Jan. 28—The planes that are seen flying around Enid on a daily basis couldn't do so without being maintained by the talented and experienced mechanics at Vance Air Force Base. Aircraft mechanics are among the hundreds of civilians employed on base, and there are many people who make a career out of maintaining Vance's aircraft.
Wendell Knouse retired Jan. 17 after 45 1/2 years as a mechanic at Vance working mostly on T-38 aircraft, and spending many years working alongside his father, Gerald Knouse and brother Gary "Red" Knouse, at Vance.
"When we first started, my brother and I worked together, we were kind of split up, but we would see each other," Knouse said. "For several years, we worked side by side and were the same levels. You can't be a boss and have your brother working for you. My dad was an egress, so I saw him a lot just out and about."
He said his father was in the Air Force, which led him to want to join the military when he was 17 and then wanting to be a diesel mechanic. He said he started working in Covington when he was 18, bought a one-bedroom house and his father told him he needed a job with insurance.
"I didn't really listen to him until I was about 19, and he offered me a job out at the base," Knouse said. "My dad also worked out at the base when he retired for 22 years. So he asked my brother and I at the same time, and my brother went first. He started about three weeks before me."
Knouse started at Vance in August 1977 as a helper on the flight line making $4 an hour. Knouse said he took some side courses and worked his way up to being made a mechanic. He said he worked in various roles during his time at Vance, and that working on the flight line was something he always enjoyed. He said after working off the flight, he wanted to return to working with the student pilots, who he had developed a bond with.
One of the students he got to know well was Eileen Collins, one of the first four women to go through pilot training at Vance, and who went on to become an astronaut.
"Eileen Collins was a student out at the base and I used to launch her," Knouse said. "She graduated from Vance Air Force Base and went on to become an astronaut in the early 1980s. So I met a lot of good people on the flight line, a lot of good students. And there wasn't that many women out there at that time, she was probably the only one there."
After his time working on the flight line, Knouse said he got involved in the union for maintenance workers, as a steward on the grievance committee and as president of the union for six years. He said the relationships with the companies based at Vance were always strong, but after 2000, companies were constantly changing.
"So I had a good relationship with the companies and the management. The big thing was all the companies changed hands all the time repeatedly after 2000," Knouse said. "They pass the money around and somebody else will get a piece of the pie. It's kind of changed out there. I mean, when I started, Northrop Grumman was out there, and they were there from the start, 1972 clear up to 2000. Then after 2000, we work for one company and after a year and a half, we work for another company.
"The people out there at Vance are family. For years, we grew our own people. If we had a guy who was a grass mower and had any mechanical ability, we brought him over into the maintenance side and we trained them and got them up and running. But now with all the companies divided up, that's not possible anymore."
Knouse said with the importance of the maintenance of the aircraft and the importance of Vance's mission of training pilots, it always was a good feeling to know the aircraft were safe to be flown.
"It's kind of like driving a car. If you take a tire off, you want to make sure the nut's tight when you put it back on," Knouse said. "And so the airplanes, I never worked on the phased docks where they strip them down and put them back together. So I just had portions of it. It makes you feel good that you can put a product out there that's safe for somebody to get into. You do feel good that you've checked everything, made sure everything was correct before you put it back out to the pilots to get in and fly. I mean, it's a good feeling."
Knouse said as he reflects on his years at Vance, he was proud of being part of the process of training pilots.
"Vance Air Force Base competed with all the other AETC bases, and Vance is usually always on top," he said. "We produce more pilots, we have safer aircraft, we meet the metrics. There's a lot of good skill out there that tends to go toward the military to supply what they need. But I've enjoyed it and met a lot of good people. There were times it wasn't good, but I would say 99% of the time it was a good deal."
Although just into his retirement, Knouse said he and his wife plan to take trips around Oklahoma.
"I have motorcycles, we have a camper, we enjoy going to the lake and camping. So we're going to more of that this year just around Oklahoma," Knouse said. "But we do have motorcycles ... my wife rides a bike, I ride one, and we've been a lot of places on them. So we're going to continue to keep doing that. She's still working, she's going to continue working about another two years and then she'll be done. But my dad lives right there in town, and I enjoy having him come out. I'm just peddling around right now. Just trying to clean things up and mess around. I think I quit at the wrong time because now we're going to get February and March with snow and cold. I might have to drink some more beer, I don't know," he said jokingly.
Holubar is business reporter for the Enid News & Eagle.
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