Wait....that's MY class! We're were classmates!?!??!
Author: Bert Booth
"Wait...that's MY class! We were classmates?!?"
January 2010. Supposed to have a 3 day trip - BWI-SJU, layover, CCS (Caracas) turn, up to PHL for an overnight, then PHL-SJU-BWI.
Crew schedule calls to tell me the FO needs a requal. Two legs with CKA. So I'll be deadheading for the first 2 flights and then flying with the FO for the last 4 flights.
Day 1 I go and introduce myself to the FO and CKA, never of whom I've met before.... and then sit in First Class to SJU.
The 3 of us have dinner that evening.
Day 2 I ride the jumpseat to CCS to get another passenger on board the full flight. CKA signs FO off in CCS and the FO and I are now the operating crew.
Fly CCS-SJU. Then SJU-PHL. Start descend into PHL and I ask - "prior service?" Yes. Air Force. "What did you fly?" C-130's. "UPT?" Del Rio. "Me too. What class?" 85-02. Wait...what..."that's MY class?!? We were classmates?!?!" I feel terrible as I don't remember you at all! (Ugh...hate these moments). Start mentioning section mates. He doesn't know them. I start mentioning guys in the other section....a lot he doesn't know/recall, a couple of "that name sounds familiar." Huh? How can you NOT remember guys in your class or section???
Finally, as Paul Harvey used to say - "now for the rest of the story."
"I washed back into your class. I'd been out for just over a year. Medically grounded with a month to go. Got cleared but it had been over a year so I had to retake ALL the pilot candidate tests. Surprise, surprise...I passed them again. I'd been an exec officer for Wing CC Colonel Gagliardi (?). He came in one day "congratulations! You're back in UPT. We'll put you in the next class. You're going to do great. You'll probably get an F-16 to wherever you want!" Ugh...that would be 3 years to get my wings...in Del Rio. I told him "I've got several kids. I just want a C-130. Is there another option?" Wing CC gets back in a couple of days - "you can join the next graduating class. They're at the same point you were a year ago. We'll give you a sim and 2 rides (maybe 2 sims?) and then you'll be right back on the timeline." So that's what I did. You never saw me because I was studying like crazy because I had to cram months of class room stuff into real life practice in a matter of days." Turns out he was in the other section.
At that point I had a small recollection of a guy staying late, studying hard, while we were mostly at the chill stage and doing a bit of studying for the upcoming rides. It was him.
