Thunderbirds' PA comes home

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Richard Mekkri
  • 436th Airlift Wing
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The 2017 Thunder Over Dover Open House and air show is a little more meaningful than other air shows that Staff Sgt. Tabatha McCarthy has attended. That’s because, for this air show, McCarthy is coming home.

McCarthy, the United States Air Force Thunderbirds’ Public Affairs Community Relations NCO in Charge, grew up in Magnolia, and attended Delaware Technical Community College for a year after high school. After her time at DTCC, McCarthy decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the Air Force.

“In this capacity it’s way different than coming home on leave because I’m coming home in uniform and I’m coming home doing my job,” said McCarthy. “It’s almost like coming home to showcase what I do on the team.”

McCarthy’s first duty station was Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, where she worked for more than five years as a still photographer. It was during a four-month deployment to Africa when the travel bug bit her. She returned to Shaw AFB and told her supervisor that she was ready for more.

“I want to do more than just a deployment,” McCarthy told her supervisor. “I want to PCS, I want to go see the world.”

Her supervisor told her there was an opening with the U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds. McCarthy was nervous that she wouldn’t have what it would take to be part of such an elite team. She applied anyway. Less than a month later, McCarthy cried when she got the news. She was going to be a Thunderbird.

McCarthy learned that being part of an elite team demanded more than she was accustomed to. She quickly rose to the challenge.

“(For) the tour program at Shaw, it was a big deal that I led 15 tours in one year, right?” said McCarthy. “We do almost that in a week for the T-birds so it’s a huge difference. It’s a different ballgame for sure.”
Of the many duties that are required of McCarthy, her favorite is the Fallen Warrior Program. The program selects a fallen warrior or fallen hero from the local community and honors them by painting the individual’s name in the wheel well of the #1 pilot’s jet. McCarthy said that this is because the wheel well is the heart of the jet, thereby, allowing that person’s memory to act as the heart of the F-16 Thunderbird jets and the pilots.

The honoree of the 2017 Thunder Over Dover Open House is Sergeant Joseph Szczerba. Szczerba, of Wilmington, was an eighteen-year veteran of the New Castle County Police Department.

“That saying, ‘never forget,’ we mean it,” said McCarthy. “We will never forget the sacrifice that they have made for this country and for their families.” McCarthy was herself honored during opening day of “Thunder Over Dover” with an unofficial homecoming ceremony called a FARKLE. FARKLE is an acronym that stands for, “friends and relatives, kin, loved ones and everyone else.” The Thunderbird team met with McCarthy’s family where they were able to share stories and posed for photographs.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” McCarthy said. “The support that the team has given me, it’s been life changing.”