The memorial park inside the base is a fine reminder of the 48th Fighter Wing's history at Lakenheath. The garden is kept, as one would expect, in a superb condition.

Despite showing 65-777, the F-4 is actually 63-7419, a early C model - the first version of the Phantom to fly in USAF service.

F-15A (a model that was never actually based at Lakenheath) 74-0131 represents the current fleet.

Next to the memorial park is a Spitfire I replica and a quite moving memorial to the Battle of Britain. It was quite nice to see this dedication on a USAF facility.

Although one of my fellow IAS members would never speak to me again if he reads this - the F-100 has never really appealed to me, but as another former 48th mount, it does look good on the plinth in these conditions. To think I nearly didn't bother shooting it!

Many thanks to the Lakenheath fire department - in particular this airman for wearing all this kit on what was the hottest day of the year so far. Us Brits tend to think that Americans are far more used to hot weather but this guy was in this for just a few minutes and was soaked with sweat when he emerged.

Now I know nothing about fire engines - but these looked impressive. Again, many thanks for rolling them all out for us.

Little tip - judge the wind direction prior to taking a shot like this - I'm now about to get rather wet!

This is what the 48th Fighter Wing is all about - the F-15E Strike Eagle. 97-0221 is the 492nd FS's marked jet.

These detail shots were very difficult to get as the one jet we were allowed near was parked in a dark HAS! Not really the best conditions for photography. This is the right hand wing root and showing the 20mm M61 cannon (the same gun fitted to US fighters for 30+ years!) and the wings Statue of Liberty emblem.

Right hand pylon; in this case, only fitted with a instrumentation GPS pod for ACM exercises.

Left side has a AIM-120B AMRAAM, the standard medium range active-radar missile in use by US air arms and many allied countries. The later C variant has smaller rear fins for internal carriage in the forthcoming F/A-22.

The quality on these detail shots is not good as it was really pushing the limits of both the camera and my experience of photoshop! The tail of 97-0221 shows the '492nd FS' highlight effect. Despite a appearance to the contrary, our hosts insisted the aircraft had just emerged from the paintshop!

The Hardened Aircraft Shelters at Lakenheath are apparently gaining dedication boards. The one housing 97-0221 is dedicated to the crew of the 48th TFW F-111 that were lost on the 1986 Libyan raid, along with their callsign.

Looking in from the outside, '0221 is seen in it's HAS. Suprisingly two F-15s will fit in each one, as was seen during the visit.

On a friday afternoon Lakenheath has finished flying for the week so the opportunity to photograph 'live' aircraft is not possible but there's a few sitting outside.

91-0309 sitting in the afternoon sunlight after a morning flight. It takes a little gentle pressure to get the base hosts to divert from a normal PR visit to appease a bunch of fanatical aviation enthusiasts. To get permission to photograph even one other jet than the one planned takes some time! Despite the fact that approach shots, as seen on this website - can be obtained from the outside!

Looking at the Lakenheath apron on a friday afternoon. The F-15 on the right has just taxied in.

One of the 492nd FS jets on the go after a approach.

The 492nd hosted the visit and were training for a deployment to Iraq in May.

Same jet landing shortly afterwards. The cable can be seen behind.

Nose coming down.....

...and rolling out after landing.

One from the 494th with cable in the foreground.

Looking from the tower towards the 06 end and with Mildenhall in the distance and a F-15 on finals that can just be made out.

A long zoom shot at the touchdown point on runway 06.

Heat haze seemed to be a factor in the soft appearance on this shots.

Final jet of the day rolling out.

The HAS we visited this time around contained two F-15s, including the 492nd's marked jet from the previous visit.