Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base
Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base is the Utah Air National Guard base co-located with Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC). On September 11, 2025, the day after the assassination, this base served as the arrival and casket-loading point for Air Force Two as the aircraft received Charlie Kirk's casket for the flight to Phoenix. This page documents the base and the loading event that took place there. It records a respectful official transport and alleges no wrongdoing by any person. The full flight narrative lives on the Air Force Two Casket Flight page; this page focuses on the base itself.
About the base
Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base is the home installation of the Utah Air National Guard. It sits on the grounds of Salt Lake City International Airport rather than at a separate civilian terminal, sharing the airport's runways while operating as a military facility. Because it is a military base, it offers a controlled, secure ramp for government and VIP aircraft movements — the kind of setting used for official functions such as the dignified transfer of remains.
The base is the closest military airfield to Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, roughly 45 miles to the south, where the September 10 shooting occurred. Its co-location with the main Salt Lake City airport made it the practical point for a federal VIP aircraft to land and conduct a casket transfer in the immediate aftermath.
Which plane used it
The aircraft that used the base for the casket transfer was Air Force Two — a US Air Force Boeing C-32A VIP transport (the military 757-200) associated with Vice President JD Vance. The C-32A fleet operates under Special Air Mission (SAM) callsign variants and the AF2 call sign when carrying the Vice President.
- Aircraft: US Air Force C-32A (Boeing 757-200), Air Force Two
- Tail (baseline): 99-0004, the C-32A logged to the Vance role — see 99-0004 Vance Flight
- Operator: US Air Force (VPOTUS / government VIP use)
- Arrival at Roland R. Wright ANGB: ~2:23 PM MDT, September 11, 2025
- Departure with the casket: ~4:30 PM MDT, September 11, 2025
The arrival and departure times above are drawn from public reporting of the September 11 movement; the exact published tail number and call sign for the casket leg are listed as open questions on the Casket Flight page.
What trip it was on
The casket movement was one leg of a longer official trip. The aircraft came from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, landed at the Utah Air National Guard base to take on the casket, and then departed onward to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for the memorial service.
- Andrews → Salt Lake City (Roland R. Wright ANGB): the inbound leg that positioned Air Force Two in Utah
- Salt Lake City → Phoenix (Sky Harbor): the outbound leg carrying Charlie Kirk's casket to the memorial
This routing places the Utah ANG base in the middle of the chain — the receiving point between the East Coast departure and the Arizona memorial. See the airport pages for Joint Base Andrews and the related military fields catalogued in this section.
The casket transfer
According to widely shared coverage of the event, Vice President JD Vance was present at the base and, as reported, personally helped carry Charlie Kirk's casket aboard the aircraft. An honor guard was present, and Erika Kirk and family members were involved in the transfer. Mainstream coverage treated the event as a dignified, respectful transfer of remains by the sitting Vice President accompanying a slain political ally home.
These details are reported attributions describing a publicly covered ceremony, not claims of any wrongdoing. Both JD Vance and Erika Kirk are living; this page states plainly that it documents a respectful official transport and makes no accusation against any person.
Why it matters to the investigation
The casket transfer at Roland R. Wright ANGB is a fixed point in the immediate post-assassination timeline. It is the one aircraft event in the entire Planes catalog whose purpose is openly and undisputedly reported — a respectful official transport of the remains — which makes it a useful anchor against which other, contested flight claims can be dated and cross-checked.
It is also notable that the casket transfer used a military base near Salt Lake City rather than the civilian terminal. That choice fits the security and protocol needs of a VIP aircraft and a dignified transfer, and it ties the post-event movement to the same Salt Lake City airport complex that Charlie Kirk himself had flown into the morning before (on N102DZ). Cataloguing the base keeps the verifiable, on-the-record portion of the aviation timeline clearly separated from the disputed claims documented elsewhere in this section.
Open questions
These are records-completeness questions, asked respectfully and implying no wrongdoing:
- What is the exact published tail number and call sign for the September 11 casket leg into and out of Roland R. Wright ANGB?
- What are the precise ramp arrival and departure times in the base's own records?
- What is the official manifest of those who flew out of Salt Lake City with the casket to Phoenix?
- Which unit and personnel provided the honor guard and ground handling at the base that day?
Sources
- News coverage of Vice President JD Vance accompanying Charlie Kirk's casket from Salt Lake City to Phoenix on September 11, 2025.
- Public reporting and imagery of the tarmac casket transfer.
- Public ADS-B tracking for Special Air Mission / Air Force Two movements in the September 11 window.
- Investigation notes confirming Charlie Kirk arrived at Salt Lake City International on September 10, 2025 (tail N102DZ), establishing the same airport complex as the post-event transfer point.