Weather no match for Thunderbirds

(Capt. Christy Stravolo is an Air Force Reservist working for PACAF Public Affairs and is currently traveling with the Thunderbirds team.)

Everyone knew the Thunderbirds tour through the Pacific wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. Getting their F-16s and support team of 80+ Airmen across tens of thousands of miles of open ocean to 10 different venues including Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea has taken almost a year of planning and coordination between the Air Force active duty, Reserve and Guard plus a few embassies and numerous foreign militaries. The only “member” of the team who has been less than cooperative has been Mother Nature, but the Thunderbirds – I’m proud to report – have so far adapted and overcome...

The Thunderbirds left Hawaii and arrived in Australia Sept 22 via airlift provided by C-17s from Elmendorf AFB and Hickam AFB, which were refueled by Hawaii Air National Guard KC-135s and Reserve KC-10As from Travis AFB, Calif. The day after we arrived we started hearing about a massive dust storm in Sydney, which the news people were calling “the dust storm of the century.” The images of pink and yellow haze where buildings supposedly stood were hard to believe and we wondered if the dust might make its way more than 1,000 miles north to Townsville where we were. Sure enough, it did. We had a few days before the practice for it to clear up, which it did not. Visibility was so poor on the practice day that the Thunderbirds flew a “flat” (low altitude) show and the commander ended it early as a safety precaution. It was anyone’s guess as to whether the air show would be possible the very next day.

More than 70,000 Australians flocked to “The Strand” on air show day. The Strand is a beautiful stretch of beach and palm trees looking out at Magnetic Island, which was still fairly hazy from the dust but at least we could see it. It wasn’t visible the day before. I was standing at show center and wondering if the Thunderbirds commander was going to give the green light to fly. The music picked up and suddenly the Thunderbirds raced across the sky from behind us and once over water, shot straight up as high as you could see. We were going to get a show! All the loops, high-speed maneuvers and formation flying thrilled the crowd. What a show it was. A special treat was watching the Royal Australian Air Force's F-111 demo.

While we were in Australia, we were hearing about a typhoon headed towards our next destination: Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Because of the severe weather, the call had to be made to cancel Guam and arrive ahead of schedule in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Everyone was disappointed. To cancel a show after all the months of planning to make it possible is disheartening. I felt especially bad for our folks at Andersen.

The day we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, those of us working PA met with the embassy PA folks at our hotel (across from Petronas Twin Towers, which are magnificent). Smack in the middle of the meeting, I felt my body trembling. I wasn’t sure what was happening and held onto the table, which was vibrating. Finally the embassy PA asked if “anyone else felt that” and turns out we all did. Later on the news, we learned about the massive earthquake in Indonesia, which was felt as far away as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. I was beginning to wonder what else Mother Nature had in store for us…

Even though the rainy season was upon us, the air show in Malaysia on Oct 3 went off without a hitch. More than 100,000 people flocked to the Subang air base to watch the Thunderbirds perform.
I heard over and over from the Malaysians at the show how fantastic they thought the Thunderbirds were.

From a public affairs standpoint, our time in Australia and Malaysia was well spent. The Thunderbirds visited a children’s hospital in Australia, met with orphans in Kuala Lumpur, conducted countless radio, TV and newspaper interviews in both countries and even met the Sultan of Selangor, Malaysia who came out to see the show and was presented a Thunderbirds lithograph signed by the team.

Our next scheduled stop on the Pacific tour was Thailand, however the Thunderbirds commander has gotten approval to “swing through” Guam first now that a super typhoon (stronger than the first storm that diverted us) is no longer threatening the island. So here we are! The Elmendorf C-17 carrying the first half of the team arrived yesterday and the F-16s along with the second C-17 from Hickam arrives this evening. If Mother Nature cooperates, Guam residents will get to see the Thunderbirds fly this Wednesday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...