A goal achieved

  • Published
  • By Frank McIntyre
  • 71st Flying Training Wing public affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  At least one Team Vance member checking out the C-20 in front of base operations Tuesday during a visit by the aircraft and its crew from the 89th Airlift Wing, Andrews AFB, Md., will have thoughts like Capt. Ian Laughrey did on a similar occasion a few years ago. Only time will tell if results will be similar.
"I was a RC-135 pilot at Offutt AFB, Neb., when a C-32 from the 89th AW visited as part of an off-station training mission, which can also serve as a recruiting mission," said Capt. Laughrey, 32nd Flying Training Squadron check flight commander. "Once I learned more of the 89th's mission, flying for this elite wing become one of my career goals." That goal will be realized in September when Captain Laughrey is reassigned to the 89th at Andrews as a C-40 pilot. And his new mission, the one that first attracted him during that visit at Offutt, will be transporting the nation's civilian and military leaders to locations around the globe ... during peace, crisis and conflict; and providing combat ready forces to theater combatant commanders.

"I'm very excited. It's an honor and privilege to be given this opportunity," the Tulsa native said. "I had a lot of help from Team Vance members in getting this assignment. A lot of good words were passed east on my behalf."

From all the applications received, the 89th invited 13 pilots to its headquarters for a three-day interview process which included tours, briefings and social functions before the final interviews with a panel of 12 lieutenant colonels who selected nine of the group to join the wing."

"Captain Laughrey will join a select group when he begins his tour of duty with the 89th Airlift Wing," said Col. Richard Klumpp Jr., 71st Flying Training Wing commander. "As the 1st Airlift Squadron commander, I used to tell my Airmen that we weren't the tip of the spear ... but we carried the people who decided where the spear would be pointed and when it would be delivered. Ian will have an opportunity to be a witness to history as he carries our nation's leaders on their military and diplomatic missions around the world."

An Air Force Academy graduate with an MBA from the University of Nebraska, Captain Laughrey will be pinning on major within a month or two of arriving at Andrews. Before joining the 89th, he will receive training at the Alteon Boeing Training Center in Seattle for the C-40, a version of the Boeing 737-700 Business Jet.

Another Captain Laughrey is "very proud" of her husband's new assignment.

Capt. Melissa Laughrey, 71st Medical Group primary care clinic element leader, said "the assignment will be a great career experience for him, and I'm looking forward to the varied opportunities available in the D.C. area for our family."

Their family includes two sons, Colin, 3, and Braden, 1. The distaff Captain Laughrey, also an AF Academy graduate, will be separating from the Air Force and pursuing her career as a nurse practitioner in the civilian sector.