Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

ture of easy morals. “No one was married there, not
even married couples,” says another.
The trainees felt a close-knit camaraderie that
spilled over into John Tune’s family life. When Halloween
rolled around, he and his wife felt uncomfortable
dressing up their young son as a trick-or-treater
and taking him to strangers’ houses. Not wanting the
tot to miss one of the little pleasures of childhood,
several trainees stopped by the Tune apartment wearing
masks and bearing bags of candy. Their home
overflowed again on Thanksgiving, when fellow
students watched football, drank beer, and enjoyed a
holiday feast that Faye Tune prepared.
After taking the final exam in early December
1981, hopeful trainees spent an anxious night awaiting
their scores, which were posted on a board the
next day. Tom Rucker was the only one of his class of
ten to graduate.
For many who survived the boot camp, their
joy was often cut short when the realities of the job
sank in after arriving at their assigned facility.
Tune received a cordial reception at Wichita
Tower, but Rucker confronted his biggest test yet. The
day he reported to Kansas City Center, he learned the
facility hadn’t checked out a trainee in six years and
was told they didn’t plan to start with him. Rucker
viewed the odds as a challenge. He certified eighteen
months later.
Graduates watched many of their academy
31
Dec.
The FLRA certifies the Professional Airways Systems Specialists to represent
the FAA’s electronics technicians.
brethren wash out for no apparent reason other than
personality conflicts with journeymen controllers
and FAA managers. Some endured what amounted
to an initiation rite.
“I’ll let you make coffee for a week and then
we’ll see if you can put a headset on straight,”
John Carr’s trainer told him at Kansas City Tower/
TRACON.
“If coffee is part of the job, you can just wash
my ass out right now,” Carr responded with his usual
forthrightness.
The peeved instructor replied, “I’m not going to
tell the supervisor, but I’ll make you a project that I
can wash out myself.”
Carr, who’d spent two years as a Navy controller
in Corpus Christi, Texas, and another two on the
USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier, checked out with
relative ease.
Lack of staffing sometimes resulted in hasty
training, particularly at control towers and TRA-
CONs. Controllers who certified on a position—many
referred to this as a “pencil whipping”—immediately
began training others. Some struggled as traffic volumes
continued to mount. In a follow-up report issued
by the Jones Committee in November 1984, one
controller noted: “We’re moving them up too fast.
Usually, a check ride is taken in average traffic. That’s
what they’re qualified for—average traffic.”
Although the FAA publicly maintained that
Chapter 2: Opportunity Lost
41
Lack of staffing
sometimes resulted
in hasty training.
Controllers who
certified on a position
immediately began
training others.