THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511090124
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALVA CHOPP, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Lt. Chris Culler leaned into the pilot's cockpit and pointed to the bright red and orange gauges.
``This is your afterburner throttles,'' she said. ``That makes you go real fast.
``This is your airspeed indicator and this is your stick. Push it forward and the trees get bigger as we say. Pull it back and the trees get smaller.
``If you kill yourself . . . don't worry . . . it happens.''
With that, Culler, a fleet replacement pilot at Oceana Naval Air Station pointed to a small figure of a distant F-14 Tomcat racing into the scene from the right and the fight was on.
Brian, sitting in the pilot's seat, was suddenly on his own . . . facing an incoming enemy.
The horizon bobbled as the fighter rolled from side to side. Without warning the plane flipped and the sky was now below him. Brian fumbled with the controls until he righted himself.
The other plane, almost forgotten in the mayhem, suddenly appeared ahead of on the windscreen. Brian's backseat radar intercept officer, Michael, yelled at him to shoot.
``Shoot 'em, shoot 'em,'' he yelled unable to do much more than watch. ``Let's kick in the afterburner.''
But as the plane gained speed and raced ahead of the enemy, Michael found himself alone in the sky, unaware of what to do next.
A moment later, the horizon stopped spinning and the overhead lights glared down at the two crewmen. It was time to switch seats.
Brian Cahoon and Michael Gillikin, two seniors at Tallwood High School, had just completed a Tomcat flight simulation at Oceana Naval Air Station as part of a field trip for their English class.
Seven students accompanied their teacher, Donna Dambekaln, and the principal, Bernard Morgan, on a morning tour of several sites at the base.
They began the tour walking around the fighter and bomber aircraft parked near the front gate. As they strolled under the spreading wingtips, they listened to recorded messages of the planes' histories.
Interesting stuff. But they were already looking forward to what came next.
Off they drove to the Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Department where Petty Officer Edmund Feger explained how aircraft parts are rebuilt, repaired and sometimes created at his site.
They walked past walls of coiled tubing and hoses, peered into a smelly pot of chemicals removing paint from metal parts and examined an airplane tire with its tread blown away by a novice pilot who landed with his brakes engaged.
At each stop, they heard young second- and third-class petty officers barely older than themselves explaining the ins and outs of their job . . . and how much training it took to get there.
``That's the whole reason behind this kind of tour,'' said Morgan. ``These students need to understand that schooling never stops. That education is a lifelong process.
``Everybody can be somebody if they want to and are willing to get the proper training,'' he said.
As the students moved from one work station to another, Morgan said it was obvious that these sailors take pride in what they do.
``I think our students are impressed with what these people do,'' he said.
The students, members of Tallwood's basic 12th-grade English class, may need a nudge to enter this business world, according to their teacher, Dambekaln.
``They don't always get the right modeling from their own environment and don't get exposed to the business community often,'' she said.
That's why she and Morgan arranged this tour.
``It's a double-edged sword. We expect them to go out into the world with these (business) skills but they haven't had any exposure to the business world,'' she explained. ``If we don't open the doors of opportunity now, they just may not get it. Every little experience adds up.''
Throughout the curriculum, the basic English class has focused on career education, according to Dambekaln. They've listened to business leaders sharing their own experiences, written sample resumes and practiced job-seeking skills. Each assignment is designed to help them enter the reality of working in a world after high school.
``We teach them what it takes to become what they want to be,'' she said. ``We hope they will see and model the sharp communication skills of these enlisted men. This is the kind of modeling I want my students to see.''
The Oceana trip was the first for this class. Dambekaln said her students are ``all from Missouri.'' They don't believe anything until they see it.
``So we're trying to find ways to show them what we want them to learn.''
After a day in the flight simulators and a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes at Oceana, the seven students climbed onboard their school bus.
A sundrenched F-14 Tomcat roared overhead preparing to land. Some students stopped to notice. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Tallwood High's Michael Carter, 18, ``flies'' an F-14 in the trainer
building at NAS Oceana. Seven students accompanied teacher Donna
Dambekaln and principal Bernard Morgan on a morning tour of the
base.
Brian Cahoon, a senior at Tallwood, sits at the controls of the F-14
simulator. ``These students need to understand that schooling never
stops. That education is a lifelong process,'' said Tallwood
principal Bernard Morgan.
Staff photo by
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
by CNB