Football
Associated Press 18y

Some teams have a plane, but this one has the Air Force

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- There are a lot of ways to move
a team on the college sports map. Some schools charter buses or
small airplanes. Some fly commercial. A few have their own jets.

But no teams get around quite like those from the Air Force.

The men's basketball team flew on a charter Tuesday to San Diego
for Thursday's NCAA Tournament game, with the NCAA paying the bill.

But just within the past four months, Air Force teams have
traveled on military planes such as C-130s or KC-135s from Peterson
Air Force Base to destinations as close as Salt Lake City and as
far as Germany.

Air Force's varsity teams mostly use commercial flights, but the
Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve sometimes transports teams
if the trip can be incorporated into a unit's regular training
mission.

Such flights are less frequent with the United States at war,
but the program still saves the athletic department hundreds of
thousands of dollars each year and helps athletes avoid missing
class time while waiting in airports.

Flying the Falcons isn't a high priority for the military, but
senior associate athletic director Mike Saks said that using the
military planes is consistent with having the government pay for
the basic operations of the athletic department.

Athletics is one of the four pillars at the academy, along with
academics, military training and character development.

When using military planes, the athletic department pays only
for the pilots' per diems, hotel rooms and meals. The cost of fuel
and flying hours is absorbed by the government because the trips
are classified as training missions.

Tim Taylor, the public information officer for the 302nd Reserve
Airlift Wing at Peterson, said flying a C-130 costs about $3,600 an
hour, excluding crew costs. The Air Force also considers flyovers
at football games to be training exercises.

In the athletic department's most recent fiscal year, which
ended in September, Air Force athletic teams took 45 military
flights. According to Saks, had those teams flown commercially, it
would have cost the athletic department an extra $251,488. In the
fiscal year that ended in September 2003, Air Force teams took 54
flights, for a savings of $287,485.

Capt. Justin Kieffer, a 1999 academy graduate and former hockey
player who flies C-130s with the 96th Airlift squadron of
Minneapolis, said transporting teams is an efficient way for
reservists to fulfill their required flying hours.

"It's a way to get some of our guys trips who are normal
civilians and on a weekend, they'll have a weekend off to make some
extra money with the reserves," Kieffer said. "Some are airline
pilots. Some have normal 9-to-5 jobs during the week. A lot of
times it's hard for a guy who works 9 to 5 to get out and fly
during the week, so the weekend is a perfect opportunity to go out
and fly and to keep current."

For two years beginning in March 2003, Kieffer's squadron flew
missions in Iraq.

"Now we have more time to get these trips, and it's a nice deal
for guys to go on the weekend instead of going over in the
desert," Kieffer said. "It's nice because a lot of guys in this
unit are academy grads."

Luxury is sacrificed on such flights.

The KC-135 went into service in 1956, and its main purpose is to
refuel aircraft. It has no permanent seats and no windows.

Besides the cost savings, Falcon teams save time leaving from
Peterson because they often must leave from Denver International
Airport when flying commercially.

Once in the plane, players and coaches can spread out and relax.
That was especially helpful during the hockey team's 12-hour trip
to Europe in November on a KC-135.

"Traveling every other weekend for hockey from September to the
end of March takes its toll, especially when you're waiting all
over the place and you have layovers," hockey player Andrew Ramsey
said. "With Mil Air, it's right in, the bus is waiting on the
tarmac for you."

"It's a lot more comfortable, a lot more accommodating,
especially in hockey with all our equipment, sticks and skate
sharpeners. We each have 30 to 40 pounds of gear besides our
personal stuff. It's real nice to do that, and we can load it
ourselves. We know our equipment gets taken care of and doesn't get
thrown around."

Academy officials say the planes give the cadets a sense of the
"real-world" Air Force. That is especially so when a team flies
on a KC-135 during a refueling mission, which Saks said happens
sometimes.

"It's a good experience because our players get to go in the
cockpit," women's basketball coach Ardie McInelly said. "I ended
up going in the cockpit when we were taking off. It just gives you
a great appreciation for what we're all about at the Air Force
Academy and our players having a chance to interact with the
pilots. I know our players are always excited, especially the
freshmen."

Saks said the athletic department requests airlift flights for
every trip. Before each team's season, a list of road trips is
submitted to Kelleen Williamson, the academy's airlift validator.

Once every quarter, Williamson takes those requests to airlift
allocation conferences and meets with schedulers from Air Force
reserve units across the country. Although active duty units are
"too busy with real-world stuff" to fly academy athletes,
Williamson said, roughly 20 percent of the trips will get picked up
by a reserve unit.

Of course, things don't always run smoothly, with schedules or
with the planes themselves. Saks said trips will sometimes be
scheduled, then canceled, leaving the athletic department
scrambling to find plane tickets.

And on the rare occasion, the planes just won't cooperate.
That's what happened to Air Force's hockey team on a trip to
Bemidji State in northern Minnesota three years ago.

"It was 20 below zero, and we flew out on Sunday morning and we
went to get in the plane and the plane turned over but it wouldn't
move. It was frozen stiff," hockey coach Frank Serratore said. "I
told the pilot, 'I'm from here, you've got to plug your engine in
and start your vehicles early.' "

Still, sitting in the cold for a half-hour while the plane
warmed up was better than the alternative.

"For us, when we go to Bemidji, we drive to Denver, fly to
Minneapolis then get on a bus and drive five hours, so it's an
all-day thing," Serratore said. "We leave early in the morning
and get there late at night. With Mil Air, it's 2½ hours."

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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com

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