Wichita — After Staff Sgt. William Smith used a butter knife to guard a cockpit door on Sept. 11, he figured maybe he ought to go into that line of work full time.
Smith said he thought about that day as he pushed himself through physical tryouts for the Air Force's elite Phoenix Ravens security force Wednesday. Ravens guard aircraft and high-ranking military and government officials, especially in high-risk, front-line areas.
Smith was one of seven men, ranging in age from their early 20s to nearly 40, who tested at McConnell Air Force Base, grunting through 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups and a two-mile run in below-freezing temperatures and light snow.
On Sept. 11, he and his family were flying from Germany to Wichita for his new assignment with the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell. After hearing about the attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a member of the flight crew quietly asked Smith if he was in the military.
He said he was in the Air Force, and they asked what his job was.
"I told them, 'Well, I'm a cop,'" Smith said.
A few minutes later, the plane's captain asked him to coordinate security for the plane. The crew emptied several champagne bottles and set them in strategic spots to use as weapons if necessary.
"I stood for three hours at the captain's door with a butter knife," Smith said.
The experience helped persuade Smith that he should try out for the Ravens.
"We've had a lot more turnout, with everything that's been going on," said Staff Sgt. Samuel Alva, one of the Ravens administering the physical fitness test.
"Ninety-nine percent of our missions are top-secret, and you leave at the drop of a dime," Alva said.
He said Ravens undergo 16 days of intensive training, which now includes basic sky marshal duty, at Fort Dix, N.J.
All seven applicants successfully completed the physical test, making them eligible to be selected when the next Ravens training class is formed.
The airmen trying out Wednesday came from Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units from Michigan, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Kansas stationed at McConnell. They cheered each other on when it came down to gut-busting time.
"Come on, old man, push it out, five more, five more!" they shouted to Staff Sgt. Peter Sulista, 39, a member of an Air National Guard tanker unit from Phoenix, as he ground out his push-ups.
"I feel like I'm at a turning point in my life," said Sulista, who has been in the Air Guard for 16 years. "This was something I wanted to do to keep things from getting dull."
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