Hey, I feel your pain. Here is a current status report from a reserve patrol squadron flying P-3C Orions. You may have seen pics of the planes on TV recently. :)
In 1994
8 aircraft
75-85% fully mission capable
90%+ flyable at any time
250+ personnel
We hunted subs, surface ships, patroled the gulf etc.
In 2001
6 aircraft - we txfered ours to the active force because they were running out of airframe hours. We got the high time POS airframes. One just left on a one time flight for rework because corrosion ate through critical structure. One is taped up on the ramp missing engines, another is missing two props.
10-15% fully mission capable
20% flyable for trash hauling flights.
160 personnel.
We fly counterdrug runs in South america. In 3 years we caught 1 boat and took lots of pics.
The planes were build in the early 1970s. Estimated replacements for active force is 'maybe' in 2015. Add 5 years for reserve.
BTW - computer geeks: our main computer has 16K (kilo) of ferrite core memory and runs at 1.5 Mhz.
Everbody now: Thank You Bill!
Fritz