A History Of Me and Aviation

Like most kids, I had lofty dreams and ambitions. The first of which was to work at a car wash. Thankfully, I outgrew that one pretty quickly, but the love of machines carries forward with me this day. The one dream that pretty much stuck with me was the dream to fly.

A dream that included flying for the USAF on an A-10. I've always loved the Warthogs, probably always will (thankfully the plane I did fly on isn't the jealous type). By the age of 18 I was 6'8" tall and I had already realized that any chance of being a military pilot was dashed on the rocky shores of reality. Still, I had had a desire to fly and I figured if I couldn't fly, I'd get as close to a plane as I could so I enlisted in the USAF and had a guaranteed job as an F-16 avionics technician.

SWEET! It's not flying an A-10, but hey, I'm working on plane parts so it's all good. While going through MEPS (Military Enlisted Processing Station) I mention to the sergeant that assigns jobs that I want to fly. He mentions that there are two openings for a B-52 gunner and a KC-135 boom operator. Gunner!? Hey, that works! Visions of B-17s storming over Germany flew through my mind and I said, "I'll go for it!". His response caused me some concern, "You have to switch from guaranteed electronics to open general". In short, I could become a cook.

"I'll still go for it!", and with a swish and flourish of the mighty military pen, I was open general and hopefully soon to become a gunner. Which is exactly what happened, after basic training I went through a "Enlisted Aircrew Undergraduate Course" which basically teaches you a year of aviation theory and principle in six weeks. Forty airmen started the class, five of us graduated. The final exam was a three person oral examination consisting off 100 questions. You needed 100% to pass.

After EAUC I was off for survival training and then final instruction at Castle AFB. Upon arrival at Castle me and my buddy Mike were told that first term airmen can't be gunners, it's a reup job only. We produced our orders, and away we went. Well, away Mike went. They sidelined me while they researched flight regs as they were concerned about my seating height for the ejection seat. Well, USAF flight regs stated, "The seating height for an officer cannot exceed 36 inches". HA! I was enlisted, so through a loophole, I started training a few days behind.

After a couple of months and being very proud of the shiny silver wings on my chest I was whisked to K.I. Sawyer AFB (near Marquette, MI) and began my short but awesome stint as an AFSC 11170 (Air Force Specialty Code 11170 - Defensive Fire Control Systems Operator).

I was a gunner and I took my place in one of the oldest flying duties around, apart from pilot, of course. After racking up 5000 hours and a lot of stories that I will probably share to fill the space between my flying lessons, SAC decided to get rid of gunners and shortly thereafter my dreams of flight were again on hold.

Now, 16 years later the dream lives on in the form of one CFI and one Cessna 172 Skyhawk SP - N972TA.