A Look at Waterbury – Oxford Airport in Connecticut

Story and photos by Andrew Spry

Waterbury-Oxford Airport is the largest General Aviation airport in the state of Connecticut with a 5,801-foot runway. It houses multiple charter companies that operate regular flights down the eastern seaboard but we do not get active military flights in too often. In July of 2023, our small town airport made some local history by hosting its first C-130 which was on a training flight, visiting some of the crew’s hometowns. The “Herc” that stopped in for a visit was C-130J-30, Regulation: 08-5865 using the callsign “Puma99,” after conducting a low-level training flight over the Loadmasters house.

After touching down at KOXC, the crew opened the aircraft up to family and friends of the crew. While speaking to some of the line techs, I found out that they were departing early in the morning the next day. The next morning, I arrived at the airport a few hours before the aircraft was scheduled to leave for Joint Base McGuire in New Jersey so I could get some photos of her sitting on the ramp before everything got busy with fueling and preflight operations. Upon the crew arriving from their hotel, they invited myself and a couple other people to take a tour of the aircraft.

While in the cargo hold, the flight crew started up the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and lowered the back ramp for us to depart the aircraft after the walk around and get to a safe distance for the engine start. While the crew was starting the engines, a couple Pilatus PC-12NG’s belonging to Tradewind Aviation, one of the charter companies based at the airport taxied past to take off. After the engines were started and the crew was all aboard, the “Herc” taxied out of the US Customs and Border Protection ramp onto Taxiway Bravo before departing out of Runway 36.

The visiting airframe belongs to the 62nd Airlift Squadron based at Little Rock AFB in Arkansas. The squadron has a storied history going back to WWII when it was designated the 62nd Troop Carrier Squadron flying C-47 Skytrains during the North Africa and Sicily campaigns before being transferred to England to partake in dropping paratroopers over Normandy on D-Day. After D-Day, the 62nd continued to support the allied advance into occupied France and eventually over the Rhine into Germany up until V-E Day. In early 1946, the 62nd was deactivated for 3 years until being reactivated as part of Tactical Air Command (TAC) which was eventually incorporated into the Air Combat Command (ACC) in 1992.

In 1954, the squadron became one of the first to receive C-130’s after they became operational and flew airlift missions with them during the Vietnam War. Going through many squadron name redesignations, in 1971, the 62nd Airlift Squadron became one of the training squadrons for C-130 crews with that role extending into the present day with it being part of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) with it becoming one of the premier C-130 training elements in the USAF