EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- “My dad. He’s the one who taught me to work so hard,” said Senior Airman Christopher Tidline, a 354th Maintenance Squadron aircrew egress technician, as he peeled a decal away from a sinister paint scheme on an F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Working on ejection seats and life-saving equipment for the 18th Aggressor Squadron fighter jets, Tidline is familiar with the day’s tedious work, yet he goes above the call of his normal duties and also serves in a crew chief position launching jets when there aren’t enough Airmen to fill the role during RED FLAG-Alaska 16-3.
“My dad served 21 years in the infantry,” Tidline said. “He always told me, ‘If today is your last day, know you did something to make a difference. Always go above and beyond.’”
While his role in egress keeps him busy, Tidline’s co-workers say he has a drive for success and to help people. Tidline expressed that his favorite part of his “day job” is the knowledge his work can potentially save a pilot’s life.
“If all else fails, I still know they are going back to their families,” he said.
He leaves his “back shop,” where he works on ejection seats, to provide the 354th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, who maintains the jets daily, with more than 100 additional hours.
He qualified on 15 additional tasks and can take on the process of getting an Aggressor pilot into his ejection seat, which Tidline could have been working on the day before, and sending the jet down the taxiway and into the air.
“Tidline is my hero,” said Master Sgt. Richard Moloney, the 354th AMXS production superintendent, half-joking as he watched Tidline through an office window walking to a jet across the taxiway. “In 22 years on the flightline, I’ve never seen an Airman come from a back shop, especially voluntarily, to cross-utilize themselves to enhance a mission like this. If we could get even five percent of the Airmen across the force to be like Tidline, we would never have a manning problem again. When we lean forward, he is the tip of the spear.”
Although Tidline said he hasn’t always tried his best at everything he did and he often fell from the straight and narrow path in his younger years, his mother was always there to get him back on track.
“With all the nonsense I put her through, she still believed in me,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to have her and my dad as an inspiration so I can pass on what they did for me to other people.”