Refueling a legacy: Hornet’s final carrier deployment
Col. Jeremy Reeves (left), 380th Air Expeditionary Wing vice commander, pilots a KC-10 Extender with Capt. Mark Stewart (center), 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron pilot, and Master Sgt. Matthew Blevins (right), 908 EARS flight engineer, over Southwest Asia, July 31, 2020. On this flight, they refueled an F/A-18C Hornet from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 on the USS Nimitz, which is part of Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG-11). This is the last deployment of the legacy aircraft aboard U.S. Naval carriers, ending a 35-year legacy of naval aviation.