Fighter pilots achieve star status
among visitors to Air Fete 2001
By Marni McEntee,
Stars and Stripes
Photos by Raymond T. Conway, Stars and Stripes
Royal Air Force British
Aerospace Hawks of the Red Arrows display team taxi to their parking area at RAF
Mildenhall, England, after a performance during Air Fete 2001 on Saturday. |
RAF MILDENHALL, ENGLAND — Senior Airman Jeff Dorman doesn’t consider his job
maintaining an F-16 fighter jet as a particularly sexy occupation.
But on the flight line of Europe’s largest military air show Saturday, Dorman and
squadron mate Staff Sgt. Dennis Blackmon were as revered as baseball stars.
Little kids begged for autographs on their Air Fete 2001 programs. Old men stopped to
reminisce about the days when they were young and jets were props.
"It’s good to get a little recognition and to see people so interested,"
Dorman said. "Maybe there’s a little hope that someday they’ll want to do
the same thing."
Blackmon and Dorman came to RAF Mildenhall from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, to
answer questions about the F-16s from their 22nd Fighter Squadron.
"It’s a blast," Dorman said, stopping to autograph a child’s
program. He wrote: "If it turns, burns, banks or rolls, the crew dawgs of the Big 22
made it happen."
A French Air Force Display
Team Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alphajet makes a low pass at RAF Mildenhall, England, during
Air Fete 2001. |
Mildenhall home units also had a chance to show their wares, including the 21st Special
Operations Squadron, which had the MH-53M Pave Low IV helicopter sitting on the flight
line.
Staff Sgt. Jim Hessick, a Pave Low flight engineer, was reveling in the attention of
the air show fanatics.
"Everything we take for granted is something new to them. For them, sometimes
these aircraft are just a noise in the sky," Hessick said.
After months of preparation, some 600 military members from the United States and
numerous European countries have converged here for two days of aerial and static
displays.
Saturday’s show was blessed with good weather, a relief after last year’s
rain-soaked shows that forced most into exhibition hangars — or local pubs —
during the downpour.
Capt. Hans Peter
Andersen, a Danish Air Force F-16 pilot, signs autographs Saturday for some excited kids
at RAF Mildenhall, England, during Air Fete 2001. |
Alfred Hitch, 68, took a bus from Dover, leaving at 5 a.m. to make it to the air field
by 9 a.m. He had staked out a spot on a lawn chair at the flight line.
"It’s just lovely," Hitch said. "Very well-organized."
That wasn’t the sentiment for some visitors, however. Traffic was jammed on roads
leading into the base from 4 a.m. on, leaving many frustrated. For some, it took several
hours just to make it 15 miles along the narrow, two-lane roads.
"You see things like this and it makes you wonder how we ever had an empire,"
one elderly English man said as he stood outside his car on a two-lane road heading into
the base. When the air show started, people climbed out of their stopped cars and tried to
catch a glimpse of the planes over the hedgerows.
Once inside the grounds, though, there was no stop in the action.
One highlight was the Patrouille de France, a team of eight Alphajets that spewed blue
and red smoke in twisting patterns, including one in the shape of a heart.
From left, Reggie
Francis, Sandy Lee, and David Bunton wait to get hot dogs and hamburgers hot off the grill
from William Meredith behind the scenes at the 100th Air Refueling Wing's food booth at
RAF Mildenhall, England, during Air Fete 2001. |
Another was the Royal Air Force Falcons Parachute Display, whose teams descended from
above the clouds and landed on the tarmac.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of food booths and static aircraft displays from which to
choose.
The air show is the biggest fund-raiser for many base charities and unit booster clubs
at Mildenhall. And the crowd, estimated to top 300,000 people over the weekend, was
keeping them busy.
At a hamburger stand operated by the 100th Air Refueling Wing’s operations center
and the wing’s Judge Advocate General’s office, Senior Airman William Meredith
was standing in a cloud of barbecue smoke.
"We’re churning and burning," Meredith said. The booth had sold so many
hamburgers the volunteers there had lost count.
Air Fete 2001 continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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