A bid farewell to Randolph AFB's T-6 demonstration team

October 17, 2006
By Jennifer Litz
Special to LIVE!

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and future Air Force Pilots!” bellowed a loudspeaker that spoke to a crowd that tops most blockbuster sporting events.

“On behalf of the Air Education and Training Command’s T-6A Texan West Flight Demonstration Team...it gives me great pleasure to introduce...Captain Jeff Stift and the new T-6A Texan II!” the voice continued. “Jeff is a former KC-135 Aircraft Commander and an Instructor pilot in the T-37...”

Almost five months after this Temple, Texas, air show, where Jeff “Stiffy” Stift had rolled and curved his trusty T-6A Texan II to his crew member’s narration, Stift sat down to recount the great stint he had as a pilot for the T-6A Texan II Aerial Demonstration Team—A stint that has met an abrupt end, with the military-wide budgetary cuts that funding the never-ending global war on terrorism demands.

If there are celebrities in the U.S. Air Force (besides those who go on to be politicians), they are the “demo team” guys. Though a big part of the T-6 demonstration teams’ recruiting mission involved speaking at schools nationwide, the actual air shows required the practice and skill of celebrated artists.

But it would be difficult to find a crowd at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as arrested as the one that beheld the graceful swan dives and fishhooks executed at the T-6 air shows. It wouldn’t have been hard to believe the air show narrator’s spiel that warned potential pilots that roller coasters would never “do it” for them again once they start training: “You’ll discover that aviation is what makes you feel alive, and this—this kind of flying—is the purest aviation of them all,” it said.

Reinforcing Public Confidence: Amid energizing rock music, the buttery smell of funnel cakes, and other carnival atmosphere staples, the T-6 demonstration team at Randolph Air Force Base executed its mission: Recruiting and retaining pilots for the United States Air Force.

“It’s kind of a carnival atmosphere on the ground,” Stift says of the shows. “They’re bigger than sporting events; usually two-to-three days long. They attract one of the largest crowds at any venue around the country: Anywhere upwards from 2,000 to 4 million people at one particular show. So if you touch somebody or talk to somebody, that’s huge.”

“There’s an air show in November at Lackland Air Force Base!” he says excitedly, despite the fact that his own demonstration team will have dissolved by then (October 1 to be exact). “You see all types of aircrafts flying,” he continues. “With us in particular, we’re representing [Randolph]; we show exactly what our aircraft can do. Our mission in particular is pilot training in the T-6.

“So we’ll describe what the pilot training students are going to learn. Now, there are other aircrafts, like the F-35, and other fighters. Those are big, they’re loud, and they’ve got flames coming out the back. They demonstrate the performance capabilities of that aircraft, and typical tactical maneuvers they’d do during combat. And that’s where a lot of people hear the noise. We’re not loud, we’re a trainer.”

A trainer with an incredibly powerful engine from Pratt & Whitney, a company that has powered missions to nearly every planet in the solar system.

A narrator would describe how that Pratt & Whitney engine could fly for more than 800 miles on a single tank of gas, allowing for the repetition of maneuvers it demands to train student pilots.

Or how the “Texas Sidewinder” maneuver represented more than a well-trained pilot.

“Pulling the T-6 into a climb and rolling inverted,” the script for the May ’06 air show in Temple, Texas, said, “Captain Stift uses a Reverse Cuban-8 to set up for his next exciting maneuver...a Randolph AFB original...the Texas Sidewinder. Using a series of rapid turn reversals and rolls, the Sidewinder will clearly demonstrate the Texan II’s incredible agility.”

Typically, the narrator related the T-6’s capabilities to Randolph’s training mission. Of course, some maneuvers are just meant to inspire. Like the incredibly elaborate Half Cuban Eight/Fishhook.

“To accomplish the Fishhook, Jeff will pull his aircraft through the vertical...” the script read. “He’ll then position it inverted, 45 degrees nose low...then roll upright and continue his dive down to 500 feet above the ground.

“Next, Jeff will cross show center at over 300 miles per hour...

“He’ll then pull the Texan into a vertical climb...roll the aircraft 360 degrees...and thread the eye of the Fishhook!

“Now, upside down and hanging in the straps, Captain Stift will roll upright, and complete the always exciting..FISHHOOK maneuver.”

Recruiting: The T-6 pilots got a rush out of things besides aerobatics. It wasn’t that those air-bound dives and turns got easier or less exciting during a team member’s two-year tenure: Several pilots contested to having emerged from the cockpit drenched in sweat after each show. But the precocious kids they had encountered at school visits floored them, too.

“Surprisingly, we get a lot of questions on the global war on terrorism,” Stift says. “Of course, we also get questions on lifestyle in the Air Force: Do we have to wake up at 5 in the morning to do physical training; do we get yelled at everyday by a drill instructor, etc. I always tell them that all that may be part of the training, but once you become a member of the Air Force, you do a job, just like anyone else that has a nine-to-five. Of course, our hours vary, too...”

The T-6 will definitely be missed on career days through the nation. Mike McFalls, principal of Miller Point Elementary in Converse, Texas, remembers what an impact the team had on his students. “We have career day every year, and we always invite them to come. They’ve always been very accommodating in coming, and very popular with the kids. They bring in all their equipment and the kids get to try it on. It’s very informative, the kids really enjoy it, pay really good attention.”

“Yeah, we’ll bring in our equipment, that kind of thing,” Stift says. “So they can get a handle and feel for what we do. Often the whole team will describe their position; what they’ve done in the Air Force, what they’re doing now. Because the demonstration team is a secondary, additional duty for us.

“We’re recruiting for the U.S. Air Force. And we demonstrate one aspect of what we do, and that’s fly. The whole team has a diverse background—each of us has flown different things, done different things; staff jobs, flying jobs—we’ll talk to people about the whole variety, not just flying. There’s a lot of variety in the Air Force.”

This and other demonstration teams’ recruiting efforts seem to be paying off. Lt. Cmdr. Mery-Angela S. Katson commands the San Antonio Military Entrance and Processing Station, which processes individuals for induction into the armed services. Katson, who presides over the fourth largest MEPS in the nation, says her enlistment numbers are impressive, despite news reports of local dissention and growing casualties in the global war on terror. “My numbers are showing that I’ve had an increase of people coming through,” Katson says. “We’re getting more business and finding more qualified applicants.”

Remembering: The amount of people the T-6 Demo team touched was impressive. Stift says the team had over 140 venues request their presence last year, which they had to whittle down to 40; repeat shows were the first to get downsized.

Equally impressive was often the lineup of attendees. “I met Will Smith in Fort Lauderdale,” Stift recalls. “At a reception for Air Show volunteers and performers, he went around shaking everybody’s hand. He was very supportive. Bobby Busch, owner of Anheuser-Busch, he’s a big supporter of the military as well.”

“A lot of political figures turn out as well: the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, congressmen; other people that you only hear about or see on TV. that actually come up and shake your hand. It means a lot to us, especially when it’s personal.”

Indeed, the Air Force has lost a prime opportunity to educate and recruit with the dissolution of the T-6 Team. The team would convene at recruiting booths before and after air shows to answer questions about the Air Force. Talking with visitors not only helped with recruitment, Stift says, it also helped to educate and inform citizens on what the Air Force does.

Still, there are others that will carry on the torch.

“It is heartbreaking,” Stift admits. “But there are still demo teams out there in the Air Force. They’re still keeping a few of those shows around—especially, like I mentioned, those high-performance jets. Our team is under a different command structure; Air Education and Training Command. Its primary purpose is training and recruiting personnel. The other fighters are under Air Combat Command. They’re demonstrating combat tactics. They’re still going strong.”