Royal 60, Go Around!

Yes, these are the famous words uttered by my wife in the last moments of desperation to save her husbands life. It all started on Sunday night when I was tasked to travel to the C-17 auxiliary airfield and man the control tower into the early morning. Knowing that I would endure this hardship alone, my dearest love decided to accompany me on this long drive northward. It was an eerie night with a cool breeze that would scare the devil himself. We traversed the twisted backcountry roads where the moonlight cast creepy shadows off the barren and craggy trees. On this very night, the pilots would be conducting operations with night vision goggles to an entirely blacked-out runway.

We arrived at the control tower mere moments before the first aircraft entered the airfield. Looking out in the distance I detected his aircraft lights steadily closing in on our location. I scarcely had time to turn out all the runway lights yet alone set up the infrared lighting. In the frenzy of the moment I left my wife upstairs, scurried down five stories of stairs and bolted out the door. Fumbling for the keys, I finally started the car and fled toward the runway. The giant C-17 screamed overhead and began a turn away from the field. In the panic of tardiness my heart raced at the task of setting up nearly a dozen infrared lights all along the runway. I started at the end and made my way to the front. Topping out at a 130 mph, I brought the vehicle to a screeching halt and readied myself to install the last few lights.

Ring … ring ... the heat of the moment was interrupted with a familiar sound, but what was it? A moment later I realized the cell phone in my pocket was beckoning me. “No time,” I said to myself, “must hurry … must finish.” What brought me to answer that phone in those very moments I will never know.

On the other end was my wife, as frantic as I have ever heard, proclaiming in a great uproar something about a plane and landing. Peering back over my shoulder, I finally caught a glimpse of the impending doom that awaited me. This beast of aircraft was gear down on short final and I found myself standing unprotected in the middle of the landing zone. I shouted back some instructions and my wife dutifully complied by grasping the radio and firmly stating, “Royal 60, go around!” Years of piloting experience kicked in and the pilots instinctively pushed in the power and began to climb. My wife saved the day (which was actually night) and was a true hero … or is it hero-ess.

I finished my task and returned to the control tower and as the fear of death subsided we took these sweet videos…