JSUPT grad tracking Raptor

  • Published
  • By Frank McIntyre
  • 71st Flying Training Wing public affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  In the mid-1980s, about the same time the movie "Top Gun" was planting the desire to fly in young Cody Clark, the Air Force requested proposals for a new air superiority fighter. Now that new fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is operational and 1st Lt. Cody Clark has a chance to become one of the first pilots with no prior fighter experience to go directly to the Raptor.

"I was about speechless when I got the F-22 drop," Lieutenant Clark said. "I think everyone else may have seemed more excited because I was in shock."

Thanks to a bit of trickery, he was the last one to find out which airframe he would be going to at Class 07-12's assignment night July 13.

"The squadron leadership had an award I was presenting as the senior-ranking officer in the class," the Port Neches, Texas, native said. "I was at the podium making my introductory remarks when the whole room started whooping, hollering and applauding. I turned around and there were photos of the F-22 and a map with Tyndall AFB, Fla., highlighted projected behind me. Fortunately the award was fake, and I didn't have to continue the presentation."

The assignment doesn't actually put the Air Force Academy Class of 2005 graduate directly in a F-22 cockpit.

According to Col. Doug Troyer, 71st Operations Group commander, Air Education and Training Command is selecting eight students and one first-assignment instructor pilot to attend the same Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals class at Randolph AFB, Texas. At the end of the IFF course, the top four pilots will be named to continue on to the F-22 checkout. The remaining five pilots will track to the F-15C, a track which may eventually land them in the F-22.

"The single FAIP is being included because of Air Force leadership concerns that, because the F-22 is employed so different than F-15s or F-16s, a lieutenant right out of pilot training may not be able to grasp the skills required quickly enough to be an asset in an F-22 squadron," Colonel Troyer said. "They want to compare a FAIP, with more flying experience and presumably more situational awareness and a quicker learning curve, to a group of top performing students to see if there is a marked difference in the way they perform during the unique training."

Lieutenant Clark credits his upcoming assignment to being prepared at the right time and "a lot of help from best - the instructor pilots at Vance. Everyone I flew with, and that includes Colonel Troyer and Capt. Derek Steneman, our 25th Flying Training Squadron K flight commander, shared their experience and provided those extra tips to make you successful."

The recognition of being the best goes both ways.

"I've flown with quite a few students over the last year as the OG commander, and all were very good pilots. I can say without reservation Lieutenant Clark is the best of the students I've flown with to date," Colonel Troyer said. "Some pilots have an innate ability to process what's going on around them just a little faster than their peers. That ability helps them anticipate what will occur next during a mission, which, in turn, allows them to fly a better jet since they aren't being caught off guard by whatever is happening.

"Cody is one of those pilots. I'm confident his natural flying ability will allow him to compete favorably in IFF and that he stands a good chance of being one of the four pilots selected to move on to F-22 training as the first class of pilots who do not have prior fighter experience."

(Lieutenant Clark and his 07-12 classmates receive their wings July 27.)