Sorties and snickerdoodles: 33rd FTS First Fridays celebrate squadron family

  • Published
  • By David Poe
  • 71st FTW Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A class is in session in a 33rd Flying Training Squadron conference room.

"Pay attention. You're daydreaming again."

"Me? No, no, no! No. Okay, yes. But, you know, come on, Leadbottom. Really? How hard is this? Fly straight, turn around. Fly straight, turn around."

"Are you disrespecting the sweet science of aerial application?"

The audience laughs.

Luckily for the daydreamer, it's a 33rd FTS First Friday and the conversation is a scene from the Disney movie "Planes," which is keeping the mixed office in stitches.

Like many units on base, amid a heavy operations tempo, Airmen from the 33rd FTS make a point to invite friends and family members to stop and mark the time. For the 33rd, it's all about the First Friday of each month. Sorties and briefings give way to snickerdoodles and barbecued pork sandwiches as spouses and children take over the heritage rooms and halls and touch the mission they support from the home front every day.

"I feel we have a responsibility to bring the families together and make them feel welcome while they're here," said, Christy Starr, the wife of Lt. Col. Michael Starr, the 33rd FTS commander. "We try to have as many family-and-kid-inclusive events as we can so that no one moves to Vance and feels like they're by themselves."

The 33rd's definition of "family" is not exclusive to the nuclear family. During the February function, the squadron formally bided farewell to Navy Lt. William Plowman, a primary flight training instructor, and his parents made their fourth trip to Vance to mark the occasion.

"It makes my wife and I feel good to know that he's somewhere where people care," William's father Art said. "The military can be a hard business at times. We were here when he first came, and I found everyone to be very polite and friendly. There are a lot of families - a lot of children, more so than what I've seen of other units."

On First Fridays, the kids of the 33rd are out en masse. The smaller ones bounce on Nomex-covered knees and bobble around the heritage room tables, while the pre-teens bond over cartoons and video games. The older children are busy at the foosball tables to try and take down their pilot parents. If military kids sometimes struggle to make friends in the civilian community because of their families' nomadic existences, the squadron family is a place where the kids already know where one another are coming from.

"When the kids are at a dinner and they all know each other, they all become friends, and they show up at each other's birthday parties," said Starr. "Having that close-knit family is really important."

Squadron spouses also tend to understand each other because of their shared experiences, and First Fridays are another time for them to bond.

"When Scott was deployed, the squadron was really great about looking out for our family," said Rhiannon Anderson, wife of Capt. Scott Anderson, the 33rd FTS R Flight commander. "They'd anonymously drop stuff off to us every week. We had a problem with mold in our house, and the guys from the squadron came one afternoon and put a whole new floor in with no questions asked. They were great."

Starr said she feels that the squadron family looking out for the squadron family is a key part of a sound unit.

"If anybody has a problem, the whole squadron jumps through hoops to help take care of it, especially when husbands are deployed, or away, or even if they are here and you need food, or picking up a kid, or taking care of your pets while you're out of town," she said. "I think it's a case of if the families are happy, the husbands are going to be happier, and the whole squadron is just going to run smoother. If the families are unhappy and the husbands go home, they're unhappy and they're not going to want to go across country or fly when things get pushed to the limit."

As the First Friday drew to a close, the snickerdoodle crumbs were brushed away and the leftover barbecued pork sandwiches were wrapped up for the Airmen and families who couldn't be there to enjoy the evening. Briefings and sorties would soon reclaim the 33rd FTS spaces, but the night's mission was accomplished.

"We've been places before where there weren't really strong spouses groups," Starr said of her own family. "You feel like you moved to the middle of nowhere - you're there by yourself, and if you run into any problems, you're stuck. Our squadron is our own little family and we take care of ourselves -- it's a military family."