LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va., - Maj. Michael D. "BOK" Schaner, a
weapons officer and F-22 Raptor pilot with the 149th Fighter Squadron of the
Virginia Air National Guard was recently selected as the F-22 Outstanding
Graduate for the elite United States Air Force Weapons School.
Not only did Maj. Schaner win the top honor, he was also the first Air
National Guard pilot selected to attend the F-22 program.
Lt. Col. David R. Nardi, Virginia ANG, 149th FS commander, said there was an
excellent reason why the major was the best selection for attending weapons
school.
"He was unanimously selected by the Air Force as the first choice for the
Weapons Instructor Course across the community, because he is one of the
most highly experienced Raptor pilots with great depth of experience in both
the operations and the test communities," Nardi said. "He is one of the very
best pilots and instructors in the F-22 and in the Air Force total force".
Class 09 Bravo Instructor Course, which ran from July 9 through Dec. 13,
2009 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., was designed by Maj. Micah "Zeus"
Fesler to take top instructor pilots to new zeniths using the latest
technology and instructor guidance available.
Schaner, who compared what he learned at this school to a graduate level
course on "projecting air power in a time of need," said he is not sure why
he was chosen as the outstanding pilot.
What he humbly vouched for was his performance uniformity. "If there's one
thing about me, it is that I just try to be consistent and adhere to the
basics ... It's not so much that I feel that I am top graduate by any
means," he said. "It's just a matter of trying to strive personally to do
the best job that I can."
To attend weapons school, information packages, similar to promotion board
packages Air Force-wide, are submitted then reviewed by a selection board at
Randolph AFB, Texas. Candidates are "racked and stacked" prior to selection.
The board looks for pilots that return to their units "humble, credible and
approachable," to teach new pilots and work to integrate what they learned
into their respective units.
The class was made up of four F-22 pilots. They flew over 27 actual flights,
all with dissimilar air combat training assets and engaged F-15s, F-16s, and
F-18s. Fighting dissimilar assets provides much more realistic training,
Schaner said.
"Not only did we fight dissimilar, but we fought outnumbered; in most cases
by a ratio of 4-to-1, adversary to F-22," the Major explained. "This is the
only place in the world where you get that specific F-22 training. Not even
flag exercises can provide such training."
In addition to live flying, Schaner also traveled twice to Marietta, Ga.,
for additional training using F-22 air combat simulators. High fidelity
simulators provide the next best thing to actual flying without leaving the
ground. "In the simulator, we can get a lot of repetitions before we do the
real thing in the air," Schaner said.
Teamwork is a huge part of the class, said Schaner. Four F-22 pilots shared
information and worked with four F-15C pilots. "It was great having another
student in the flight to bounce ideas off and help with the mission
planning," he said.
Col. Mark McCauley, commander of the 192nd Fighter Wing, said, "we are
extremely fortunate to have BOK in the 192D and we're very proud of him.
He'll be the continuity here at Langley which will maintain and improve our
capability to effectively employ the Raptor into the future."
"BOK exhibits all the core values expected of a weapons school graduate," he
said. "That's why he graduated at the top of his class, and it's a vital
part of why the 192d is such an awesome team."
Schaner, a Michigan native, parallels attending weapons school to an athlete
breaking out of a set exercise routine in order to achieve a higher
performance level. He acknowledges that taking one's performance to the next
level is always hard but worth the difficulty and challenges.
"I always wanted to fly fighters and go to weapons school, so I knew if I
could put everything I have into it, it would get me out of that plateau and
get to another notch," he said. "I think if you do that with everything in
your life, eventually you continue to get better."
Nardi said the award shows how the ANG plays a significant role in the total
force.
"It demonstrates how the Guard is integrated into the leading edge and what
it brings to the fight today," he explained. "It shows the tremendous combat
capabilities that our unit and the ANG provide to our nation."