Butler native takes part in all-female flight
In a high-flying salute to Women’s History Month, a Butler native was chosen to participate in an all-female refueling flight.
Amanda Skidmore, daughter of Chris and Kim Skidmore of Butler, was the boom operator on a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker that refueled a Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft (known as an AWACS) in flight March 10 in the sky over McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan.
The 20-member crew of the AWACS was all female as well, Skidmore said.
Skidmore, who graduated from Butler Area School District in 2011, where she lettered in softball and volleyball, joined the Air Force in 2015 after graduating from Fairmont State University in Fairmont, W.Va., with a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in graphic design.
“It was the most fitting for me. It just fit my interests better than the other branches,” she said of her decision to enlist in the Air Force.
Her mother, Kim Skidmore, said, “When she first wanted to join the military it was a different branch, but when she decided to join the Air Force my husband and I were happy because she’s very structured, very organized. She’s always been that way.”
After a stint as a member of the Air Force honor guard in Washington, she trained as a boom operator on the Stratotanker, earning her flight wings in February 2020.
“Basically, the main job is refueling a plant parked 50 feet behind my plane,” Skidmore said. “We pass gas to them. In addition to refueling in the air, we also carry cargo and medical evacuation patients.”
Skidmore’s job is to lie prone as she maneuvers a refueling tube to the receiving aircraft.
“It’s kind of like a video game, in all honesty,” she said. “You lay on your stomach. Your right hand controls the tube. Your left hand causes it to extend and retract.
“There’s lots of radio contact to make sure it (the second aircraft) doesn’t get too close. It takes a lot of practice, but at the end of the day, it is kind of like a video game,” Skidmore said.
She said she’s logged 500 flight hours since becoming a boom operator.
The March 10 flight was over Kansas and involved a third aircraft.
“There was also a KC-46A tanker with an all-female crew,” she said. “Our pilot on the tanker set it up with the base and the E3, and that’s pretty cool.”
Normally, her Stratotanker carries a three-person crew — a pilot, a co-pilot and a boom operator. But for this flight, Skidmore’s plane carried eight crew members, all women.
Skidmore said she’s going to make the Air Force her career. In fact, starting April 1, she will have been promoted to technical sargeant.
“I’m one of seven boom operators in the Air Force to make E6,” she said.
She took the test for the promotion May 2022 and only recently got the news of her new rank.
“They take into consideration your time in your present grade and your time in the service and you have to take the test,” she said.
“I studied very hard four to five months for the test. It’s one that covers all Air Force knowledge, boom operator knowledge, regulations you have to cover. The test has over 200 questions,” she said.
Kim Skidmore said her daughter had mentioned she was going to be a part of the all-female flight.
“We were excited for her. That was a rare opportunity for her,” she said.
Amanda said of the flight: “It was awesome because we are in a very male-dominated field. To be able to go up surrounded by so many other strong females is just a really, really cool feeling.”
