Alumni Profiles

Two Years of Flying High A fighter pilot takes a turn at U.S. Air Force outreach By Crystal Ward Kent '78

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The F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter jets rocket into the blue in a tight diamond formation. The wings of the four jets are anywhere from 18 inches to three feet apart as they perform a series of breathtaking maneuvers. This is the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds precision team, and flying the Number 4 slot position is Maj. Scott Poteet '96.

Poteet has been flying the F-16 for 12 years, and has been with the Thunderbirds for the past two. "It's still a rush," he says, of flying the supersonic jet. "My time in the air is all intense concentration. You don't have room to think about anything other than the tasks at hand."

Poteet isn't your typical pilot. Although he grew up in Durham and went to air shows at Pease, then an Air Force base, he wasn't fascinated by planes. That changed during his freshman year at UNH when he got to ride on a refueling flight with a KC-135 tanker. "I got horribly airsick," recalls Poteet, "but when I saw the F-16 being refueled, I was hooked." Poteet decided to join Air Force ROTC, but when he told the recruiter he wanted to be a fighter pilot, "the guy laughed," Poteet says. "At the time, most fighter pilots were engineering majors with GPAs of 3.8 or higher. I was majoring in outdoor education and my average was not that high. But that galvanized me, and by graduation, when I received my commission, I was accepted into flight school."

Poteet, who was selected to fly the F-16, has patrolled the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and flown combat missions over Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He decided to apply for the Thunderbirds as a way to give back to the Air Force. "The Air Force has given me a great career and invested a great deal of training in me," he says. "I've been fortunate to work with some incredible people who serve every day with professionalism and dedication—many of them in harm's way. They do all kinds of important jobs that no one hears about. The Thunderbirds are the Air Force's ambassadors to the world; we show a bit of what the Air Force is all about."

The road to being a Thunderbird isn't easy. Each year, half of the eight-pilot team is replaced. About 60 pilots apply every January. Six finalists are interviewed by the entire Thunderbirds team, and from that group, the next Thunderbirds are chosen.

The Thunderbirds' show is based on combat maneuvers, but is flown in a much tighter formation and at higher speed. "The new pilots are nervous when they see how close we are," says Poteet. "They keep asking if we shouldn't back off a bit, but it's amazing how quickly you get used to flying that close." The F-16C is capable of reaching speeds of Mach 2 (1,500 mph), but for show purposes, only flies at about 650 mph—plenty fast enough to thrill crowds. While nearly 40 Thunderbird pilots and crew have been killed during the team's 56-year history, there have been no fatalities since the team switched from T-38A Talons to F-16s in 1982.

Poteet loves the air time, but his favorite part of being a Thunderbird is the community visits to schools and hospitals. He tells kids, "You can be what you want to be." Poteet, who lives near Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada with his wife, Kristen, and daughters Lily, 3, and Madeline, 9 months, will probably go on to Air Force leadership school next, which opens up a range of other career paths. But whatever his future, he'll always be glad he was one of the select few who have worn the Thunderbirds uniform.