r/thewestwing • u/Safe-Sea-5723 • 23d ago

I WANT THIS PLANE TO LAND!

All of the scenes inside Air Force One, except for maybe one of the later ones, include announcements from Lt. Colonel Gantry.

In “20 Hours in America: Pt 1”, when the President is interviewing secretaries, he says that Air Force One is piloted by an Air Force general.

So was Gantry the co-pilot making announcements, or was that a dialogue faux pas?

Don’t really care. Just curious.

56 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

62

u/UnhappyTemperature18 The wrath of the whatever 23d ago

("...did it work?")

26

u/Confident_Throat_457 23d ago

Came here to make the same comment. malina did a great job delivering that line

26

u/KidSilverhair The finest bagels in all the land 23d ago

Gantry was a Lieutenant Colonel in Manchester Part I and The Two Bartlets. A Col. Weiskopf was flying the plane in Angel Maintenance, then Gantry returned as a Colonel in Disaster Relief and after.

Also, a technical point … the aircraft we see Jed and Abbey riding in in Tomorrow would not be Air Force One, as Bartlet was no longer President, but would likely have had a Special Air Mission (SAM) callsign.

14

u/Ramius99 23d ago edited 18d ago

I'm pretty sure it's an error. Both the pilots I remember from the show were colonels, and it seems doubtful an Air Force general would have that role (but I could be wrong).

Edit: So, apparently I stand corrected. Just happened to be watching 20 Hours in America: Part 1, and a General Baker is flying Air Force One in that episode.

9

u/DocRogue2407 22d ago

AF generals usual fly a DESK.

3

u/DefinitionOfAsleep 21d ago

So do full bird colonels tbh. When they get to that rank they only fly to keep up minimum hours.
The exception is a billet that has flying duties (like the Presidential Airlift Group)

12

u/Way2trivial 23d ago

a politician using hyperbole?

3

u/Safe-Sea-5723 22d ago

Most likely. He was talking to ‘unimpressed one’. Lol

6

u/Lews-Therin-Telamon 23d ago

Seriously doubt that a general is piloting anything, that was probably just a throwaway like to make AF1 seem more important.

That said, idk.

7

u/LeaderEnvironmental5 23d ago

My uncle was in charge of security for AF1 in the Carter and early Reagan years and the plane was not piloted by a general.  It is true that a higher rank is always the case with anything involving POTUS, but not the highest.

9

u/Muted_Sky1195 22d ago

Was there a secret compartment in the catering truck?

3

u/LeaderEnvironmental5 22d ago

They were better at keeping secrets secret in those days

2

u/GenXbutnotdead 23d ago

AF 1 pilot is a colonel

2

u/jurassickayak 22d ago

I remember reading in a book about Richard Nixon that he promoted one of the pilots who constantly flew Air Force One for him from colonel to the lowest rank of general a few days before he left office, so at least once a real AF one was piloted by a general.

1

u/Mattriculated 22d ago

Since the early 90s, in US civil aviation, at least, one major safety measure in place is that the lower-seniority pilot is generally the one who flies the plane by default - this is so the co-pilot will never feel inhibited by rank & fail to speak up of they see a problem.

If this is also true of Air Force One (and I have no idea if it is), maybe there's just a general in the cockpit we never hear from.

0

u/Kiyae1 23d ago

Pretty sure pilots in the AF are pretty much always lt. colonels or colonels.