The Minister of Defence, Dimitris Avramopoulos said in his speech, that
this is a very special day in the history of the Hellenic Air Force. Like the
previous speaker he thanked all crews and technicians who worked and
served with the Corsair for their outstanding job. He mentioned that the
decommissioning of the A‐7 is not only a farewell for the Hellenic Air Force
but also for all aviation enthusiast of which many had come to Greece to join
the celebrations. He also honoured the 13 causalities who gave their life
while flying the A‐7. During his speech a two‐ship formation made the final
fly by.
According to the HAF´s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Evangelos Tournas,
the retirement of the A‐7 will leave no gap, but will be succeeded by the
much more modern Lockheed Martin F‐16 Block 52+, which currently repre‐
sents the most advanced version of the F‐16 series.
At the end of the ceremony everybody moved towards the crowd line just to
watch a unique formation consisting of one TA‐7C Corsair, a Mirage 2000‐
5EG, a McDonnell Douglas F‐4E Phantom II as well as a Lockheed Martin F‐16
Block 52+. The A‐7 left the formation in a steep climb and made then the fi‐
nal landing of this type. The flying displays of the ZEUS Team (F‐16 Demo)
and the Daedalus Team (T‐6 Texan II) completed the farewell ceremony. Af‐
ter a total of 440.000 flying hours the Greek LTV A‐7 Corsair’s service life
came to its end!
Our thanks go to all men and women of the Hellenic Air Force for a perfect
organization, especially to Col. Alexandros Marinos and the whole ground
crew who made our visit so successful. Very special thanks goes to Mag. El‐
friede Nikolakopoulou‐Pirzl, from the Austrian Embassy in Greece, for her
generous support.
LING TEMCO VOUGH