Make-A-Wish lets kids be fighter pilots for a day at Hill

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — If you're a pilot, you have to wear a flight suit.

You have to get comfortable in tight spaces while wearing 40 pounds of gear. You learn how to target with the display on your $100,000 helmet and visor. Night-vision goggles will help you fly in the dark.

You'd better get some time in a flight simulator so you know how to retract landing gear, bank and fire your cannons.

And you need to learn how to land, though that can be a lesson for another day.

The eight boys who were pilots for a day at Hill Air Force Base could use some practice.

A lot of simulated flights crashed upside down or in the Great Salt Lake as the "Wish Kids" — participating in a Make-A-Wish Foundation event Thursday — took turns in Air Force F-16 simulators.

And they loved every minute of it.

Matthew Goodworth, of Logan, even climbed in for another round of taking off, flying and crashing.

Some of the boys have already had their "wishes" granted by the foundation, which serves children with life-threatening diseases.

But Thursday's event at Hill was an "enhancement" for boys who had listed aviation or military as interests.

It was perfect for Travis Groberg, 16, of Midway, who was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 13.

It was November 2007, and Groberg has been sick with fevers and exhaustion. His kidneys began to fail.

And then the diagnosis came.

For three years, he has been undergoing chemotherapy at Primary Children's Medical Center. His kidneys are working, and doctors predict his treatments will be complete in six months.

Groberg's wish was to restore a 1978 Camaro Z28. He has it. It just needs an engine.

But when he's older, he would love to join Special Forces or the Air Force.

Sitting in a cockpit and wearing a flight suit and night-vision goggles felt pretty good, Groberg said.

With the lights off in the dark room, "you could see everything," he said.

When an opportunity like Hill's "Pilot for a day" program comes up, the foundation rounds up Wish Kids and their families for a daylong treat with pilots, security forces and everyone who makes the Air Force tick, said Capt. Roberto Flammia.

"It's more like 'Air Force for a day,' " Flammia said Thursday.

The boys say military working dogs in action and watched a private demonstration of F-16 airpower by Viper West. They ate meals with pilots, tried on their gear and took home their very own flight suits.

They saw the inside of the 421st Fighter Squadron — The Black Widows — lounge, known as The Web.

"They (the base) have been phenomenal," said Christine McAtee, Make-A-Wish's director of community outreach.

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