Honorary commanders learn how to 'build a test pilot'

  • Published
  • By Rebecca Amber
  • Staff writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The 2015 honorary commanders and their guests joined their respective Edwards AFB commanders for their first tour of the base May 1. The group gathered at the Air Force Flight Test Museum and then boarded a bus for a main base and flightline tour ending at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. The theme for the event was "Welcome to Edwards AFB and Building Test Pilots."

After listening to 412th Test Wing and TPS mission briefs, the group split up to tour the school. While one group saw the school's facilities, including simulators and control rooms, the other walked out to the flightline. On display were a CM-17 Fouga Magister and in-flight simulators, the Calspan Learjet and the one-of-a-kind NF-16D VISTA, which is a highly modified F-16 that can be configured to fly as almost any aircraft type. VISTA stands for Variable stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft.

One of the honorary commanders, Beverly Vander Wall, is paired with the 412th Operations Support Squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Geraghty. Vander Wall is excited about the opportunity to share the mission with her community in Lone Pine, California.

"The miles of runway and the fact that 12,000 people are on base every day; that is amazing," she said. "I come from Lone Pine and we have [around] 1,800 people in our whole town. So that makes this very big, over and above what I'm used to living."

According to Vander Wall, there are many residents in her community that do not appreciate the aircraft noise coming from military jets or understand the funding behind the programs. The honorary commanders program is giving her the chance to better understand the Air Force mission and relay that to others in her town.

"It's for our safety, it's for our independence. And to see this firsthand, how it works, helps me to go back and say, 'this is why you have the noise.'"

As an Aviatrix, Vander Wall looks at Edwards' sorties as "a daily airshow."

Honorary commanders are asked to serve a one-year term. During that term, the HCCs are invited to participate in activities such as change-of-command ceremonies, quarterly mission tours, promotion and award ceremonies and commander's calls. The HCCs can participate in as many events they wish.

Similarly, the HCCs can invite their military commander counterpart to attend civilian and corporate events within the local community.

Another honorary commander, Gary Chapman, L.A. County Commission on Veterans Affairs commissioner, is paired with Col. Mark Hoelscher, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center Detachment 1 commander. As an Army veteran who received a purple heart after being shot in Vietnam, he is "amazed" by what the Airmen at Edwards are trained to do and the speed at which they are trained. During his service, Chapman was a door gunner on a gunship helicopter.

"They didn't have a lot of this when I was in the Army," he recalled. "This whole testing here at Edwards - I didn't realize you had this much here and it's overwhelming to me."

The primary objective of the Edwards Honorary Commanders Program is to provide Edwards commanders with the capability to develop, promote and maintain a continuous working partnership with the surrounding communities. It helps to familiarize community leaders with Edwards' operations by pairing them with unit commanders and directors at both social and official functions.