"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...
The US had more than a thousand F-4s, along with scads more
A-4, F-101s and so on. Obviously some went to museums. But
where are the rest? And if they are sitting in a desert somewhere,
what's their condition.

The F-101's were scrapped or sent to museums long ago. Some of the A-4's
recently (within the last three or four years) were sold off to the
Brazilians, IIRC, after some rebuild and modification work. I'd guess a fair
number of F-4's are still at AMARC, but a fair number have ended up as
QF-4's, getting shot at by various fighters and air defense systems. As did
a fair number of the F-102's before them (and some F-106's IIRC?).


Basically, could someone with a lot of money build themselves
an old airforce out of what's available, or has everything been
scrapped?

AMARC reutilizes what it can; they generate spares for aircraft still in
service, and sometimes they regenerate the aircraft themselves for either
domestic or foreign service. There are some law enforcement organizations
that fly aircraft that went through AMARC; I believe the remaining C-130's
flying in civilian hands in the firefighting role are also AMARC veterans.
The USAF is, from what I have read, putting a few of the B-1B's that were
sent into storage a year or two ago back into service. When their utility is
at an end, AMARC disposes of the remains to the scrapdealers.

Brooks