The Road to Wings

by Julie Tizard

  “Can you come back over to my room? Or could we go to your house?”

  Kathryn felt guilty as hell. “I’m sorry, Casey. I have to brief the wing commander right now. I’ll call you later. I’ve got to go.”

  For the second time today, Kathryn made her feel devastated.

  *****

  Casey showed up at her flight room the next morning to see half the big schedule board crossed out in red grease pencil. The flight commander explained to everyone about the emergency maintenance inspections on the entire T-38 fleet and said they would be flying a lot of sims until the planes were fixed. Thankfully, he didn’t elaborate on Casey’s emergency from yesterday except to say she’d done a good job. That was the highest praise any student pilot would ever hear.

  She had a feeling there would be a lot of questions from guys in the squadron she didn’t even know about her emergency. She asked the scheduler if she could be the flight room phone person today so she could study for her instrument flight rules exam. Several of the guys in her flight asked her some questions about her emergency and she didn’t mind talking to them. After telling them her story, she sensed some increased respect from the guys.

  Kathryn was front and center in her mind today. She had called her late last night and they only talked for a few minutes. When Casey asked her about when they could see each other again, Kathryn sounded evasive and made excuses about being too busy with her safety investigation. Casey didn’t push it even though she didn’t understand. She was torn between letting her mind create amazing fantasies with Kathryn and studying for her instrument exam. She wanted to let her mind wander to thoughts of Kathryn’s luscious body, but how Kathryn felt about her was the big unknown.

  *****

  Kathryn was buried in paperwork as she worked on the safety investigation of Casey’s mishap. Thirty-two T-38s were past due for inspections of the gearbox shafts, and maintenance was working twenty-four hours a day to inspect them as fast as they could. So far, they’d only found three with severe metal fatigue and they had been repaired already. Seven more jets had evidence of damage, but they should be fixed fairly soon.

  The more troubling aspect of this investigation was the detective work to find out who instigated this disastrous inspection change. For some reason, she was finding gaps in the records of the maintenance tech order changes, which was very unusual.

  Everyone in aircraft maintenance, and especially in Air Training Command, was meticulous about documenting anything having to do with the jets. She’d stayed at her office until two a.m. the night before digging through the paperwork with no luck. When she’d finally gotten home, she’d had a hard time sleeping. Thoughts of Casey kept stirring in her mind. She kept seeing the image of Casey’s jet hurtling down the runway then finally stopping with smoke pouring off the wheels. Then the image of Casey’s amazing body came into her mind. She’d been so desperate and frantic with her that it could hardly be called lovemaking. It was more like animalistic coupling to affirm for each other that they were still alive. Her feelings about Casey were becoming a huge problem.

  Just then, Casey’s IP, Bulldog Prewitt, came stomping into her office. “I’ve got something you need to see, Kath,” he said as he pulled a computer disk from his pocket.

  “What’s this?”

  “I keep copies of everything related to tech order changes since I’m a wing test pilot. They hammered this into us at Edwards when I was in Flight Test School. When I heard about Casey’s jet and that change to the inspection schedule, I went through my old files and guess what I found?”

  “What, Bulldog? You’re killing me.”

  “There’re some maintenance records that have been deleted off the main computer system. And they’ve been deleted just recently, to boot. This floppy disk has a copy of my records from before her mishap. You need to check this with what’s in the maintenance computer system now. Very interesting reading.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what you found out?”

  “Because that ain’t my job. I’m just cooperating with the records request as part of the safety investigation.” He turned and stomped out of her office.

  Kathryn inserted the floppy disk into her computer terminal, opened the files, and saw a name she recognized, Captain Bailey Grant. Why the hell is his name here and why were these erased from the base main computer?

  Kathryn reached for the phone and dialed the base computer information officer.

  “Major Hendricks, I need your help in tracing some computer files and documents related to my safety investigation. Can I come over and show these to you now? Great, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” This could be just the break she needed to solve this puzzle.

  The visit with Major Hendricks was enlightening. He was able to identify the computer that erased the suspect documents to a terminal in the wing standardization and evaluation branch. Specifically, the computer terminal on the desk of the chief of stan / eval. The files were erased from the computer at 2200 hours the night of Casey’s mishap, and Kathryn found out that the chief was out of town at a conference that day. Someone used his computer terminal to cover their tracks. This was no longer just a mistake or negligence; this was now a deliberate cover-up, and Kathryn knew that Bailey Grant was right in the middle of it.

  She was so enraged, she wanted to go home, get her twelve-gauge shotgun, go over to his house, and blow his ugly face off. She had to calm herself while she formulated a plan to catch this bastard red-handed. She would have to wait until tonight to get the evidence she needed to nail his ass.

  It was 1800 hours when she heard a knock at her office door. She looked up and saw Casey standing in front of her looking gorgeous and a little apprehensive.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure, Casey, please sit down.”

  “I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I have to talk to you and I waited until everyone else went home.”

  Kathryn was dreading what Casey would say next. “Okay, go ahead.”

  “I have to know where we’re going. I’m thinking about you constantly and it’s driving me crazy. I’m having trouble concentrating on pilot training. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I really need to know how you feel about me.” There it was—the million dollar question.

  Kathryn looked into Casey’s beautiful, piercing, blue eyes, took a deep breath, closed her door for some privacy, and pulled up the chair next to Casey. She reached out to hold Casey’s warm, strong hand.

  “I’m not sure how I feel about you, Casey. I care about you very much, but I’m not sure if I’m capable of a relationship with you, or with anyone else, for that matter. I’m not sure I can give you what you want. I do know this for sure—I want you to succeed in pilot training and earn your wings. That is more important to me than anything.”

  Casey looked at her silently for a long moment. “I understand that we can’t be seen together because I’m a student pilot. But that doesn’t mean we can’t see each other at someplace off base, like my friend’s house, or we could even meet up somewhere out of town. I just want to know if there is something real here, or was I just a quick fuck for you?”

  Casey’s words were a slap in her face. “You certainly were not just a ‘quick fuck’ for me. You mean a lot more than that to me.” Kathryn could no longer avoid telling Casey the real reason for her reluctance.

  “I have to tell you something so you’ll understand. I had a partner, Marie, and we met nine years ago when we were both student pilots together. She got washed out, went to navigator school, and got sent to Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane. I requested to fly the KC-135 tanker so we could be stationed together. I was completely in love with her, then she was killed in a midair collision. I’ve been grieving her death for five years and I can’t get over it. I don’t know if I can ever give myself to another person. I’m damaged goods, Casey. I don’t think you’d want to be with me if you knew what I was really like.”

  Casey was stunned at this
information and also felt sadness in her heart for Kathryn’s pain. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. Kathryn, but I’m not Marie. I can’t promise you I’ll never die in a plane crash, but I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to stay safe. I may be just a student pilot right now, but I’ve also been a lesbian my whole life. I know what I want, and I want you. I will graduate and earn my wings in four months and nothing, or no one, will prevent me from doing that. You’re not ‘damaged goods’ to me and I would like to give us a chance. You know where to find me if you change your mind.” With that finality, Casey stood up, walked to the door, and left Kathryn’s office without another word.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  The big conference room would soon be filled with all the bigwigs on base, and Kathryn checked her presentation slides one last time before they started to file in. She knew her investigation was comprehensive, but she would be leveling some hard facts at the wing commander, and you never knew how he would react. Colonel Johnson was smart, but her report might make his flying wing look bad. Kathryn was nervous, but she stood behind her evidence. She would simply present the information and let the facts speak for themselves.

  The base commanding officers came in and took their assigned seats around the big table. Kathryn jumped in with her first slide. It was a picture of Casey’s jet right after the fire department had extinguished the fire from the melted tires with smoke still coming off the hot, molten brakes. It was a stark reminder to everyone of just how close they’d come to a disaster. After she let the image linger, she hefted the broken gearbox shaft onto the table for everyone to see. “This is the cause of that substantial aircraft damage and the near loss of life of a student pilot.”

  She had everyone’s undivided attention now. “This is the evidence of severe metal fatigue, which went undetected due to a delayed inspection schedule. The inspection schedule was changed two years ago because of a recommendation from the base budget office to the deputy commander of maintenance.”

  “Who in the base budget office advised the DCM to change the inspection schedule?” the wing commander asked.

  “Captain Bailey Grant, sir.”

  “Captain Grant? He’s a T-37 stan / eval pilot, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, sir, he is. He works for me,” the chief of stan / eval said. “He was assigned to the budget office for a short time before he came to stan / eval.”

  “The evidence I recovered, with the help of the base computer office, are documents concerning cost savings by reducing the T-38 inspection interval,” Kathryn explained.

  “Documents you recovered? Explain this, Captain Hardesty.”

  “Sir, these records were deleted from the base mainframe computer on the night of the mishap—from the computer terminal in the chief of stan / eval’s office.”

  “What? I wasn’t even in my office on that day. I was at Randolph for a conference.” The chief of stan / eval looked stunned at this information. “Someone must have used my terminal.”

  “Someone did use your desk computer terminal, sir,” Kathryn stated.

  “Captain Grant?” he asked.

  “No sir, on the night of the mishap, the log-in on your computer terminal was from Lieutenant Dave Carter, T-37 IP, under the direction of Captain Grant. Mr. Jefferson, the building custodian, was an eyewitness to this fact and positively identified Lieutenant Carter.”

  The situation became obvious to everyone present. Captain Grant had convinced the deputy maintenance commander to change the T-38 inspection schedule for a small cost savings to make himself look good, then he tried to cover it up by using Lieutenant Carter to do the dirty work. He did this when he figured out his inspection change had resulted in the accident. The wing commander got quiet with an ominous look on his face.

  “Captain Hardesty, that will be all for now.” He stood and abruptly left the room.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Everyone shuffled out of the conference room muttering.

  Kathryn had accomplished her mission. She’d figured out what caused Casey’s accident and who was responsible. With any luck, the wing commander would destroy Bailey Grant’s career and, hopefully, Dave Carter’s too.

  *****

  Casey’s flying improved quickly after she successfully handled that big emergency. There was a new confidence and aggressiveness in the way she attacked each mission, and she felt ready for her upcoming check ride.

  The next morning, Casey read the base newspaper with great interest. It had a “Welcome to Willie and Farewell” section and mentioned Captain Bailey Grant was leaving immediately for Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, where he would fly the B-52 bomber. Ha! Serves you right, asshole. The B-52 was the least desirable aircraft to fly in the entire Air Force. He would sit alert in an underground bunker for one-third of his life, then fly an ancient plane. It was like being sentenced to a Gulag in Siberia, and she grinned at the thought of him freezing his nuts off. It also said Lieutenant Dave Carter was reassigned to Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. “Double bonus!”

  Her check ride was with Major Case, the chief of check section and an F-4 fighter pilot. The preflight, engine start, and taxi out went smoothly. Just as Casey was about to lower her canopy for takeoff, she saw the blue flight safety pickup truck parked next to the RSU. Kathryn is watching me. A gentle warmth settled in her belly.

  She was flying well, and everything was just like she’d practiced it with Bulldog. She ran through her stalls and acro in the practice area, then requested her return to Willie.

  Her descent into the base was uneventful and she was surprised how easy it was to fly a no flap approach when you had trim available and no fuel imbalance or airframe vibration. After she lifted off from her sweet touch-and-go landing, she asked the check pilot if he would like to fly. “Sure. I’ve got the jet,” he said.

  “Your jet, sir,” Casey answered. She felt a tiny bit of relief that he hadn’t asked her to repeat any maneuvers. He requested a closed pattern, then yanked the jet into a six-G turn.

  After a few basic systems questions, Major Case shook her hand and said, “Good ride, Captain. Overall grade, Excellent. I look forward to flying with you again.”

  “Thank you, sir, me too.” She was on cloud nine. Everyone looked at her as she entered the room.

  “How’d you do, Tompkins?” the head scheduler asked.

  She held up three fingers sideways in the shape of an E.

  The room erupted in cheers for her. The flight commander came out of his office to shake her hand. “Good job, Casey.”

  “Thanks, sir.”

  “God dammit, girl, I knew you could bring home the bacon!” Bulldog gripped her hand in a bone-crunching handshake. “Jack Case doesn’t give out many Excellents. You must’ve dazzled him good, Ace. Don’t rest on your laurels too much. Next week we’re starting formation, and I want you to hit the ground running.”

  “I will.”

  She wished she could share her triumph with Kathryn, but she knew she couldn’t. It was a little dark cloud on an otherwise great day. She would take Trish and Rhonda out for dinner to celebrate. Maybe Kathryn would call her to congratulate her since she probably already knew about her check ride grade. She had, after all, been watching her from the RSU.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  November 1992

  Kathryn walked into her office in a good mood. Bailey Grant and Dave Carter had been exiled and their careers were essentially over, and Casey had aced her first T-38 check ride. There was a phone message marked Urgent on her desk. It said she needed to get over to the wing commander’s office ASAP. Crap. What now?

  Kathryn hurried over to the his office and asked his secretary, Mrs. Rogers, what was up. “I don’t know, but he’s in a good mood. He’ll see you now.”

  Kathryn stood at attention before his huge desk.

  “Captain Hardesty, please take a seat.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “First of all, you did
a great job with that safety investigation. You uncovered some serious deficiencies that I wasn’t aware of, and I’m happy to tell you they’ve been resolved. You also got a lot of attention from headquarters, Air Training Command.”

  “Thank you, sir. I was just trying to do be thorough.”

  “The main reason I called you here is to tell you that you’ve been selected to attend Air Command and Staff College in residence. This was a highly competitive field, and you’re one of only five officers in the entire command to get selected for senior staff school in residence. You’ll report to Maxwell in April.”

  “Wow. I don’t know what to say, sir.”

  “That’s not all. I’m also putting you in for promotion to major one year early. You’re my number one captain on the base. You’ll pin on major probably by March.”

  Kathryn was stunned at this news. She knew she was a good instructor pilot and a conscientious safety officer, but she never dreamed the wing commander considered her the top captain on the whole base. “Thank you so much, sir.”

  “You’ve earned it, Kathryn. You’re one of my superstars. After you’ve finished your year in Alabama at Maxwell, you’ll go to the Pentagon or maybe even to a White House fellowship. This is the first step toward becoming a squadron commander.” He stood to shake her hand.

  “Thanks again, sir. I’m really thrilled.” She snapped to attention, saluted him, then did an about-face to leave his office.

  This is incredible. I can’t believe it.

  *****

  Casey watched the formation films a dozen times to get the references down cold. Formation flying was the biggest part of T-38 training, and she wanted to shine. The visual signals and basic maneuvers were the same as the T-37 but the T-38 also had some new formation positions—close trail and extended trail. She couldn’t wait to see what these looked like.