A flight down memory lane

Capt. Asher Brooks at the controls of a KC-135 while Dick Trial looks on.

Courtesy photo

Do you remember what you were doing just forty-two years ago? Think your job, where you lived that sort of thing. Imagine a flashback to relive one of those days again.

Allow me to share. In June of 1979, this old warrior was the Commander of a KC-135, Air Force refueling tanker Squadron. The best job in the Air Force. I had been a long-time flight instructor in that venerable old airplane. I would fly with one of my crews about every week to judge their performance, encourage them and maybe teach them a thing or two.

We lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan about as different from southwestern Nebraska as is possible. For one they have recorded snowfall in every month of the year except August. The average snowfall was around 210 inches a year and none melted from October until May so it would accumulate from five to eight feet thick on the level ground. We even had a ski hill on base so loved by our high school-aged children. Winter travel and sport was by snowmobile (I owned seven) and we even rode the streets to and from work. Yes, they plowed the major streets and roads and some had windrows alongside maybe ten feet high. Kind of like driving through a tunnel.

The trip included practice refueling an F-16.

Courtesy photo

Fresh fish and clams from nearby Lake Superior were available all year and the premier dish was a rutabaga meat bun known as a pasty. Mostly forested it was a wild and wonderful place to live year round.

On the last day of 1979, I retired from the Air Force. We came back home to take over the family farm and tend to aging parents. I loved farming and also kept my finger in aviation by teaching local young persons to fly. Community service involved serving on various boards, eight years as county Commissioner and a stint on the McCook City Council. My bride, Grannie Annie had made a name for herself having won the use of a Pink Cadillac with her own business as a Mary Kay Cosmetics Sales Director. With the passing of our parents and farming not being too lucrative we sold and moved to town. Then I entered the world of Corporate Aviation. I also continued to teach young men and a few ladies to fly and possibly motivate some into a career in aviation.

I proudly state that some of the young men that I initially taught to fly are now pilots in the C-17, one the F-16, two in F-15s, one flew the world-premier fighter the F-22 plus dear to my heart two fly KC-135s with the Nebraska Air Guard. Several are now airline pilots, ag pilots (Crop Dusters) and many now fly just for the enjoyment of it.

Then recently out of the blue came an invitation by Captain Asher Brooks, a former local flying student, to ride along with him on a Tanker mission with the NE Air Guard. It came to fruition last Wednesday. My old flight suit was a bit too tight to fit (must have shrunk in the belly dimensions) so I donned one of my more recent corporate aviation uniforms; white shirt with tie and dark trousers.

I sat through the normal flight crew briefing, route, altitudes, weather, and more detail. The airplane we flew was built in 1961, the newest was built in 1964 but the vast majority of the 400+ built are still soldering on. Guard troops are impressive many with thousands of flight hours more than the average of my past active duty crewmembers. Women crewmembers are included in the numbers and are accepted in every respect for the good job that they do. Obviously, the maintenance troops take pride in their assigned aircraft and our steed was spotless and very well cared for. Basically, it is the same airframe that I flew so many years ago but a host of improvements have been made over the years. Engines, all four, are upgraded to more modern turbo-fans, the main landing gear was beefed up with new more powerful brakes. The big difference for the eyes of this old pilot was the upgraded flight instruments with glass screens and computer-aided autopilots. Navigation is by GPS and the navigator position is mostly eliminated so the current flight crew is two pilots and a boom operator. I wasn’t offered a pilot’s seat but was able to sit in the jump seat just behind the two pilots and observe how it is now done.

Our mission was to take some fifteen Army Guard troops and their equipment to Boise, Idaho for some kind of temporary duty. At the Guard Base at Boise, we were treated to a tour of their A-10 air-to-ground fighter bombers. A quick, bring your own, lunch and then take off to return home. Along the way, we met up with a pair of F-16 fighters for an exercise in airborne refueling proficiency for both sets of crewmembers. Flawless!

We came back home at 33,000 feet altitude and could observe the still covered Rocky Mountain peaks below. With clearance from Air Traffic Control we arrived over Kearney, throttles came to idle and we glided all the way to the final approach at the home base, Lincoln Airport before the pilot touched the throttles again for landing. The goal is cutting costs with the now high-priced jet fuel. In summation, we burned some 100,000 pounds of fuel and offloaded around 3000 pounds to our F-16 receivers. That totals somewhere around 16,500 gallons of fuel, precious jet fuel, think diesel, and the cost of necessary training.

My wonderful trip was put together by former student now Air Force Captain Asher Brooks in coordination with his Commander. In his words “Dick, I get to do what I do (he also flies Boeing 757 for Fed Ex in addition to his Guard job) because of you. I can never thank you enough for all of your mentorship.” This old warrior is so honored and blessed!

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail