were a part of daily operations and focused everyone from aviators to maintainers to support personnel on achieving near-miraculous turn-around on battle-scarred aircraft. Combat flying aged aircraft incredibly and it was no mean feat to meet daily aircraft generation requirements." 

The Elephant Walk has since been turned into a tradition -- one that celebrates the great teamwork and dedication of the aviators, support personnel and maintainers. The maintainers are also calling the Elephant Walk on April 6 an Art Appreciation Day. This is a chance for the maintainers to see their "art," the aircraft that they work on everyday, displayed in the air for all to see. 

Like last year's event, the Elephant Walk/Art Appreciation day will include a parade of base vehicles. This year's event will be different than last year in that it will also be celebrating the Air Force's 60th Anniversary. 

The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:45 a.m., with the first take-off scheduled for 9:40 a.m. The last aircraft is scheduled to depart approximately 30 minutes after the first aircraft takes off. Spectators will be able watch everything from a location near the flightline and taxiway. Shuttles buses will provide transportation from Chapel 1's side parking lot to the flightline. Personal cameras will be allowed, but no coolers, food or drinks please.