Missouri National Guard retires historic C-23 Sherpa

Current and former crewmembers of the Missouri National Guard's original C-23 Sherpa, number 88-1861, gather to retire the twin-engine passenger and cargo craft at the Missouri Guard flight facility in Springfield, Mo. (Ann Keyes/Missouri National Guard)

By Ann Keyes
ngmo.pao@us.army.mil

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Early morning on August 22, current and former crewmembers of the Missouri National Guard's fixed-wing C-23 Sherpa, number 88-1861, gathered at the Guard aviation flight facility in Springfield for one last tour of the silvery bird.

"We are here today to honor this airframe," said current Missouri Guard Sherpa commander Chief Warrant Officer 4 James Harper.

"And we'd like to honor the people in this room who have flown this aircraft," Harper told the former crew, including two members who flew the Sherpa from the Shorts Brothers factory in Belfast, Ireland, more than 20 years before when it was the first off the assembly line.

Following a brief presentation inside the Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot, retirees, pilots, other crewmembers, history buffs and family and friends of those affiliated filed out to the flight line for a close-up view.

"This thing is really well-designed," said retired warrant officer John Reed, of West Plains, who flew the Sherpa over the Atlantic Ocean to its permanent base in Springfield. "We flew her from Belfast to Iceland to Greenland to Quebec before getting her here."

Others, too, had stories to tell, including retired warrant officer Greg McManus, who piloted numerous aircraft before he left the Missouri Guard a little more than two years ago.

"It's really a phenomenal aircraft. It flew all over Iraq and North and South America, and it did it without flaw. It's built really rugged, really safe," McManus said. "This aircraft has seen 10,000 combat hours, which is really a testament to the craft and pilots."

McManus, who flew the C-23 Sherpa while deployed to Iraq, said he felt the mission was an important one.

"The more freight we flew, the more it kept guys off a convoy, which made me feel we were doing a great service since that's where the improvised explosive devices are found."

In country, too, number 88-1861 proved integral to the Guard mission, specifically for state emergency duty, said Harper. The Sherpa ferried parts and people during Hurricane Katrina; it was used last year to aid in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; water was dropped from the craft on out-of-control wildfires; it was used during this year's flooding in southeast Missouri; and again over the last three months on missions to tornado-ravaged Joplin.

"This aircraft has aided a tremendous amount of disaster relief," Harper said.

The Missouri Guard's C-23 Sherpa is the first of some 40 that will be retired or turned in as part of the Department of Defense's planned divesture of the airframe, although Missouri expects to have a replacement C-23 based in Springfield until the Army National Guard's divesture is completed by December 2014.

The twin-engine, C-23 Sherpa may or may not be replaced with another fixed-wing aircraft in the Army National Guard, said Harper, who holds out hope that the Sherpa mission will be extended 10 more years.

Whether Harper's hope is realized remains to be seen, but for this Sherpa, time is up.

Current crewmembers and a few former climbed onto the cargo and passenger craft for its last Missouri National Guard flight, this one to San Antonio, Texas, where the Sherpa will receive maintenance before being transferred or retired. Onlookers squinted through a bright summer sun as number 88-1861 taxied the runway between arcs of water sprayed from runway fire trucks.

"We're going to miss this old girl," said Harper before the Sherpa took to the Missouri sky for its final Show-Me State flight.