Epic Experiences

Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of ATS,
I shall fear no doom and gloom

Yeah...I am not sure what that was for but still

I am opening this thread to spread stories. We hear so much of obamacare, socialism, 2012, ET's whatever! People are so sad these days. So one day a friend and I were discussing the meaning of life (interesting topic) and we agreed that while the meaning of life is different for each person, to her and I the meaning of life was experiences. So here is what I am looking for. Share with us an experience you recall. Something that made your day...something you have done that few others have...whatever ya like!

Go ahead...make my day

As the OP I will start.

When I switched from Active Duty (2W2) and went to the Reserve (3M0) I admit a little disappointment. Before I left I had won a big award on base for performance but left before I was recognized...now before you say anything...I did NOT care about the award or the on-stage accolades. Just ask Raven, I don't like awards and parties centered on me. No, what I missed out on was the fly-along.

A fly-along is when you win a big award and you get to chose a local plane and fly with them on a training mission. Now I am a major fan of two planes, the A-10 Warthog (the tank killer) and my beloved B-52 Stratofortress. I have always had a soft space in my heart for the big lug (the B-52). Now since Minot had no A-10’s I was supposed to go fly on a B-52 route. Regardless my lovely supervisors forgot and it never happened. It was never even set up…not gonna happen.

So I long forgot about it. I transferred to Grissom air Base in Indiana and spent a couple of months learning my new job. Suddenly my new supervisor called me into the office. He said “did you win the Airman of the Year award at Minot?” to which I replied “yes sir.”

“well did you ever do a fly along?”

“no sir”

“well don’t you think that was messed up of Minot?”

“Yes sir”

and then the response came that I NEVER thought would happen

“Here are your papers. Report to wing briefing next month, Saturday at 1300 to the flight line.”

I was shocked…amazed…and totally confused! So next month rolls along and I excuse myself from the kitchen and go to the flight line. They have little packets with names on it. I open mine and there like a shining beacon of light was the following information:

my name (you can just call me Kyo Zero :-p )
flight data and time (which equaled four hours)
craft: The KC-135

Now for those not in the know, a KC-135 is an air-to-air refueling station built on the C130 body.

KC135 Stratotanker

So I was to join the observation deck of the fueling pod to refuel 6 F-16’s.

So fast forward…we take off and fly to our designated spot and when I lay down facing the rear window of the refueling pod. Suddenly I hear some crackling and some air speak (which I cannot decipher) and out of the clouds comes a screaming F-16 in all it’s glory. The refueler talks to the pilot and they hook up and dispense hundreds of gallons of fuel in seconds. All the time I am watching this F-16 no more than 50 feet from me. He gives a thumbs up then drops out of site and I am in AWE.

Now for the funny bit :-p

On the fourth or fifth plane, the jet approached too quickly up our tail end and suddenly I hear two beeps in my headset followed by an electronic voice that called out “descend, descend” and without warning, the pilot suddenly dropped a few hundred feet. Now those who know their physics will know that when the body drops at such a rate, its contents will experience weightlessness. When the pilot dropped my body floated off the deck about a foot. Suddenly he righted himself and SLAM I went back onto the deck…it hurt :-p

What an amazing day. I will have to get you some uploaded pictures of my goofy butt smiling like I am a three year old who just got a puppy

So there is one of mine…I do hope others will drop by and cheer us all up. Any story you want that was awesome to you

-Kyo