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SAM FOX Association reunion through a lieutenant's eyes

  • Published
  • By Capt. Herb McConnell
  • 89th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. --  Being a lieutenant Awaiting Pilot Training can be rough.

The lieutenants are expected to prove themselves through multiple tasks that are often varied in nature and skill level all while learning the ropes of how to be an Air Force Officer.

Still, you find that many APT lieutenants smile easily. Probably out of the excitement that comes from a new adventure and the promise of a bright future, but 2nd Lt. Dan Haley who is attached to the 89th Airlift Wing has another reason to be happy.

He was part of the planning and action team that put together this year's SAM FOX Association reunion and in doing so was able to meet and talk to people who made presidential air transportation history.

Some of the Airmen who Lieutenant Haley met were responsible for piloting the president and our nation's leaders from as far back as the 1940s before the planes were adorned with the iconic blue and white paint scheme now synonymous with the 89th Airlift Wing and before the president's plane got its famous call sign.

"I met one guy who was in a plane that was shot down in World War II and was a prisoner of war in Germany for about a year. He ended up retiring as a chief master sergeant and when he was stationed at Andrews, he was a flight attendant," Lieutenant Haley said.

SAM FOX Association president Lt. Col. Joel Carlson said, "I think the younger [Airmen] were amazed at the stories from the older folks who were flying around Eisenhower on the Columbine, an old prop driven plane, and now Air Force One is a 747. So it was a lot different back then."

The Boeing 707 brought presidential air travel from propeller driven aircraft into the jet age, and the era of Airmen who served from the 1960s through the '80s and early '90s, when Air Force One was one of two 707s, made up the bulk of those who attended the reunion.

"I talked to some of the guys who flew Lyndon Johnson," said Lieutenant Haley. The veteran crew members told the young lieutenant stories about the first jet known as Air Force One named during President Kennedy's administration with the fabled tail number 26000.

During the Johnson administration, tail 26000 continued as the primary presidential aircraft although he had the plane reconfigured to accommodate more passengers. When he became president the plane had seats for 36 passengers and 12 crew members. After the reconfiguration, the plane could accommodate more than 60 passengers, according to a Johnson Presidential Library staff member.

Tail number 26000 was replaced as the primary Air Force One in 1973 by another modified Boeing 707 with the tail number 27000. Although the plane came into service during the Nixon administration, history remembers it as President Reagan's airplane because he logged the most hours of travel aboard and it is now housed appropriately at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

At one point during the Open House portion of the reunion, Lieutenant Haley was lucky enough to run into President Reagan's pilot, Col. Robert Ruddick.

"It was awesome. I talked with him briefly and heard stories about him from some of the other SAM FOX Association members. I heard that every landing he ever made on Air Force One was absolutely perfect," he said.

This notion has been reinforced over the years and similar accounts of Colonel Ruddick's performance can be found in popular literature and books as an excerpt from Air Force One, A History of President's and Their Planes shows:

"As the plane pulled to a stop precisely on time, as it almost always did, Reagan would theatrically check his watch and congratulate whichever crew member was nearby. 'You did it again,' he would say with a grin."

What impressed Lieutenant Haley the most about the reunion was the camaraderie that was so evident while observing the generations of SAM FOX Association members before him.

"These guys were here for so long. It amazes me that some of them were here for 20 years. That's unheard of in today's Air Force," he said.

The SAM FOX Association hopes to continue to bridge the gap between past and future generations.

"I hope we find a way to keep the interest level high and I think that more active duty folks should try and get involved as much as possible because you really get to connect with your heritage," he said.

The 89th Airlift Wing Vice Commander, Col. James Vechery, hopes to see the association, "continue to grow by increasing membership of current active duty SAM FOX professionals."

"The SAM FOX reunion provided an opportunity for all those professionals that built the SAM FOX tradition of excellence to come together, reminisce about the past, interact with those currently serving and look forward to the future," Colonel Vechery said.

It takes a team of professionals to keep 89th Airlift Wing aircraft doing the work of transporting our nation's leaders and foreign dignitaries around the world and anyone who has ever been assigned to the 89th Airlift Wing is invited to join the SAM FOX Association.

Anyone interested in joining the SAM FOX Association can contact the 89th Airlift Wing Public Affairs office.