Dan J. Sanders - Aviator

Photo courtesy of Lt Col Jeff OlesenDan Sanders is a former Air Force reconnaissance pilot and a highly decorated officer, recognized for his aerial achievements during combat missions flown in the first Gulf War and humanitarian missions flown overseas. He received the Air Medal for one act of extraordinary achievement during a combat mission while flying a U-2 over Iraq and earned three other Air Medals for meritorious achievement, flying weather reconnaissance missions in the WC-130 requiring the penetration of 33 typhoons. Additionally, his service to the country was recognized with a number of other medals and commendations.

Sanders was named a distinguished graduate and class leader for pilot instructor training at Randolph Air Force Base, and he was acknowledged by the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce with the Outstanding Undergraduate Pilot Training Student Award that recognized his community service during undergraduate pilot training at Reese Air Force Base. He also served as a member of the Air Force One Presidential Advance team for President George H. W. Bush.

Photo courtesy of Lt Col Jeff Olesen The U-2 is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude, reconnaissance aircraft. Long, wide, straight wings give the U-2 glider-like characteristics. It can carry a variety of sensors and cameras. The first flight was in August 1955. It was the U-2 that photographed the Soviet missile installations in Cuba Oct. 14, 1962. Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, a designer at Lockheed developed the U-2. Production ended in 1968 with the model known as the U-2R. The U-2R was about 40 percent larger than the original U-2A.

The production line revved back up in 1980 and more were made with a series of improvements to the engine and avionics. They called these the TR-1 for NATO and the ER-2 for NASA. The Air Force U-2s operate through the Air Combat Command with a home base at the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base. The wing also has four "forward operating sites" worldwide.

NASA flies the ER-2 from its Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB in California. NASA uses the ER-2s for a wide variety of earth resources-related programs. The U-2 and ER-2 are also used by other agencies, including the Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), various universities and many others.

Typical sorties (flights) average about nine hours above 70,000 feet. The pilot wears a custom-made, full pressurized space suit. There aren't many pilots who fly the U-2 – about 100 worldwide. The application process discourages all but the most qualified from even applying. Of those who apply, less than 40 percent eventually become U-2 pilots.

Photo courtesy of
Lt Col Jeff Olesen The U-2's modular payload design allows the aircraft to be reconfigured to perform various missions which include mapping studies, atmospheric sampling, and collection of crop and land management photographic data for the Department of Energy. The U-2 is capable of collecting multi-sensor photo, electro-optic, infrared and radar imagery, as well as performing other types of reconnaissance functions.

An Air Force initiative following Desert Storm demonstrated the ability to locate targets from the U-2 all-weather reconnaissance platform and transfer the data to a precision weapon platform within minutes, enabling accurate targeting among multiple items.

The WC-130 Hercules is a high-wing, medium-range aircraft flown by the Air Force Reserve Command for weather reconnaissance missions. The WC-130H is capable of staying aloft nearly 15 hours during missions. It is equipped with two external 1,400 gallon (5,320-liter) fuel tanks, an internal 1,800 gallon (6,480 liter) fuel tank, and has upgraded engines. An average weather reconnaissance mission might last 11 hours and cover almost 3,500 miles while the crew collects and reports weather data every minute.

Weather equipment aboard the aircraft includes the Improved Weather Reconnaissance System. This system consists of the Atmospheric Distributed Data System (ADDS) and Omega Dropsonde Windfinding System (ODWS). The ADDS system provides a high-density, high-accuracy horizontal atmospheric sensing capability. Sensors installed on the aircraft measure per second outside temperature, humidity, absolute altitude of the aircraft, pressure altitude, wind speed and direction. This information, along with an evaluation of other meteorological conditions, turbulence, icing, radar returns and visibility, is encoded by the onboard meteorologist and transmitted by satellite to the National Weather Services.

The ODWS system measures the atmosphere vertically by using an expendable instrument which is
Photo courtesy of USAFdropped from the aircraft. The 16 inch-long cylinder is dropped every 400 miles while on a weather track and in the center or hurricane eye. A vertical atmospheric profile of pressure, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction is received from the dropsonde as it descends to the ocean surface. The dropsonde is slowed and stabilized by a small parachute. From this information, the dropsonde system operator analyzes and encodes data for satellite transmission.

The WC-130H Hercules is a modified version of the C-130 transport configured with computerized weather instrumentation for penetration of severe storms to obtain data on storm movements, dimensions and intensity. The WC-130B became operational in 1959, the E model in 1962, followed by the H model in 1964. Only the H model is currently in operation. The WC-130J, currently in testing, is scheduled to replace the WC-130H.

The WC-130 provides vital tropical cyclone forecasting information. It penetrates tropical cyclones and hurricanes at altitudes ranging from 500 to 10,000 feet (151.7 to 3,033.3 meters)
Photo courtesy of USAF above the ocean surface depending upon the intensity of the storm. The aircraft's most important function is to collect high-density, high-accuracy weather data from within the storm's environment. This includes penetration of the center or hurricane eye of the storm. This vital information is instantly relayed by satellite to the National Hurricane Center to aid in the accurate forecasting of hurricane movement and intensity.