Home > News > Features > Display

Commander treated to incentive ride

By Valerie Mullett, 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs / Published July 27, 2011

PRINT | E-MAIL
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. -- July 7, 2011 is a date Col. Anthony Cotton will not soon forget.

After a few years of talk about getting Wing One's commander on an incentive flight at the MANG, the event finally took place last Thursday.

"I am looking forward to it," Cotton said while preparing for his flight. "Hoops [Col. Pete Hronek, 120th Fighter Wing commander] and I have been talking about doing this for this for awhile. I'm excited we finally get to do it and I'm not going to turn down a ride in an F-15."

Before Thursday's flight, Hronek said he'd been at Malmstrom before and taken tours so he wanted to return the favor to Cotton.

"I'll let him touch the controls of the F-15 and even fly it a bit from the controls in the back seat if he wants," Colonel Hronek said. "I don't think he'll let me touch a missile launch key, but that's OK with me."

After gearing up in his G-suit and parachute harness, Cotton met up with his host and the two commanders headed across the flightline to board their aircraft.

Cotton was the first to climb on board and was carefully strapped in by one of the operations team members. Ascending the stairs behind him, Hronek leaned in and shook Cotton's hand before climbing into the cockpit and taking the controls.

As the F-15 taxied out of the hangar, the two commanders acknowledged the crowd and proceeded down the runway to get into position to take off.

A few minutes later, a roaring jet came zooming by and was very quickly airborne, thus beginning Cotton's one-plus hour journey of a lifetime.

With intentions of putting his friend "through the ropes," Colonel Hronek said before take off, "If he signals he is OK, I will push the plane a little harder."

That he did as Wing One's commander confessed after the flight that the duo had hit 7G's while they were flying.

"It was extremely hot up there but absolutely incredible," Cotton said. "If the air conditioning was a little better, I'd have stayed up there for hours! It was great to see the sights of northcentral Montana going 500 miles per hour."
USAF Comments Policy
If you wish to comment, use the text box below. AF reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.

This is a moderated forum. That means all comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, we expect that participants will treat each other, as well as our agency and our employees, with respect. We will not post comments that contain abusive or vulgar language, spam, hate speech, personal attacks, violate EEO policy, are offensive to other or similar content. We will not post comments that are spam, are clearly "off topic", promote services or products, infringe copyright protected material, or contain any links that don't contribute to the discussion. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted. The AF and the AF alone will make a determination as to which comments will be posted. Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other non-governmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using this page. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of the AF, DoD, the United States, or its officers or employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, or organization. Such references are not an official or personal endorsement of any product, person, or service, and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying AF endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service.

Any comments that report criminal activity including: suicidal behaviour or sexual assault will be reported to appropriate authorities including OSI. This forum is not:

  • This forum is not to be used to report criminal activity. If you have information for law enforcement, please contact OSI or your local police agency.
  • Do not submit unsolicited proposals, or other business ideas or inquiries to this forum. This site is not to be used for contracting or commercial business.
  • This forum may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.

AF does not guarantee or warrant that any information posted by individuals on this forum is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. AF may not be able to verify, does not warrant or guarantee, and assumes no liability for anything posted on this website by any other person. AF does not endorse, support or otherwise promote any private or commercial entity or the information, products or services contained on those websites that may be reached through links on our website.

Members of the media are asked to send questions to the public affairs through their normal channels and to refrain from submitting questions here as comments. Reporter questions will not be posted. We recognize that the Web is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will occur during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read and posted as early as possible; in most cases, this means the next business day.

For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain "on-topic." This means that comments will be posted only as it relates to the topic that is being discussed within the blog post. The views expressed on the site by non-federal commentators do not necessarily reflect the official views of the AF or the Federal Government.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information, such as name, Social Security number, DoD ID number, OSI Case number, phone numbers or email addresses in the body of your comment. If you do voluntarily include personally identifiable information in your comment, such as your name, that comment may or may not be posted on the page. If your comment is posted, your name will not be redacted or removed. In no circumstances will comments be posted that contain Social Security numbers, DoD ID numbers, OSI case numbers, addresses, email address or phone numbers. The default for the posting of comments is "anonymous", but if you opt not to, any information, including your login name, may be displayed on our site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment policy. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.