(hard rock music) (airplane roaring) - Hey everyone. Welcome to Behind the Wing, the 315th Airlift Wing's official podcast. I'm your host, Major Wayne Capps. And my normal co-host, Tech Sergeant Bobby Pilch, is not able to be here today. Instead, I've got my news guy, Michael Dukes. Hey, Michael. - Hey, thank you. I'm happy to be here. - And so today's a little bit different, Michael. Today, we're outside of the studio. We're on the flightline here at Joint Base Charleston and we are in air show mode. Today is air show day. Actually, it's family day. It's the Friday before the official air show day. Essentially, it's a private air show for family and friends of the Air Force. - Yeah, it's a beautiful day out here for that. - So we are cruising around the flightline, talking to any and everyone about what's going on today. We're looking forward to it. We're gonna free wheel this podcast and just have a good time. We're on our golf cart cruising around the flightline. (horn honks) I see some impressive acts so far. Unfortunately, the Thunderbirds won't be here closing our show because of a tragic death that they recently had. Thunderbird Four passed away in an accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him, his family, and his entire Thunderbird team. - Yes, indeed. - So, I'm looking around the flightline. I see all of these amazing aircraft. And if you're an aviation geek, you're gonna love this podcast I think 'cause we're gonna go around and talk to everybody. I see some things that jump out at me. The first thing I see is a massive C-17. We've got a couple on either end of the flightline. We've got a C-5, a B-52. You name it, the large aircraft are all behind us. It's a beautiful sight. And you know, we've got some really cool small aircraft up front. We've got some fighters that are scattered around, but one thing that's near and dear to my heart, I look over, as we just saw. We've got a C-47 and that's-- A C-47 is where the 315th Troop Carrier Group, our predecessors, got its start. In fact, during World War II, we flew out of Spanhoe Field in England. So I'm headed over there here in a little while to talk to those folks. So Michael, what are you looking forward to today? - I'm just looking forward to talking to some of the folks, seeing what they're thinking about what we have going out here today and what they think of all the aircraft that they get the chance to actually go onto. - So, let me set the scene for you. Right now, I wouldn't say that it's an empty ramp, but tomorrow, we're expecting, I don't know, roughly 100,000 people out here. Today, it's just military family members and ID card holders that can get on the base, and it's essentially the practice day for the acts. - Right, right. - So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go around to different groups. I see over in the distance, not too far from us, are Air Force Reserve recruiters. They're setting up a pretty cool booth and a selfie station and everything that's going on with them. Michael, let's head over and talk to those guys next. - Alright, let's do that. (hard rock music) - Here we are at our first stop. We just drove up and I see the Air Force Reserve recruiters working diligently setting up their platform today. I'm here with Senior Master Sergeant Edward Harbert. So tell me what's going on. What are you guys doing today? - So we have a brand new mobile marketing platform and we are getting ready to look for tomorrow's finest Air Force Reserves to join the 315th and other reserve units in the area. Looking for prior service of any branch and non-priors. We have, it's a new set-up. We have a photobooth, interactive games, pull-up bar, a little bit of interaction for everybody, young and old. - Well, it sounds great. So tell me what all you've got actually set up here. I see it's a pretty elaborate set-up. It looks like it's on the side of a truck that's pulled out. You've got everything from a green screen to speakers to monitors. Tell me what's going on. - So social media is obviously today's go-to for everybody, and that's what our focus is with the green screen. We'll surprise you tomorrow with what might show up behind you on that green screen, but you just come out and tag yourself, get to get your social media flowing for the Air Force Reserve. And a lot of set-up. Like I say, we got interactive games, a lot of information about what the Air Force Reserve is all about, some benefits, how to serve, just a little bit about what we do. - Nice, nice. And I appreciate you guys doing this. I see a pull-up bar here. You ready to go? You want a contest between me and you? - I'm absolutely ready, sir. I've got a young Staff Sergeant over there who can do about 100, and you've got a photographer here that I think can do less than 100. (laughter in background) - Yeah. Yeah, and I think I would probably do two, so I'm gonna pass and let him chalk up that victory. - If you do two, that's one and a half more than me. - (laughs) Hey, thank you so much and we're gonna drive around and check out the rest of the show. Thanks for talking with us. - Absolutely. (hard rock music) - Alright, so we just left the recruiting booth and now we're inside of our own C-17 and I'm here with members of our 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. And I'm here with Airman Oster, our Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. And how are you doing today? - Hi, I'm doing great. How are you? - Pretty good. Can you give me an idea of what you guys are doing here today on our jet? - So we're demonstrating showing them how we would transport patients from maybe the battle zone to better care facilities such as Germany for a better medical facility where they can better be treated. And here we have a dummy so that we can show how we would be transporting the patients on the litter stanchion. On litter is the equipment that we use and some extra medical supplies as well as the connections of oxygen and electrical and then we have a nice diagram over there showing what it would look like the other aircraft that we use and kind of the configuration for everything. - Okay, so basically, you are a flying ambulance or hospital, right? - Absolutely. Yes, correct. - Okay. And what do we have here on the back end of the jet? It looks like a big see-through box. - Yes. It is what we call is a TIS, Transportation Isolation System, and we would use this for patients that were involved in airborne precaution medical situations such as tuberculosis or any other things like that. - I do know that we actually... This was in the spotlight of a few years back when we were having the Ebola scare. - Correct. - In Western Africa, and I know we had some folks that were sort of on call and standing by for that. - Yes, for sure. Absolutely. That's a great example. But, yeah, there's plenty of seats inside and different chambers where you can go through and then there's a procedure of which you have to go in and you go out of it as well. - Okay, well that's, that's very, very interesting. Are you gonna be out here tomorrow. - Yep. - On the Saturday, the public day? - Yes, sir, I will. - Okay, well thanks a lot for talking to me and we're gonna head on to see what else we can find out here. - Alright, thanks. (heavy rhythmic music) - So Michael and I are driving around the flightline and I look over in the corner and there's a C-47. And this plane has a special place in my heart so we had to drive around a bunch of barricades. I don't know if we're supposed to be here, but we are. I ran into somebody who I was on active duty with years ago. He's a crew chief, but right now on the C-47, Brad Pilgrim. Hey, what's going on? - I'm glad to be out here at Charleston. It's a nice day to have an air show. - It is, it is. It's a nice day. So C-47 is, for people out there who don't know, it's basically our legacy. It's where we came from. The 315th Troop Carrier Group flew C-47s out of Spanhoe Field in World War II, right before the beginning of World War II. And they flew out of there during the war, so a lot of history here. - Yeah, the C-47, you know, it came from the DC-3, which was the first really practical airliner. It was a twin engine airplane for safety and reliability, all metal construction, that sort of thing. This particular one was built in 1944 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it was in active duty, but it never actually went over to Europe or anything like that. It stayed stateside. 1956, it was converted to a civilian DC-3 and used as executive transport, several different owners. And we've had it at the museum, at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Texas, we've had it for about 12 or 13 years now, and had it restored again. It still has kind of the executive interior, but the exterior of it's pure military. - Yeah, I just went inside and looked around. I was kind of surprised because you've got the exterior military stuff, and then you go inside, it's set up like the old airliner. It's kind of funny, kinda smiling, see the conversion that's happened. - Yeah, it's certainly a lot more comfortable going cross-country rather than sitting in the bucket troop seats that used to be in there, but we drop skydivers out of here a lot so a lot of our seats are gone, but it flies just like the military one does. Nothing's different about how it operates. - So how does it fly? - It's slow. It's very slow. It's kinda sluggish on the controls. They call it stretching the cables 'cause you turn the yoke and it just kinda creeps along. It's a dependable airplane. It's just a big J-3 Cub. It's really a lot of fun to fly. - Yeah, they make me smile every time I see them because I've actually been to Spanhoe Field with some of the old C-47 crewmembers. We took them back to England a couple years ago and probably one of the highlights of my career. So to see this, it's just amazing. So what are you guys doing during the show? - Well, we're doing is what's-- It's called the Cargo Heritage Flight. People call it the Mobility Heritage Flight, but it's really the Cargo Heritage Flight. We take our C-47 and we go fly with different C-17 units. We've done it with Altus and we've done it with Charleston both in the past. And we do just kind of a formation pass, or a couple of formation passes of the C-17 and the C-47 just to kinda show the transition in airlift history from the beginning of it with the C-47 pretty much up to today, the C-17, which is obviously the most advanced airlifter in the world. And it's just to give the public a show of what these airplanes look like, what time has done to the airlift world. And it's also to make sure the big airplanes get a little bit of love. It shouldn't just belong to the fighters and the guys in top flight suits. It should belong to the people who fly the big boys too. - I know. I'm all about the baggy flight suits here. (chuckles) But thank you so much for coming out and thanks so much for talking to us. Like I said, I'm a huge fan of the history, especially the World War II history, so this plane has a special place in my heart. So thank you so much. - You betcha. - Thanks, man, appreciate it. (driving music) So we drove past the C-47 and, of course, there's an F-16 sitting right in front of us. I'm here talking to Shark Gill. Love the call sign, by the way. - Thanks, I appreciate it. - So tell us what you've got going on. You're the F-16 pilot here at the show. What kind of response have you seen so far? - So far, the crowd's been super receptive. We're happy to be here. The energy here is great and it's really good to get the community support that we have out here. - So tell me about the F-16. Where you from? What do you do? What's your primary mission? - Alright, so we're out of Shaw Air Force Base just right up the road here at Sumter, South Carolina. 20th Fighter Wing. Our main mission is the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses or SEAD. So if you can Google or YouTube something called Wild Weasels, that's exactly what we do. That'd be the best information we can give you. - Oh, that sounds good. So fun jet to fly? - Oh, it's incredible. So once you climb in the jet, it's literally like strapping on a backpack. The rest of the world disappears and you are the master in disguise for sure. - Oh, that's awesome. Sounds amazing. So you'll be out here tomorrow talking to the general public. What kind of? When you go to an air show like this, what kind of response do you normally get? - It's pretty similar to what we got today, a lot of energy, a lot of questions, a lot of kids running around, which is, by far, my favorite part when they come up and ask questions. We're trying to get the next generation excited about the Air Force and what we can do and have them come out and work for us as well. - So what's your favorite question you've been asked so far? - Usually it's a little kid'll ask how many times I've died or ejected. I've died zero times and ejected zero times, knock on wood. - Yeah, absolutely, and that's a good thing. Hey, thank you so much for taking your time to talk with us. And everybody, come out and look at the F-16 tomorrow. Should be a blast. - Awesome. Thanks for coming out. It was nice talking to you guys. - Alright. Thanks, appreciate it. (mesmerizing vocal music) Well, that just about does it for this edition of Behind the Wing. We're here at the air show. We're checking things out. Please, let us know what you think of the air show, but this was a little-- If you're not able to come, this is a little peek behind the curtain at what goes on. We're having such a good time today, Michael and I. - Yeah, and as we're finishing up here, the Black Dagger Parachute Team is dropping in and it's pretty interesting. They're right overhead. - They are literally right over us and probably about 40 feet from us as we're by the announcer's stand. They're just setting that perfect landing down. It's absolutely amazing. And it's gonna be such a good day here for the air show. There's a lot of people here right now. If you can't make it out, I hope you've enjoyed our podcast. Just a little sneak peek at what's behind the curtain. We've had a good time today. We're gonna go around and talk to a few more people, take some pictures. And I did wanna put one little shout out. We're actually getting nose art for the C-17. - That's about time. - Exactly. So we're going back to our roots. The 315th Airlift Wing, our plane is getting unveiled today. So each wing is getting their very own nose art. And eventually, each squadron will get their own nose art, so taking us back in history a little time. So this afternoon, we're so excited, that we actually get our own nose art. I wanna give a special shout out to Staff Sergeant Tom Brading, who is the guy who designed our wing nose art. It's pretty cool. A little C-17. We haven't seen it on the plane. I've seen some preliminary drawings and you've got the 315th crest with some wings and C-17s flying over the bridge. Pretty darn amazing, if you ask me, so I'm excited about that, aren't you? - Oh yeah, definitely. And I see right now, our C-47 is taking off. - Exactly. So that's why they were fueling up when we were talking to them. So when we were talking to them, they were looking like, "Okay, guys, you gotta hurry "'cause we're getting ready to go." So they're actually taking off right now. We're gonna watch our Heritage Flight. So tune in next month for our next edition of Behind the Wing. And we hope you've enjoyed this special air show edition, and thank you very much, and we will talk to you all next time. (airplane propellor motor running) (upbeat rock music)