personnel skill levels are 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.) Pence says reservists such as Seiz bring important civilian skills to their jobs with the Air Force Reserve. “It really benefits us to have people, such as someone in Fabrication, with that knowledge base,” Pence says. “It can really pay off in his job as an aircraft crew chief. He brings a skill set to us that we may not have.” Meanwhile, Seiz says he can’t wait until he finally gets to fly on a C-17 as a crew chief—and for the first time. “I’m dying to,” he says as he walks up metal stairs at the front of the cargo compartment to reach the flight deck above. Just behind the flight deck, on the side of the fuselage, is the Boeing logo. It’s embedded in the metal during the manufacturing process. “It fills me with pride to see that logo and know I’m part of both organizations,” Seiz says, referring to Boeing and the Air Force Reserve. His dad, a Boeing painter at the Everett plant, was a McDonnell Douglas mechanic on the C-17 line in Long Beach, and his grandfather worked for McDonnell Douglas. When McDonnell Douglas was designing the C-17 in the early 1980s, its engineers worked closely with the Air Force to make sure they delivered a world-class airlifter with the special capabilities the customer needed. “It’s a cool design,” Tompkins, the C-17 aircraft commander with the 62nd Operations Group, says while standing near several C-17s on the McChord flight line. In the distance, a C-17 is approaching the base runway. Pointing to the C-17 that’s about to land, Tompkins says: “Some of these aircraft are 20 years old now and just look at that. You see it flying and landing and it still looks like something out of the future.” With the high T-tail and winglets at the tip of each wing, the graceful airlifter certainly doesn’t look its age. Tompkins grew up in the Tacoma area not far from McChord and wanted to be a pilot since he was inspired watching air shows as a youngster at the base with his family. He joined the Air Force in 2005. Before arriving at McChord about a year ago, Tompkins was a T-6A instructor pilot at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. He has flown a variety of C-17 missions, including ones into Iraq and later Afghanistan, transporting troops, equipment and even Apache helicopters. On a few of those missions, he carried wounded warfighters out—to the U.S. military hospital at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, with an entire medical team in the back of his aircraft saving lives. Air Force medical officers have called the C-17 a “lifesaver” and a “game changer” for aeromedical evacuation. It was the first Air Force airlifter that quickly could be converted into a flying hospital. Litters for wounded soldiers can be removed from the sides of the cargo compartment and set up on the floor. The cargo compartment is stable, roomy and well lit, allowing for emergency operations with places to plug in medical equipment and oxygen and even temperature controls. On a long flight to a hospital, say from Afghanistan to Germany, controlling temperature can be critical to saving a life. It’s a unique and sobering experience, transporting wounded warfighters, Tompkins says. “That’s when it feels like you have really done something … It also makes you reflect on your own service.” But the missions he enjoys most are those where his C-17 carries military personnel back from a deployment, regardless of where it might have been. “You get to take them home,” he says. “That’s pretty special.” Tompkins says he made the right choice 10 years ago when he finished Air Force pilot training school and requested C-17s. “It’s very reliable,” he says of the Boeing airlifter. “I trust it. I know it’s going to get me there and back. And it has. Every time.” n james.a.wallace4@boeing.com Photo: The massive cargo compartment of a C-17, with the rear cargo door open, on the flight line at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Bob Ferguson | Boeing Febrau ry 2015 35
Frontiers February 2015 Issue
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