Monday, 28 February 2005
Airman Magazine Article on "Wearing the Patch"
Airman Magazine Article wrote:Wearing 'The Patch'
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The patch is the heart and soul of the Thunderbirds
by Tech. Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
photos by Master Sgt. Scott Wagers
Staff Sgt. Cameron St. Amand slowly and methodically waxed a 16-by-20-foot patch adorning the hangar floor at Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, headquarters, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
To St. Amand, an assistant crew chief, “the patch” is sacred. Waxing the patch is a ceremony equivalent to raising and lowering the American flag. Every movement is rehearsed with strict discipline. No smiling, talking or joking.
The patch — painted to depict a North American Indian mythical half-eagle, half-hawk thunderbird — is hallowed ground. The mystical thunderbird is enormous and produces thunder, lightning and rain.
Above the patch, St. Amand double-checked to ensure his knees stayed on the dropcloth, the only object allowed to touch the patch. The painted emblem is safely cordoned behind four brass poles and a thick rope. God forbid anyone accidentally step on it.
“You don’t touch that patch,” said Tech. Sgt. Brian Plauche, a three-year veteran of the team. “If you see someone step on the patch, people get livid about it. One thing you never do is disrespect the patch, either on your chest or on the hangar floor.”
Thunderbird commander Lt. Col. Richard McSpadden said although the patch, like most unit patches, represents the organization, it also depicts who they are. The shirt patch is so large it can be seen a block away.
“Regardless of where you are in this organization, you earn the right to wear the patch,” McSpadden said. “You earn the right to go in front of people around the world and represent the world’s most respected air and space force.”
Being selected for the team is the first hurdle. Those selected are enrolled in a 21-day orientation program, which they must complete to become a team member.
First test
Candidates must meet a five-person panel three times during those 21 days, with each progressively more difficult. The 21-day board is the only one that candidates must score an 80 percent or better to pass.
The first two boards are designed to help members prepare for the final board. Questions posed during their initial board on day one are relatively easy — full name, hometown, hobbies. But to most, it’s still a terrifying experience.
Plauche distinctly remembers his first board.
“I was wondering if I had made the right facing movements, and all I really did was just walk through a door,” said the number one dedicated crew chief for the team’s commander. “I was unsure if my uniform was pressed enough, and wondering ‘Did that guy just frown at me?’ ”
Plauche may have been more nervous than others because he was the first Air Force reservist to become a Thunderbird. He’s been with the team three years.
As board president, Senior Master Sgt. Pete Casiano chairs the one-day, 10-day and 21-day panels.
“We, as a team, do things that are amazing,” said Casiano, the public affairs noncommissioned officer in charge. “We can do that because people pay attention to details. In our 50-year history, we’ve never cancelled a show due to maintenance.”
Second test
Minutes before Tech. Sgt. Bill Fleetwood’s 10-day board, members purposely left his chair a good 7 feet away from the table to see his reaction. Would he sit without asking? Would he pull it closer to the table in anticipation of being told to sit?
When ordered to sit, Fleetwood promptly pulled up the chair and sat with his hands placed lightly on each knee. Simple, yet it could’ve been complicated. When asked, he released a flood of memorized information: every pilot’s name and hometown, the team’s mission and vision statements, the team’s chain of command and every jet the Thunderbirds have flown. Then the panel hit him with a tough question: What’s the size of land deeded to the Thunderbirds on the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado? He squeezed his knees like oranges. His right foot looked like it belonged to Thumper. He answered correctly, “One square foot.”
After the board, the electronics/environmental craftsman sat on a hallway bench, confident he did well. Fleetwood guessed he scored between 50 or 60 out of a possible 100 points. To most, that’s an acceptable score by day 10.
“The reality of the 10-day board is that we don’t want them to score well,” Casiano said. “We don’t want them to become overconfident halfway through the program, then fail the 21-day program.”
21-day board
“By day 19, which was a Saturday morning, not everything was clicking in my head,” recalled Thunderbird first sergeant, Senior Master Sgt. Mark Taylor. “If I showed myself a question, I couldn’t spit out the whole answer. If I put a date out there, I couldn’t answer everything on the back of the flashcard. My fear was that I’d be the first first sergeant to go 28 days.”
Taylor didn’t want to have to ask for an extension. Although everybody is required to pass the final board, the panel awards seven-day extensions if warranted. About half of all candidates must be extended.
While newbies are cramming facts into their skulls, they’re also expected to complete work details.
“For three weeks, I worked 12-hour days, Monday through Friday, and four hours a day on weekends, to prepare for the board,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Prunier. “It was an exhausting period trying to cram all that information and do all the details,” recalled the number four dedicated crew chief.
Among daily chores — dusting, polishing, cleaning — waxing the patch is a must — once in the morning and again in the afternoon. It takes about 15 minutes to wax the patch and polish the brass poles.
“Waxing the patch, in and of itself, isn’t important,” McSpadden said. “Having the discipline, routine and attention to detail to wax it correctly is what’s important.”
While waxing the patch, newcomers are fair game to a thorough grilling by any patch-wearing Thunderbird member. Techniques are questioned, dress and appearance are picked apart and newbies are yelled at to cause confusion.
“If you lose focus, they’ll be all over you,” Plauche explained. “It could be the middle of winter and you’ll be sweating buckets, but don’t let any of that sweat hit the patch. While I polished the brass, I once saw a person’s reflection while he was over my shoulder, and I wondered if he was looking at me. He had to be looking at me, what else could he’ve been looking at?”
Overthinking? Maybe.
But it’s all part of the master plan.
The final test
By day 21, candidates meet their final board. Then, if successful, they have one final test to overcome — the patching ceremony.
“The patching, by far, was the most intimidating thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Prunier said. “Everybody was screaming, hooting and hollering, but I had to remain focused on the commander.”
In this final test, the squadron commander poses questions to each candidate in front of all squadron members. Plauche’s patching ceremony has become legend. During his ceremony the commander posed the impossible question.
“The commander asked me questions, and I answered them all. I don’t know what happened, maybe I was getting a little cocky, but he asked me how many windows were in the hangar. Who knows that?” Plauche questioned. “I came to learn later that even he didn’t know the answer to that one.”
McSpadden said he doesn’t expect anyone to know everything, but he does study how they react.
“They’ll get asked questions about the organization by people around the world. They need to know the answers, and if they don’t, they need to know where to get them,” he explained.
Plauche earned the patch, a feat he’s still proud of today.
“This patch should mean more than anything on this team,” Plauche said. “There are so many people who have come and gone who have put everything into making this team what it is today. The patch is 50 years of getting better throughout the Air Force.”
Wax on, wax off
St. Amand finished waxing the patch. Missing were the sounds of hollers and the intense scrutiny that normally accompany a waxing. Thunderbird members walked by without saying a word and left St. Amand to his thoughts. The only sound was the clatter of tools as mechanics worked on jet engines.
It was St. Amand’s last day as a Thunderbird, and tradition allows him to wax the patch a final time, in silence. So, he took his time.
“I reflected on my four-and-a-half years with the Thun-derbirds and the reality that it was all over. I was sad to leave, but happy to be moving on.”
St. Amand, now stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., said he shares what he learned from the Thunderbirds. He still displays his Thunderbird patch proudly on the wall of his home, forever a reminder of those 21 days of hell.
“Newbies” spend much of their 21 days of orientation learning and gathering information about the squadron’s rich 50-year history. In the Thunderbird museum, Molina searches for the names of two former pilots who had mustaches. They never know what questions the panel is going to ask. For instance, which Mattel Thunderbird doll outranks the other: Ken or Barbie? The answer: Barbie.
Tech. Sgt. Bill Fleetwood undergoes the second of three formal evaluations by a select panel of Thunderbird noncommissioned officers during the orientation process. During this evaluation, panel members (clockwise from left) Tech. Sgt. Joe Richard, Staff Sgt. Joe DeLafuente, Master Sgt. Sue Rainone, Staff Sgt. Jason Uncapher and Senior Master Sgt. Pete Casiano pose detailed questions about the Thunderbirds, called “Thunderisms.”
