Interview with Colonel Merryl Tengesdal
On Thursday, September 2, I had the honor of speaking with Colonel Merryl Tengesdal. Mrs. Tengesdal served in the United States Navy and Air Force, where she flew the T-34C, TH-57 B/C, SH-60B, T-6A, T-38A/B/C, and U-2. She is the first and only African American woman to fly the U. S. Air Force U-2 Aircraft.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Joshua Kupietzky: How did you decide to join the Air Force?
Merryl Tengesdal: Well, really, I joined the Navy first. My goal had always been at a young age to become an astronaut, and I got older and went to college and looked at some of the options. I knew going the civilian route was not going to make it; the civilian route was not for me. So I looked at the branches of service, and the Navy was the place I wanted to go.
JK: How long were you in the Navy before you switched to the Air Force?
MT: I was in the Navy for about ten years. I entered Officer Candidate School and became a Commissioned Officer on September 9, so coming up here on the anniversary. And then I stayed in up until 2004, when I switched over to the Air Force. I switched over to the Air Force because I got picked up for the U-2 program. And you know it is an interview process. I was a Navy person at the time; I was a Navy instructor at an Air Force base, and I was going to get out of the Navy, and then I looked at some Air Force programs. I saw what the U-2's mission was, and it resonated with me, so I said, “this would be a good fit, so let me try out for it.”
JK: What other planes did you fly in the Air Force besides the U-2?
MT: Not in the Air Force but in the Navy, I flew helicopters. I flew H60 Bravos, and I was an instructor in the T-34 and T-6 Texan II. Actually, my last job in the Navy, I was a Navy instructor at Moody Air Force Base before I switched over.
JK: What was the most challenging part of switching from flying a helicopter to flying an aircraft like the U-2?
MT: I mean, most people would probably think that going from a helicopter—something low and slow—to the U-2—which is obviously high and slow, but it is high altitude—would be this big jump in terms of the controls or how the aircraft flies. But I would say there are a lot of similarities. One of the things that the U-2 does, which is a little bit unique, is that aerodynamically it goes through adverse yaw more than you would think. You would have to use the rudder pedals and use coordinated turns quite a bit. So my helicopter experience and, of course, the instructor experience kind of went well with flying the U-2. It [the U-2] is a lot of stick and rudder, and flying a helicopter is a lot of stick and rudder. So the translation was actually a lot easier than most people would think. So the difficulty in the U-2 is that most people are not prepared for that. Also, now you add sides to the cockpit, which is incredibly small, and a pressure suit on top of that where you do not have a lot of tactile feel because of the gloves you are wearing, you can't hear as well because you are in a suit, you can't smell anything because you are breathing 100 percent oxygen. So those things make things a little bit more challenging and make it uncomfortable for the pilot, and some people are not either used to that or ready for that. So that is why they have the interview process—to make sure that people who come to the U-2 community know what they are getting into. Because I would say, it is not for the faint of heart. It can be very uncomfortable at times.
JK: What was the hardest aspect of flying the U-2?
MT: I think the most difficult thing about the U-2, which everyone talks about, is landing it. You know, landing this aircraft requires you to stall at two feet, and you have to fly the aircraft all the way down, even after landing. And that is a little counterintuitive for some people, and it takes people a while to get that concept. That is probably the more difficult, challenging part. The fact that you fly U-2 missions for a long time over nine hours at a time, and once you come back, then you have to have enough wherewithal to go and still stall this aircraft, a kind of heavy aircraft, at two feet to landing. Some people are not prepared for that.
JK: Where were you based when you were flying the U-2?
MT: I could tell you some of the locations. We were based out of South Korea. We also flew out of Cyprus, and then at the time, we used to fly around the Middle East. And then there were just other locations that were classified, and I am sure those have changed over time.
JK: What area of the world was the hardest and easiest to fly the U-2 in?
MT: Well, from a mission aspect, you know, because we fly high, it allows us to have a long standoff from hostile areas. So for me, I think the area you just had to think about the most, if you were flying over, was Iraq and Afghanistan. You know those terrains could be arduous if you had to land there in an emergency or eject or something. So those are the areas that you need to be prepared and know where you are at. I mean, Afghanistan, you could be in the mountains at one point, and then you could be in the desert at another, so you had to be ready for anything that could possibly happen. But overall terrain for us flying the U-2, you just had to be prepared for if the worst-case scenario happened. How would you handle yourself? You are far away; who is getting to you if you do go down, if anyone could get to you, and how would you survive in those situations? Extreme hot, or extreme cold? But we had good maintenance people, so I was pretty confident that nothing was going to happen.
JK: What was your favorite aircraft you flew?
MT: I love all the aircraft I have flown. In the military, I have flown six different aircraft. I have flown T-34s; I was an instructor for the T-38s; I was an instructor in the T-6; TH-57 in flight school; U-2; and SH-60 Bravo. I have been in DC-3 type stuff for some flight tests, and I will say it is just hard. It is not comparing one to the other. It is apples to oranges. I love the U-2 because of its unique mission set of what it does. I love training students and doing aerobatics, and I love flying the T-38s because it went around fast; it was a fighter jet trainer, so traveling in that was fun. I love the H-60 because I love the mission set of that; it is probably as diverse as the U-2, where we did everything from search and rescue, to anti-submarine warfare, to anti-surface warfare, to communications relay. So every day is different, just like in the U-2, so I enjoyed all those aircraft. If you give me an aircraft that has a mission that is dynamic and that makes you think on your feet about what you are going to do, I am in. For me personally, going from point A to point B is not my thing. I like a dynamic mission set. That is probably why the Navy called me a little bit more than the Air Force in the beginning of my career.
JK: What aspect of your military service makes you the proudest?
MT: I would say aspects because I did it more than once my command tours, where I was in charge of leading. I love to fly, don't get me wrong, but there is something equally as great and as challenging as leading people to a goal or working with a group of people that are just hard workers. There is something about it that I thoroughly enjoy. It has its drama, you have your learning curve, but when you are in command of a squadron or an attachment or a JST, there is something about it that is incredibly challenging. You are always learning something. You are always trying to make yourself better, and you are making other people better. So for me, it is a win-win situation. And you're doing the mission, so I enjoy that mentally. I mean, again, I wanted to be an astronaut at a young age, but I know that when I made colonel, when I was a commander, it was huge. It was a huge responsibility, and I wanted to make the best of it.
JK: What was the difference between the training you received in the Navy and the training you received in the Air Force?
MT: The caliber of pilots in both services are exemplary. If you go to flight school in the Navy or in the Air Force, you are going to become a good pilot. There are some slight nuances, and I got to see that as a Navy student going to a Naval flight school and then becoming a Navy instructor that flew in the Navy, as well as taught for three years Air Force and Navy students in the T-6. I think the Navy trains people (and this is in my humble opinion) by telling you what you can't do, and the Air Force really writes their procedures and manuals to tell people what they can do. And it might sound almost the same, but it is not... The Navy puts its trust in you exercising good judgment. They can't tell you everything you can do because they don't know every scenario that may happen, so it allows you to be a little bit more flexible. The Air Force tells you what you can do, so there are bigger manuals… So I think the difference is that in the Navy, you are on a ship; you go off on a ship. You may not be in range to talk with your ship if something goes wrong. So they have to count on you to make sound decisions. In the Air Force, for the most part, I think that you're in communication with at least someone you can actually talk to, and bounce ideas off of. And I have always thought, these are very small nuances, but it just blends for a slightly different pilot. But they are both great. It is just a difference in mindset.
JK: What is the biggest difference when flying a plane off a ship compared to flying a plane off a runway?
MT: So when we flew helicopters, you just kind of fly off. I flew on small ships or small boys, riggers, cruisers, and destroyers. I have landed on Marine Corps LHAs, LPDs, oilers, tankers, all the stuff. I have landed on a lot of ships in a helicopter, so we didn't really do catapults. If we landed on a carrier, we would come in and brake at the next speed between the rotations between the jets, if we had to do some business on the carrier. I mean, the difference is—I don't want to say it is obvious but I mean—it is more challenging to do ship operations than it is to land on a twelve thousand foot runway or ten thousand foot runway. You are landing on a ship that is moving, a ship that could change directions, that can make your landing easy or difficult. At night time in a helicopter, just like in a lot of aircraft, the biggest danger point is the half-mile, you know when you are a couple hundred feet over the water, it is easy to have spatial disorientation. It can be difficult if the sea state is high; it makes landing a lot more challenging. It is definitely more challenging than landing on a nice paved runway. That is for sure.
JK: What was your most cherished memory of serving in the military?
MT: One of my most cherished memories was when I pinned on colonel, and my two-and-a-half-year-old son got to see that. And the fact that he was around for my last flight in the U-2. He got to see my final flight. I mean, he remembers that still to this day. He is almost nine. So I think that was a real impact for him.
JK: What was the easiest aircraft you have flown?
MT: I would not say any of them were easy, I mean the T-34 is probably difficult just because it was my first aircraft to fly, and I had never flown an aircraft. The U-2 is challenging in its own way. I don't think any of them were easy to fly. I try not to underestimate the ability of an aircraft to turn your day from a good day to a bad day in about two seconds. So there weren't any I could tell you. They were all challenging in different ways.
JK: Do you have any advice you would have for any aspiring military pilots?
MT: So the reality of the situation if you join the military is it is real. So if you want to be a military aviator, you have to understand that death is a real part of that. There is a young lady I was speaking to a couple of days ago who wants to join the Marine Corps, and after the events unfolded in Afghanistan, she was not feeling that anymore in terms of what she wanted to become. She is like, 'I don't think the military is for me. Yeah, death is more real than I thought it was.' And I am paraphrasing what she said. She said it a little more eloquently than I did, but I think it is true. I think that people are nervous, and I think the events in Afghanistan, regardless of who thinks who is at fault, the reality of the situation is that younger people are nervous about it. And so my advice to people who want to serve in the military is yes, it is okay to be nervous and scared that you may lose your life doing something. I mean, it went through my mind when I started officer candidate school and our class when we graduated; we had this slogan that our drill instructor would say. The slogan was 'we give her our all she gives us her colors.’ And what it means is that we give everything to the flag and what it represents. And everything, even though you don't want to say it, is implied; everything might even be your life. And what she will give back in return is the colors of the flag that America that we defend. It is an honor to do that for the country, and I am happy that I was able to do something that I loved doing in the military, and that I always wanted to do. If you're young and you are thinking about it, but you are a little tentative because of world events, I would say that if you are doing something that you love and that you believe in, then let the rest fall where it may lie. Because some things may happen that are outside of your control. So if you are very passionate about something, or very passionate about serving the country, these are just one of the things that would be no different than something that happened to you while walking across the street. I have had friends that have passed away in the military because of service. But I bet if I could speak to them on the other side, I am sure they wouldn't regret or change a thing, because they died doing something that they love. So those are my words of wisdom for those who want to join the military. If it is something you want to do, and you want to fly: go for it. It is going to be a great adventure.
To learn more about Colonel Tengesdal, please check out her new book, Shatter the Sky.
