Air Mobility Command aviators reach 5,000-hour milestone
McCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kans. (USTCNS) --- Two Air Mobility Command pilots from the 384th Air Refueling Squadron have reached a milestone that few will ever reach.
Lt. Col. Mike Callis, 384th ARS commander, and Maj. Joe Dudgeon, 384th assistant operations officer, have both reached the 5,000-hour mark in their aviation careers.
Callis went over 5,000 hours during a training sortie July 4. Dudgeon went over 5,000 July 2. Dudgeon has added 20 more hours to his total since reaching the milestone.
Neither aviator planned or aimed to reach the milestone, it just happened.
"The hours just accumulated through normal flying," said Callis. "I never thought much about it," said Callis.
The same was true for Dudgeon. "I hadn't given it a thought, it was a number that, like the hours on the clock, ticked by," he said. "Your whole focus on flying isn't the number of hours your are accumulating, but the accumulation of skill and the transfer of knowledge."
After it was realized how close both individuals were, the decision was made to try to reach the mark at the same time. Unfortunately that did not happen.
"It is a unique event. It is not very often someone reaches this mark, but it is even more unique to have two people at the same base, in the same squadron, reach the milestone as close to each other as we have" said Dudgeon.
For Callis, it took 1,153 sorties to reach 5,000 hours, with most of those hours coming while flying the EC-135 Looking Glass from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. He also accumulated hours in the C-17, the KC-10 and several different variants of the KC-135 to include the A, E, Q and RT models
Dudgeon compiled the majority of his hours in the EC-130 Compass Call. Besides the KC-135, he has hours in the E-3 AWACS and the NATO TCA, a Boeing 707 NATO support aircraft. Dudgeon flew 930 sorties to 5,000 hours.
In addition to the 5,000 military flying hours, Dudgeon is also a civilian pilot and has a combined total of more than 6,150 flight hours.
While neither individual planned to aim for the 5,000-hour milestone, both knew at an early age that they wanted to fly.
"My father was an Air Force navigator and as a child, he would take me to the base and we would watch the planes fly around and it was then I knew I wanted to fly," said Callis.
Dudgeon's love for flying began when he was in high school. In 1978, his father arranged for him to take an orientation flight and he fell in love. He said, at that point there was nothing else he wanted to do.
What is next for both individuals? Keep flying. Neither thinks that they will reach 6,000 hours flying time, but both will continue to fly for as long as the Air Force will let them.
To put the number of hours that these to aviators have flown into perspective, 5,000 hours is the equivalent of seven months and 27 days. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
Lt. Col. Mike Callis, 384th ARS commander, and Maj. Joe Dudgeon, 384th assistant operations officer, have both reached the 5,000-hour mark in their aviation careers.
Callis went over 5,000 hours during a training sortie July 4. Dudgeon went over 5,000 July 2. Dudgeon has added 20 more hours to his total since reaching the milestone.
Neither aviator planned or aimed to reach the milestone, it just happened.
"The hours just accumulated through normal flying," said Callis. "I never thought much about it," said Callis.
The same was true for Dudgeon. "I hadn't given it a thought, it was a number that, like the hours on the clock, ticked by," he said. "Your whole focus on flying isn't the number of hours your are accumulating, but the accumulation of skill and the transfer of knowledge."
After it was realized how close both individuals were, the decision was made to try to reach the mark at the same time. Unfortunately that did not happen.
"It is a unique event. It is not very often someone reaches this mark, but it is even more unique to have two people at the same base, in the same squadron, reach the milestone as close to each other as we have" said Dudgeon.
For Callis, it took 1,153 sorties to reach 5,000 hours, with most of those hours coming while flying the EC-135 Looking Glass from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. He also accumulated hours in the C-17, the KC-10 and several different variants of the KC-135 to include the A, E, Q and RT models
Dudgeon compiled the majority of his hours in the EC-130 Compass Call. Besides the KC-135, he has hours in the E-3 AWACS and the NATO TCA, a Boeing 707 NATO support aircraft. Dudgeon flew 930 sorties to 5,000 hours.
In addition to the 5,000 military flying hours, Dudgeon is also a civilian pilot and has a combined total of more than 6,150 flight hours.
While neither individual planned to aim for the 5,000-hour milestone, both knew at an early age that they wanted to fly.
"My father was an Air Force navigator and as a child, he would take me to the base and we would watch the planes fly around and it was then I knew I wanted to fly," said Callis.
Dudgeon's love for flying began when he was in high school. In 1978, his father arranged for him to take an orientation flight and he fell in love. He said, at that point there was nothing else he wanted to do.
What is next for both individuals? Keep flying. Neither thinks that they will reach 6,000 hours flying time, but both will continue to fly for as long as the Air Force will let them.
To put the number of hours that these to aviators have flown into perspective, 5,000 hours is the equivalent of seven months and 27 days. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
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