The Flying Dutchmen are here.
Or at least Dutch pilots who want to learn to fly F-16s.
A crew of 15 maintenance personnel also landed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
"Now the real work starts with flying them locally," Col. Richard Lohnes of the 178th Fighter Wing said in a statement.
As part of a foreign military sales program, the Springfield unit will train 16 Royal Netherlands Air Force pilots a year in 14 Dutch jets. The basic course costs the Dutch about $1 million per student. The contract could go as high as $200 million.
The mission will add 105 jobs to the base, which was left in limbo after a Base Realignment and Closure process called for stripping it of its role training U.S. pilots.
The base will welcome the Dutch at a ceremony next week.
U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, called the Dutch arrival a great day for the community.
"It speaks volumes about the quality of the training and the mechanics and all the people at the Springfield Air National Guard Base that we were able to get this mission," Hobson said.
He would like to see some more countries sign on to train here.
"We need to do at least one or two more of these," Hobson said.
Lt. Col. Jacobus van Praat of the Royal Netherlands Air Force said in a statement that the first four Dutch students already are academically trained.
"They are looking forward to start flying," he said.