According to Mode-S intercepts from the Live Mode-S network, yesterday an E-6B Mercury TACAMO (serial number 162784) aircraft departed from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, early yesterday morning and flew south over central U.S at over 20,000 feet towards Arkansas/Texas.
Based on the information gathered by Live Mode-S and Planefinder.net, both of which I feed via my ADS-B station, the E-6B was using the call word - TRUMP - for their Mode-S call. Here are the Mode-S intercepts courtesy of the Live Mode-S ADS-B network.
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-13 13:20:32 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Marvell, AR, US --- 29000
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-13 17:23:45 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Abilene, TX, US --- 26000
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-13 18:02:43 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Dardanelle AR, USA --- 28975
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-13 19:31:59 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Dallas, TX 2650 20175
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-13 23:44:25 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Dallas, TX 2650 20175
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-14 02:36:46 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Benbrook, TX, US --- 26000
Was the use of the TRUMP call word triggered by some of the weekend bare knuckled political activity we saw on the Presidential campaign trail? Not hardly. The call word was actually used earlier in the week on Tuesday, 8 March as indicated by this entry below.
AE040F 162784 TRUMP 2016-03-08 08:12:30 E-6B United States USN | SCW-1 [KTIK] Abilene KS, US --- ---
So will we see any other candidates pop up as call words onboard the DoD ABNCP? Is Trump really part of the AFKAI-1/VCSL-1 pub where these daily tac call words come from? Only time and monitoring will tell for sure. Stay tuned faithful readers.