At Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, the Arizona desert heat is the retirement setting for some of our nation's most heralded military aircraft. Correspondent Lee Cowan investigates the mission these vintage craft still perform today.

Tucson

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, is home to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), where thousands of retired military aircraft are stored in the desert's dry climate. This facility not only preserves these planes but also harvests parts to support active fleets, saving significant taxpayer money. Some aircraft are restored and returned to service, as seen with B-1 bombers and C-47s, while others are maintained in museums such as Planes of Fame, where they are kept flying as historical reminders. The process highlights the ongoing value of retired aircraft, both as a strategic reserve and as living history.

Aviation enthusiasts and former pilots continue to fly restored vintage planes, with organizations like Planes of Fame ensuring that many World War II and Korean War aircraft remain operational. The preservation and restoration efforts underscore the enduring legacy of these machines, demonstrating that retirement can be the beginning of a new chapter for both aircraft and those who maintain them.

A warplane retirement home

To Lee Cowan with proof that when it comes to adventures in retirement, the sky's the limit. Arizona's famous dry heat is what entices snowbirds to thaw out from the corrosive pain of winter. But for snowbirds with real wings, it's no different. This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where for almost 80 years, military aircraft have flocked to the sun-soaked desert by the thousands to live out their retirement. There's some airplanes out here that are older than I am. Here, these retirees sit, tails at attention, like tombstones in a boneyard. Just don't say that in front of the former unit commander, Neil Aurelio. We have a love-hate relationship with that title. It connotes junk, connotes decay, connotes trash. It bristles at the suggestion that his 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or AMARG as it's called, is here just to warehouse old warbirds. The way he sees it, he's giving these retirees a new life. The truth of the matter is, once they come in here, we see it as the aircraft starting their new mission. Their vital organs are harvested and shipped off to keep other planes flying, ours and our allies. So last year, we pulled over 9,000 parts. Total cost avoidance to the taxpayer, about $470 million. That's because this place acts as kind of the nation's strategic back pocket, where some of our best are cocooned from the ravages of time, first sealed in black latex, then in white to reflect the sun's heat. They can sit safely like this for years. Hey, their number may be called again to replace someone else in the fleet. It happened during the Berlin Airlift in 1948, when C-47s were resurrected from the boneyard. Last year, two B-1s in storage here for three years are now flying again. A dream come true for some aircraft that, like us, might just experience retirement remorse. You can go to the Smithsonian or Pensacola or Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum and see airplanes sitting there in the same place they've been for two or three decades, but you can't hear them, you can't smell what the exhausts smell like. Which might explain why retired Air Force pilot Chris Fahy, whose F-16 is also retired, now does this. That's a Soviet-era MiG-15 that Fahy now flies in the skies of Archino, California. Flying in the United States, the single-seat MiG that we have, I think this is the only one. Fans come out to see it in the air, as well as other retirees, here at Planes of Fame, the oldest non-government aviation museum in the country. It keeps its aging aircraft active by keeping them flying. There's a lot of debate, quite honestly, around the world in that we ought to park these things and they're too valuable. But there are more airplanes flying now, World War II airplanes, Korean War airplanes, than there were in 1970. That's in part because of the museum's founder, Ed Maloney. He started buying up hundreds of surplus aircraft after World War II. It looks like junk was not. I mean, you know, anything you can get, you get. Steve Hinton is now president of Planes of Fame. 3,000 horsepower. 3,000 horsepower. He's restored over 60 military aircraft and he's taken most of them back to their rightful place in the sky. Sounds like some of these, you've been flying longer than they were actually in service. Oh, way, way, way longer. Take his 1944 P-51 Mustang. Okay, you ready? Can't wait. Today, it survives as a flying visceral reminder that retirement isn't the end of the story. We all have another chapter in us, no matter our age. And while the sun will eventually set on all of us. Our glory days aren't a trifle. They're what made us. Both man and machine.

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