Tehachapi News

Harris earns his wings

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See also two other airplane related stories here and here.

The last couple of months for 1st Lt. Christopher Harris have been an ascending arc of accomplishment, punctuated on March 5 by the best news of all - the birth of his first child, Ethan Tyler Harris.

Harris's parents are Rick and Diane Harris of Tehachapi.

Harris and his wife Melissa live at Enid, Okla., where he went through pilot training at Vance Air Force Base. 

He earned his wings there Dec. 18.

Assisting Melissa in the pinning ceremony was Harris's grandfather Bill Meikle, a retired Air Force pilot who flew dozens of different aircraft, Harris said, including the F-86 Sabre - the first swept-wing jet --  and the B-47 - the first jet engine bomber.

Harris's father Rick is a flight test engineer for Boeing, and is now working on the 747 cargo aircraft in Washington state.

When the men start sharing stories, Harris said, “It drives the girls in the family nuts.”

He chose to fly cargo planes and is undergoing three-and-a-half months of training at Altus Air Force Base to qualify as a co-pilot in the C-17 Globemaster.

He will be stationed at their first choice of location, McChord Air Force Base at Tacoma, Wash.

The big cargo plane is more appealing to him than flashy aircraft.

“I like the mission of this airplane,” he said of the Globemaster. “It has its own community. It attracts a different type of people.

“My wife and I like the cargo lifestyle.”

He said he likes the humanitarian airlifts and medical evacuations the cargo planes are called to do.

He said he recently talked to his buddy who was flying a humanitarian mission to earthquake-torn Chile.

“That's amazing, providing support to folks who need it.”

The C-17 itself is remarkable, Harris said.

During recent simulator training, he said, “We lost four engines and had to glide to a landing.”

Such a scenario has never happened, he said, but emergencies teach a lot about the airplane's systems.

Distinguished graduate

Harris, 28, is a 1999 graduate of Tehachapi High School and a 2007 graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering.

He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in Dec., 2007.

On graduation from pilot training, Harris was named Distinguished Graduate and received the Air Education and Training Command Commander's Trophy and the Flying Training Award in the T-1.

Chris and Melissa met at Prescott, Ariz., the location of Embry-Riddle, where she was a paramedic.

He was on a full-time two-year mission for the LDS Church, 2000 to 2002, at Atlanta, Ga.

Chris has four younger siblings: Spencer, 26, Tyler, 24, Katy, 20 and Kendra, 17.