Thrailkill, Brett, ATC

PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE NAVY.
When my dad told me he was going to marry this 25-year-old chick (he was 49) I swore I would join the Army. But as fate would have it, in the summer of '82 I went to Fenway Park to watch the Sox play a game. It would change my life forever. When I got to the park there were 3 booths open to buy tickets from. I walked up to the booth with the shortest line. I asked the guy for the best ticket he had. He held up 3 tickets and I took the middle one. I got there nice and early so I could enjoy a few beers and warm-ups. As the park began to fill up, this guy and his wife sat down next to me. I didn't pay much attention to him and proceeded to consume several more beers. I vaguely remember standing up during the 7th inning stretch and he introduced himself and we had a short conversation. What I do remember is that the Sox ended up winning the game 8-4. Perfect ending for a day that was to determine the rest of my life. Any other booth or any other ticket.

Anyways, about a week later, my dad comes home from work and hands me a piece of paper with a number on it. He said some guy from the Navy said I gave him my name and number and said he could call me. I don't remember it but I must have. Anyway, I called the number and a guy asks me if I'm interested in joining the Navy. I told him that I would come down and hear what he had to say. Eventually, he took me to NAS South Weymouth and gave me a tour of a P-3 Orion. I immediately knew what I wanted.

WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BOOT CAMP AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, SHIPS OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
I graduated as the Outstanding Recruit from basic training at RTC San Diego, CA in July 1983. In June of 1984, I volunteered for flight duty and graduated from Naval Air Crewman Candidate School in Pensacola, FL. From there, I attended the In-Flight Technician course at Patrol Squadron THIRTY (VP-30) in Jacksonville, FL and then completed Search, Evasion, Rescue, and Escape (SERE) training in San Diego, CA.

My first assignment was Patrol Squadron FIFTY (VP-50) at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, CA. During my tour with VP-50, I twice deployed to Diego Garcia/Masirah, Oman and once to Okinawa/Misawa, Japan. In 1987, during the height of the Iran-Iraq war, we became the first squadron to escort oil tankers in and out of the Straits of Hormuz.

After graduating Instructor Training, I reported to Naval Aviation Maintenance Training Group at Moffett Field in 1989 and in 1990 I was designated a Master Training Specialist.

I transferred to Patrol Squadron ONE (VP-1) at NAS Barbers Point, HI in August 1992. During my tour with VP-1, I deployed two more times and was selected as the Primary Naval Air Training and Operating Procedure Standardization (NATOPS) Instructor in 1994.

I reported to Tactical Support Center (TSC), Rota, Spain in June 1996 and in September 1997, deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina where I was the commander of a Joint Forces Navy and Marine Corps mobile reconnaissance team. My duties included downloading real-time video from P-3's and providing the video directly to the NATO ground commanders during riots and demonstrations. I deployed again in February 1998 to the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Vicenza, Italy and was responsible for the planning and scheduling of all P-3 flights over the Bosnian Theater. In February 1999, I deployed to the CTF-67 P-3 Imagery Cell in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina as the only enlisted Assistant Officer-in-Charge in support of Operations Joint Forge and Noble Anvil. While attached to TSC Rota, I was selected as the 1998 Sailor of the Year and the 1998 COMFAIRMED Career Counselor of the Year.

In July of 1999, I reported to Patrol Squadron FOUR (VP-4) at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base, Hawaii. In November 2001, while deployed to Oman and Bahrain, I flew 34 combat missions in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM and in 2002 I finished my flying career with over 6100 flight hours onboard the P-3 Orion aircraft.

In April of 2003, I reported to Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit ONE, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where I earned the designation as a Navy Diver at the age of 41. I served as the Communications and Intelligence Department Head, Operations Leading Chief Petty Officer, Equal Opportunity Advisor, Public Affairs Officer, Reserve Liaison Officer, Drug, and Alcohol Program Advisor, and the Casualty Assistance Calls Officer.

IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH MADE A LASTING IMPACT ON YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY?
From November 2001 to Jun 2002, I was deployed to Diego Garcia, Masirah, Oman, and Bahrain in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. In the course of that deployment, I flew over 1200 hours, which included 34 combat missions over Afghanistan as well as 43 armed reconnaissance missions along the borders of Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq. Several memories stand out from that deployment.

On our first mission (they were all night missions until March of 2002) we were able to scrounge one set of NVG's from the Air Force. For the first hour, one of the acoustic operators used them in the starboard aft window. I finally borrowed them and when I put them on I freaked out at how many aircraft were flying all around us, many at what seemed like arms reach. The scariest part was that we had no infrared strobe lights. All we had were small infrared chem lights that we taped in the windows. So not only couldn't we see the other aircraft but they essentially couldn't see us. After that flight, I insisted that we be issued 3 pairs of NVG's per flight just as a safety issue.

One night after flying a mission in early December, we were on our way home when we got a distress call from the 26th MEU at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan. They were surrounded and under heavy attack. We were immediately diverted to provide real-time video to a ground station on site. We flew for a couple of hours targeting the Taliban and watching the Marines blow them to hell. When it was time to go, we ended up having to land in Pakistan to refuel. We came in for a landing with no runway lights and our landing lights turned off so that we wouldn't be shot at. At the fuel pits, only the Flight Engineer and I were allowed to deplane. I had to safe the weapons and help the FE fuel. A couple of days later a young Marine was being interviewed on CNN. He told how they were under heavy attack and "the guys over our heads were calling in the bad guys and we were killing them." That was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.

By mid-December, we flew a mission where it was our job to clear the roads for the 26th MEU from Camp Rhino all the way to Kandahar Airport. We flew ahead of them all night, using our optics to ensure that there were no ambushes being set up for them. We had the F-18's and AC-130's at our disposal to provide all the firepower that was necessary to seize the airport. Looking back on it and at what a huge base Kandahar airport has become, that was one of my most memorable missions.

Then in March, we were flying missions in support of Operation ANACONDA. The B-52's were laying in think in the Shahi-Kot Valley. It was a beautiful site to see. At one point I saw massive explosions directly below us. I figured that it must be the F-18's below dropping the ordinance. It wasn't until we were ordered to get the hell out of there by ATC that we found out it was the B-52's over our heads that were dropping their bombs through our airspace. We can hunt for Osama Bin Laden for the next 200 years, but in light of the FACT that we have never seen him LIVE on videotape since February 2002, it's my opinion that he is and has been buried under that valley since March 2002.

DID YOU ENCOUNTER ANY SITUATION DURING YOUR MILITARY SERVICE WHEN YOU BELIEVED THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY YOU MIGHT NOT SURVIVE? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME.
On February 25th, 1995, we had a four hour preflight and a twelve hour anti-submarine mission scheduled. We were going to go out and hunt down one of our own subs for training. During the preflight, one of our systems broke and we were delayed. As we started engines we had another failure and shut down. By the time the plane was fixed, we had to top off our fuel so we called the fuel truck. Something went wrong and we had a fuel spill. The fire trucks were called and we had to wing walk our airplane forward so that we could start up and go. By the time we got our engines turning we had been in preflight for eight hours.
We took off and began our transit to the AOR. That night some of the guys were missing from my crew so we had a couple of stand-ins. We had a guest PPC and a guest Flight Engineer named PO1 Redding; we just called him Otis. The transit was only about forty five minutes so most of us grabbed a power nap.
Normally on a mission like this, you arrive on station and start dropping buoys in a predetermined pattern to try and find the submarine. But that night when we got out there, we took over for another crew that had already located the sub and was actively prosecuting him. So we went straight in for the attack. So many things were out of the normal this this night. Some of them big and some of them not so much but they were all adding up.
To make things worse, this was the darkest night I have ever flown on. We were below a cloud layer and there was no moon out. No moon, no stars, no light. Just absolute terrifying pitch black.
In the right seat was the guest pilot and in the left was a No-P (an unqualified newbie pilot). The guest FE was in the seat at the time. Back in the galley, my PPC and our other FE were sleeping. I was on a headset with a 75’ cord so I could hear them call me to tell me what buoys to load. It was around 0100 and I was exhausted.
Between loading buoys, I would lay down at the galley seat and get some shut eye, the whole time listening in on the mission. The TACCO requested that the pilot drop down to 300’ in order to track the buoys. The pilot told him that it was so dark outside that he didn’t feel comfortable at that height and requested that we remain at 500’. The TACCO agreed and gave him permission to remain there. That decision saved our lives that night. As Mission Commander, LT. Burt could very easily have ordered us to 300’ and we would all be dead.
As the mission continued, the aircraft was put on autopilot and we remained at 500’ doing 250kts. Shaft horsepower gauge #2 quit functioning. The No-P was at the controls while the Pilot and FE began to troubleshoot the problem. They were discussing procedures and resetting circuit breakers. Everyone in the flight station was unaware that the autopilot has disengaged and we had started a slow decent. The plane started to drop faster and faster and the No-P had not noticed. There was no horizon to warn him. Only his instruments would have given him any indication that our world was about to turn to shit.
This whole time the pilot’s yoke switch for his microphone had stuck open and I heard their entire conversation. It was really irritating because I couldn’t sleep but I figured I would have to wait until they had their problem fixed to try and repair it.
Suddenly in the back ground I heard this loud claxon “Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep” and I hear the pilot say “Whaddaya doing?” The pilot turned from the FE and looked at his instruments but he didn’t understand what he was seeing. We were supposed to be at 500’. The alarm was our RAWS warning horn which goes off when and airplane passes through 380’. Then he raised his voice and repeated “Whaddaya doing?” and suddenly the alarm changes pitch and gets louder “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP” indicating we were passing through 240’ feet. And then I hear the pilot scream “WHADDAYA DOING!?!” I shot up in my seat and suddenly the pilot whispers “ohhh shit...” It sounded like a guy in war movie who just heard the click of a land mine under his foot and knows he’s about to die.
I scrambled in the back to put on my seat belt. But more importantly, Otis reaches down and slams the throttles into full power. Instantly, the pilots training takes over and both pull back on the wheel as hard as they possibly can. Unlike a jet, a prop-jet doesn’t react immediately. She started to scratch and claw at the atmosphere, trying to do what she was commanded to do but we were still sinking even as the nose comes up. In the back of the plane I was being smashed in to my seat and having a hard time breathing from the G’s. I could feel the ocean out there and was sure we were about to become a part of it.
I had always heard that right before you die your life flashes before your eyes. Mine didn’t but my old crew from VP-50 and their midair accident did. I almost felt relieved because after years of wondering what went through their heads just before they died, I felt that I might know now and it gave me a strange sense of peace.
To my great relief, we didn’t hit the water and I felt the plane climb to altitude. My headset was eerily quiet. No one said a word. We all sensed that we were lucky to be alive.
After about five minutes the TACOO said “What the fuck just happened?” The pilot came on and said “When I looked down at our instruments we were passing through two hundred feet at two thousand feet per second.” That’s when he had said “oh shit.” At that point we had six seconds before impact. They figured by the replay of the tape recorders and the timing of the alarms that when we bottomed out with the plane tilted to port, our left wing was just 35’ to 50’ off the water; one and a half seconds from impact. At that speed we would have cart wheeled across the ocean like a set of jacks. There would have been nothing for a SAR mission to find.
We aborted the rest of the mission and made our way back to home base. Un-freakin’-believably, the very next night we were scheduled to fly again. Here I was contemplating signing my page and giving up aircrew. Being a flyer was strictly voluntary and you could quit at any time. My kids almost lost their daddy last night and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this anymore. Our PPC call the Operations Department and told them we could not fly the next night.
I think that the only thing that saved my flight career was when the CO called me into his office and asked if I was OK. We talked about it for a while and I decided that I had made a commitment to the Navy to fly this tour and I would uphold my end of the bargain. But at the end of this tour, I was done.
We ended up being put on the flight schedule the day after the Skipper talked to me. Once again our four hour preflight turned into an eight hour fiasco, though this time it was due to the weather. It was snowing so bad that visibility was about 50 feet and the runway was shut down. At this point our PPC cancelled our flight once again. A couple of days later we were back in the air and it was business as usual.

FROM YOUR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY MEMORIES YOU STILL REFLECT BACK ON TO THIS DAY.
By the end of March 1991, I needed 12 hours of flight time to stay current or I would lose 3 months of flight pay. So on Mar 7th, I did something that I had never done on shore duty before. I worked all day, flew all night and got 8 hours of flight time.

On 20 Mar I was getting kind of desperate for some flight time so I looked at VP-50's Flight Schedule and saw that my old crew was flying that night. So I worked all day and then drove to the hanger. Just as I was pulling into a parking spot I thought to myself that I only needed 4 more hours and I could do that easily during the day on a bounce flight. So I turned my car around and went home.

In the morning I turned on the news and caught the tail end of a report of a mid-air collision off of San Diego. I assumed that it must have been F-18's and went to work. After 0800 I asked a Chief why we were at half mast. He said to "You didn't hear? VP-50 had a mid-air last." I laughed and said "Yeah, right." and he said that he wasn't kidding. Then it hit me who was on the flight. I jumped in my car and flew to the hanger. I was stunned when they confirmed the news I went home and just completely lost control in my wife's arms. She kept asking what was wrong and I could only sob. I lost 27 of my shipmates that night. Ten of them were good friends and 4 of them were like my brothers.

My Ordnanceman on the flight wasn't even supposed to be there that day. The original AO was sick so he had to replace him. Another guy was from my hometown in Lexington, MA but I had never met him. It was his first flight in the squadron. The girlfriend of one of the Flight Engineers had her baby that day 3 months premature. Another kid had been one of my students from NAMTRADET. Up until that point, I had never thought of flying as dangerous. I would just say goodbye to my wife and go fly. But after that, I was scared to fly for over a year. All I could think of while I was flying was what they might have been doing when the aircraft struck each other.

It still haunts me to this day.

OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES YOU RECEIVED, OR OTHER MEMORABILIA, WHICH ONE IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?
This is a tough one. I was first and foremost a Naval Aircrewman. My Wings of Gold are priceless to me. My dive pin, at the age of 41, was the hardest qualification I ever earned. Also, I'm proud to have been a CCC and a Master Training Specialist.

But until 9/11, I had always thought that the hallmark of my career was going to be my peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and the Joint Service Achievement Medal that I was awarded. Having people come up to me, hug me and thank me will forever be a life-changing experience.

However, in light of the September attacks, the Air Medal for the combat missions during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM is without question the most meaningful medal to me. Hunting down those dogs in Afghanistan; calling in the B-52's, F-18's and AC-130's and watching them blow the shit out of 'em will always be the highlight of my life.

WHICH INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM YOUR TIME IN THE MILITARY STAND OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
Warrant Officer Parra was our Operations Officer at TSC Rota. It seemed like we butt heads every day but usually in a friendly way. I really had no ambitions to make Chief. It just wasn't as important as doing the things that I loved to do. But he saw a passion in me to take care of my troops and to address issues that I always thought were important. He was the one that taught me that I could do more, and be more if I strive to take that next step. He was right. With his mentorship, I accomplished some pretty remarkable milestones and did indeed make Chief.

WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY?
After retiring 6 years ago, I went back to my roots and became an Electronics Technician once again. Only this time it's offshore on oil rigs. I have worked both semi-submersible and jack-ups and have been fortunate enough to work in the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, India, Egypt, Malta, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea. I am currently assigned to a new build jack-up in Singapore. We now have a contract and are on our way to Thailand for a minimum of three years.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CAREER? WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR TIME IN THE SERVICE?
My military service will influence everything I do until the day I die. It has taught me to handle curve-balls life has in store for me. I'll never forget what a sage old Senior Chief told me during initiation. He told me to always remember three things:

Honor is doing the right thing when NOBODY is watching;
Courage is doing the right thing when EVERYBODY is watching;
And Commitment is living with Honor and Courage every day of your life.

I have never forgotten theses words and will always endeavor to live by them.

BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE NAVY?
Never forget. Never forget those who came before us. Never forget those who will come after us. Never forget the sacrifices that you and others have made to make our country the greatest country on earth. Never forget the events that have made us who we are. Never forget!

Make the most of the opportunities that Navy life presents. Volunteer for the difficult jobs and excel at them. Go to school and continue your education. You don't have to do it all at once. Even one course a quarter will get you to your ultimate goal.

Make good decisions and have no regrets. Enjoy your time while it lasts because it will be over before you know it.

People have often asked me why I love the Navy so much, why I talk about it so often. The simple answer is, our military is the biggest, most diverse company, culture, and family in the world. I'm proud of what we have done, who we are and how we always had each others back.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU REMEMBER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH.
TWS has been great for allowing me to search for and find shipmates that I hadn't heard from in years. In many cases, shipmates that I couldn't even remember their names until I found them in a search. It also allows me to feel like I am still in touch with today's Navy.

KC 9.21.20