Pilot for day visits 310th

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class C.J. Hatch
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. - --  A seven-year-old boy visited the 310th Fighter Squadron Sept. 14 where he met with the commander and other 310th FS members.

Nick "Killer Man" McCluen was selected to participate in the pilot for-a-day program at Luke. He is currently recovering from leukemia.

Nick arrived with his mother, where they met Capt. Thomas Juntunen, 310th FS instructor pilot, who escorted them throughout the day. The first stop was to meet Lt. Col. Scott Gierat, 310th FS commander, and for Nick to get his flight suit. Nick was given a patch with his call sign and a 310th FS patch.

After changing into his flight suit, the tour began when Nick learned about life as a pilot. He attended a pilot briefing and then headed to life support where he donned his life support gear and pilot's helmet equipped with night vision goggles.

He then continued on to the flightline. An F-16 with his name on the cockpit was waiting for him. Nick and his mother climbed inside to get a feel for what it's like to be a fighter pilot. He was told how the flightline team works together to launch and recover aircraft during a mission.

The pilots do more than just fly, Nick discovered, when they took him back to the squadron to see a pilot's workspace and a list of duties they perform.

After lunch, Nick was escorted to the simulators, where he lived up to his nickname by shooting down four enemy aircraft and earned his wings.

"It was a really good day," Nick said. "I loved it. I liked looking at the parts of the jets on the flightline, and the
simulator where I got to fly a jet and blow up four guys."

After his flying time, Nick went to the control tower to meet the air traffic controllers and watched and listened as they launched and recovered aircraft.

At the end of the day, he returned to the 310th FS for a short farewell and received some tokens from his day.

"The day went really well," Capt. Juntunen said. "I was impressed with Nick's flying ability in the simulator; he was a fast learner and by the end of simulation he was flying around like he'd been doing it for years."