The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Hey guys, I hope you don't mind me sharing a Cub story with you. We have hosted airmen for several years and we used to take them flying in the 170 before we swapped it for the J-3. I hope you enjoy these young people as much as we did.

Today June, the boys and I had the distinct privilege of hosting six young airmen from Sheppard AFB in our home for Thanksgiving. These young men and women are two weeks out of Basic training and are attending Tech School here at Sheppard. Most were having their first holiday away from home and one young man, Austin was away from his wife and 7 month old son.

It was great to spend the day with them as they had a chance to get off the base, leave the uniforms behind and enjoy a relaxing day. We tried to make them feel as much at home as possible. Rule number 1: no sir or ma'am. Rule 2: Make themselves at home, help themselves to everything, and feel free to put their feet on the furniture. Rule 3: no left overs! (they did not do so good on this one).

It was a great day of food, touch football , TV football and pumpkin bombing. None of them had ever flown in a small aircraft, and each got to go up in the Cub. They got two passes on the round hay bail and then we flew over the base to see their school houses and dorms. They got some stick time as we came back to the house.


Pictured above: Austin Wellborn, Harlem, GA; Paul Quintanilla, San Diego, CA; Nick St Pierre, Las Vegas, NV; Jourdynn Burge, Mill Village, PA; Evan Wilcox, Milton, VT; Nick Ramirez, New City, NY.

Paul Quintanilla





Nick Ramirez





Nicholas St Pierre





Jourdynn Burge





Evan Wilcox





Austin Wellborn





Yes, it was windy! 20-25 knots out of the south. We were dropping on a round hay bale and running straight into the wind would have taken us over the house and hangar. Our run in on about a 120 heading gave us a big right cross wind and the big left slip was needed to see the target out the right side of the Cub.

Nick Ramirez was the top bomber with a 38 foot pumpkin. He got to eat first!

A great time was had by all. I do love giving folks their first airplane rides!

Very Nice! Thank You! It will be a T-Day they will always remember

Hey Bruce, for a minute I thought I was on the J3-Cub.com forum. You know we have strict rules around here. Well OK just try not to confuse the moderators to often.

This is a very nice thing you do and I won't get tired of hearing of it though if you buy a Cherokee it would be a stretch. I would think the toughest thing is selecting just 6 airmen. How is it these lucky folks joined you?

Bruce,

Operation Thanksgiving has been a fixture in Wichita Falls and Sheppard AFB for 31 years. Sheppard has many Tech Schools and over 5000 airmen going through training on any given day. Most are fresh out of Basic Training and like our group, just out of high school. This year over 250 families took between two and eight airmen into their home for the day. We have participated for the last 6 years and look forward to having these fine young Americans in our homes for the day.

All the kids have a great time regardless of where they go, but I have a hunch that our six were the only ones that got to go pumpkin bombing.

Thanks for letting a current Cub guy share our day with these young men and women with my 170 friends.

Bruce S, I think what you and your wife are doing is fantastic. Its tough being away from home and family for the first time, especially with the rigid requirements of being in the military (however that is good too). These youngsters, as well as those other families hosted, will long remember a good Thanksgiving and Texas hospitality. Thanks for your hospitality to these fine Americans

Bruce,

25 years ago I was one of those kids away from home at Shepard, so let me say thank you for doing that. That is awesome that you open your home up to these young people.

Bruce-
Ditto what has been said above. With 3 nephews in the Air Force, I know what your generosity means to those young folks away from home on a holiday.

Who knows, maybe that experience in the Cub will inspire one or more of those folks to become a pilot.

Thanks for what you and your wife do Bruce. My son is stationed there. I'm curious if he knows any of these young men.

In days of old when aviators were bold and contractor feeding hadn't been invented, we NCO Chiefs ( I was an E7) used to pull the KP on Thanksgiving and Christmas in order to give the Indians a day off.

blueldr wrote:In days of old when aviators were bold and contractor feeding hadn't been invented, we NCO Chiefs ( I was an E7) used to pull the KP on Thanksgiving and Christmas in order to give the Indians a day off.

BL,
I remember those days. On Thanksgiving and Christmas the NCO's and Comanders would do the cooking and eat in the chow hall with us low life's. I always hated going to the chow hall on days like that.

On my last deployment to ashtrashican the Vice Press came for a Holliday visit so the head honchos at the base decided it would be best to close the chow hall to all but a few chosen from each unit to be seen eating with the VP.

Nothing can muck up a chow hall like having VIP's eat with the troops.

Just cool, Bruce.....Thanks...From all of us who aren't military.....