As a member of Marine Helicopter Squadron 1, Phil Fickes to fly the commander in chief

BY EILEEN BRADY
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Marine Capt. Phil Fickes is amazed when he walks by the president’s helicopters each day. Sure, the finely tuned machines are impressive because they carry the president of the United States, but there’s more to it than that. 
“You can’t imagine how clean they are,” says Fickes, 31. 
Spotless, inside and out. 
Even though the aircraft may have just flown through a mass of mosquitoes, the president’s helicopter, Marine One, will look as if it has spent the day being polished in a showroom. 
“Literally, you won’t find a speck on it,” Fickes says. 
The Marines ensure that, hopping out with Windex and a rag at every opportunity. 
“That bird shines,” Fickes says. 
The presidential helicopters are a source of pride for the people who work on them - and especially for those who fly them. Phil Fickes, a 1987 graduate of Glenwood High School, will be one of those pilots. He was selected to become a part of Marine Helicopter Squadron 1, an elite group which, along with serving the White House, also provides

assault support for nearby bases and testing and evaluation for certain helicopters. 

Fickes arrived in May at the air station in Quantico, Va., where he will learn all about the different presidential and support helicopters for the honor of becoming a co-pilot when the president needs a lift. 
Whenever the president is aboard a helicopter, it becomes known as Marine One, just as the call sign for the presidential airplane becomes Air Force One when the commander in chief happens to be on board. 
In 1957, President Eisenhower asked his military aides about using helicopters for short trips. Although the Air Force and Army aides were concerned about safety, the Navy aide argued that using helicopters would be safe. The decision was left up to the Secret Service, which concluded that helicopter use would be no more dangerous than using the presidential motorcade. 
Eisenhower flew from the White House to Camp David on July 12, 1957, becoming the first sitting president to travel by helicopter. He flew almost weekly to either Camp David or to his farm in Gettysburg, Pa. 
In 1962, President Kennedy asked for distinctive markings to be added to the presidential aircraft. The airplanes were painted blue and white, and the helicopters were painted green and white, with “The United States of America,” the American flag and the presidential seal on each side. 
The white-topped helicopters are for “executive flight,” Fickes says, which means the president, vice president and heads of state may be flown in them. 
The completely green helicopters are for support flights. On overseas trips, the helicopters are loaded onto C-5 cargo planes for transport. 
The airplane that serves as Air Force One for President Clinton has more than 4,000 square feet of interior floor space. The “flying Oval Office” has leather or blue cloth seats and wood-grain furniture. Ten of the 26 crew members are flight attendants whose job is to tend to the safety and comfort of the passengers. 
Although smaller than the presidential airplane, the helicopters are no less luxurious, with carpeting, large windows and a restroom. The president has a roomy chair. 
“It looks like first class on an airliner,” Fickes says. 
The VH-60N, one of the two helicopters that serve as Marine One, can carry eight passengers and a crew of four. The helicopter is quite comfortable, but it also has more serious amenities, including self-sealing, puncture-resistant fuel tanks and special landing gear and seating that are designed to increase survivability in a crash. 
The Marine in dress blues who salutes the president when he steps off the helicopter also serves as the crew chief. 
“Granted, he’s doing the salute when the president gets on and off, but he’s taking care of the aircraft,” Fickes says. 
The crew chiefs are qualified mechanics who look as if they haven’t come within miles of a dirty engine when they’re saluting in their dress blues. But they’re the ones who make sure the engine is sound and that the helicopters are immaculate. 
The pilots wear different, more functional uniforms, and in the winter they can wear their leather flight jackets, trophies from flight school. 
“You get it at the beginning, but if you get bounced out, you have to give it back,” says Fickes, who treasures his jacket. 
Fickes has wanted to become a pilot since he was a freshman in high school. “I got into aviation before ‘Top Gun,’ “ he jokes. 
He spent three years in the aviation Exploring Post 731, sponsored by Garrett Aviation in Springfield. He eventually became president of the group. 
James Bildilli, chief engineer for the Bureau of Airport Engineering for the Illinois Department of Transportation, was an associate adviser of the Exploring group at the time. He also was one of the people contacted for the government’s background check on Fickes, who needs high security clearance to be able to fly with the president. 
“He called up and said, ‘You’ll probably get a call from the Secret Service or the FBI,’ ” Bildilli says, noting that phone calls of that nature are not unusual to him - many of his former Explorers have moved on to government or military positions. 
“I’ve had phone calls from ships in the middle of the Mediterranean. I’ve had phone calls from islands in the middle of the Pacific,” Bildilli says. 
Bildilli tries to keep up with his former Explorers, hearing secondhand stories of their whereabouts and getting phone calls from the kids themselves. It’s rewarding, he says, but he’s not eager to take credit. 
“You can’t put a price tag on somebody else’s success. Who knows if you’ve had any influence at all?” 
He likes to hear about the achievements, though, whether or not they’re related to aviation. 
“I’m not all that concerned what they do as long as they are successful and respectful of other people,” Bildilli says. 
Fickes wishes he could’ve shown his gratitude to his Exploring adviser by having him over to dinner when he was based at New River air station in Jacksonville, N.C., for six years. Unknown to both of them, Bildilli regularly taught at the air station where his former Explorer was stationed. It’s too bad that they didn’t know, Fickes says, because his wife Kelly is an outstanding cook. 
Kelly Schrake, a 1987 graduate of Southeast High School, met Phil Fickes in August 1990, after he had completed Officers Candidate School between his junior and senior year at the Illinois Institute of Technology. 
They hadn’t known each other in high school. Kelly had returned to Springfield after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in Los Angeles. 
They dated when Phil went back to college and were married in July 1992. Phil graduated from college in December and was commissioned as a Marine Corps second lieutenant. He had two weeks off between The Basic School, which is in-depth training for officers, and flight school. 
In that short time, Kelly and Phil were married and went on their honeymoon, then Phil left for Milton, Fla., near Pensacola, for flight school. 
“He came home, got married and left,” Kelly jokes. 
Constant worrying makes it tough being married to a pilot, but Kelly knows that it’s what her husband has always wanted to do. 
“He loves to fly. He likes the excitement and all that goes with it,” Kelly says. 
Kelly, though, is always aware of the danger. When two Marine helicopters crashed off the coast of North Carolina in May 1996, Phil phoned Kelly early that morning, before she had heard the news, to tell her he was OK, although he couldn’t tell her anything else. She turned on CNN to learn that 14 Marines had been killed in the crash. 
“I sat there terrified. I couldn’t call my friends — what if their husbands were dead?” Kelly says. One of the dead Marines had lived in the subdivision; Kelly always thought about his widow as she passed her house.
“I always think about (the danger). It’s in the back of my head. I don’t like to fly. People say, ‘Your husband’s a pilot and you don’t like to fly?’ “ 
Still, she is excited that he has been chosen for such an important assignment. She knows, though, that after the first year Phil will be gone quite a bit, which is a little tougher now that they have a baby, Philip Alexander, who was born May 16. 
Unlike the six-month deployments that allowed for preparation, Phil will be called to duty on the spur of the moment. “You just don’t ever know when they’re going to be gone,” Kelly says.