Sentry Savannah 2025 - F-22s, F-35s, F-16s, and T-38s Visit Savannah-Hilton Head IAP and Get Snowed In

Sentry Savannah 2025, which the Air National Guard describes as their largest and premier air-to-air fighter exercise, got underway this week at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP. This year's participants are F-22s and T-38s from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley, F-35s from the 115th Fighter Wing at Truax Field in Madison, WI, and F-16s from the 122nd Fighter Wing from Fort Wayne ANG Station Fort Wayne, IN (some of the F-16s the 122nd FW are flying are 114th FW jets). Flying was limited, however, by a federal holiday and the Presidential Inauguration on Monday and a Winter storm that shut down the airport from Tuesday night through Friday morning. Surely the 115th FW and 122nd FW thought they were getting away from such weather when they came south for the exercise! I got to listen to them on Tuesday morning, but since I was working midnight shifts all week, it was the only listening opportunity I had before something unusual happened. Coastal Georgia received several inches of snow and ice, a rare event for us, and temperatures remained under freezing for most of Wednesday and Thursday, which kept roads as well as runways and taxiways covered with snow and ice. Since that's something we rarely deal with here in the deep south, the airport doesn't have the equipment northern airports would have to open back up quickly. Hard working Savannah-Hilton Head IAP personnel got the airport back open by Friday afternoon and some of the visiting units took to the skies.

This was my neighborhood in Savannah on Friday morning, showing why the Sentry Savannah 2025 participants weren't able to fly until Friday afternoon (there was still snow and ice in some areas on Saturday afternoon!)

Coastal Georgia Winter Storm and Sentry Savannah 2025

On Tuesday night (21 January 2025), Coastal Georgia got hit with a significant winter storm. Over Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, it dropped rain, sleet, and snow then stayed below freezing for large parts of the day on Wednesday and Thursday. The northern part of Coastal Georgia got more snow, the southern part of Coastal Georgia received more sleet and freezing rain. The results were major impacts on roads (especially local roads because Georgia DOT has been working on highways) and the closing of airports. As I write this on Friday morning, now that I'm home in Savannah, the neighborhood streets are still covered with ice and snow.

The coil on one of KF4LMT Mobile's antennas covered in ice on Wednesday morning toward the end of the winter storm

Aerospace, History, and Wildlife in Florda's Space and First Coasts - Space Coast Road Trip Radio Report; 7-11 January 2025

Last week, I took what is becoming my annual Space Coast Road Trip. I left Savannah going south on Tuesday and returned on Saturday. On the way to Titusville on Tuesday, I stopped in Ponce Inlet and visited the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum and then continued on to visit the Merritt Island NWR before checking into the hotel. I spent Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, catching a SpaceX launch while I was there. On Thursday, I spent the morning at the Merritt Island NWR and Canaveral National Seashore then visited the American Space Museum and Hall of Fame and the Valiant Air Command Museum in the afternoon. On Friday, I headed back up I-95 to St Augustine where I visited the St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, Castillo de San Marco, Colonial Quarter, and the Fort Mose Historic Site. I overnighted in St Augustine Beach so I wouldn't have to drive through Jacksonville on a Friday afternoon/evening and drove back to Savannah on Saturday morning. Temperatures in Florida were below normal and winds were high throughout the trip, but with the exception of Saturday morning, there wasn't any rain to deal with. Some excellent meals were had along the way and it was also good to catch up with radio friends at several of them.

Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex. Atlantis holds a soft spot for me and I love to visit it at KSC because it was the shuttle I saw launch on its STS-125 mission on 11 April 2009 - the only Shuttle launch I got to see launch in person.

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; December 2024

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and has a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2025 ahead. Due to the Christmas holiday, December was a bit of a limited month MilCom-wise; most of the activity was in the first half of the month. A mid month road trip to Jacksonville provided the opportunity to hear a bit more than I would have otherwise. This month, I'll be taking a week-long road trip to Florida's Space Coast, so look for a post about it after I return from the trip. I'm looking forward to listening to space related communications for a week!

The remains of the JA Jones Construction shipyard slipways in Brunswick, GA, where Liberty Ships were built during World War II

Road Trip Radio Report - A Foggy Jacksonville Road Trip; December 2024

I recently took a road trip down to Jacksonville, FL to visit the Jacksonville Zoo and do some military aviation watching. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to good military aviation watching or listening. A thick fog persisted for much of the time, as evidenced in this photo looking across the St Johns River from Huguenot Park towards NS Mayport illustrates. The trip didn't turn out, however, to be a complete bust on the radio side of things. From where I was staying on the north side of Jacksonville, I could hear plenty of railroad and port communications.

The fog during this road trip to Jacksonville was so thick that I could barely see the ships at NS Mayport from across the St Johns River at Huguenot Park

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; November 2024

I didn't have as much radio time during November as I would have liked, so the month's recap isn't quite as extensive as usual. Even with the reduced time around the radios, it was still an interesting month. At the end of the month, I took a nice road trip to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL that gave me the opportunity to listen to Mayport and Jacksonville area MilCom a bit more closely than usual. 

PIONEER 21 (P-8A, 167956, VX-1)

Road Trip Radio Report - Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach; 23-25 November 2024

Over the weekend, I took a road trip down to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL. I left Savannah on Saturday morning and returned on Monday morning. It was a beautiful Autumn weekend for a road trip - cool in the mornings, but particularly on Sunday afternoon, warming up just into short sleeve weather. On Saturday, I enjoyed taking a boat tour around Amelia Island and Cumberland Island followed by a trolley tour of historic Fernandina Beach and a walk around the Fernandina Beach Historic District. On Sunday, I caught the sunrise on the beach, then visited Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park, Kingsley Plantation, and Huguenot Park. 

I enjoyed some good radio listening during the trip. Even though it was a weekend, I still heard some MilCom (including a terrific catch at NS Mayport). I caught some FedCom from the US Coast Guard (Sectors Charleston and Jacksonville) and National Park Service. There was a good mix of conventional and trunked public safety communications.  I heard Marine VHF/Port communications from Fernandina Beach down to Jacksonville and even though I could hear train horns throughout the weekend, I only heard a bit of railroad communications. 

US Navy DDGs (Guided Missile Destroyers) moored in the basin at Naval Station Mayport, FL