by Senior Airman Mary O'Dell
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
4/24/2014 - FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The
memory of a fallen Airman will live on with the help of the friendship,
dedication and loyalty of one Fairchild Air Force Base staff sergeant.
Capt. Tyler Voss of the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron was one of three
Airmen who perished in an aircraft accident nearly one year ago, and
Staff Sgt. Matthew Perroux, a 373rd detachment aircraft maintenance
instructor, is ensuring his legacy will live on within the airframe of
an "experimental plane."
After meeting through an everyday class taught by Perroux, Voss reached
out to the electrical environmental specialist for help with his
project, rebuilding an RV-8 aircraft.
"He asked me to help him re-do the wiring and update the panel and
instrument systems," Perroux explained. "I immediately agreed as long as
we had a solid plan of attack."
In January, 2013, Perroux was officially recruited to help Tyler with
his re-build, something he was known to be very passionate about.
After several weeks of re-wiring the panel, Voss and Perroux were able
to start it up and witness their project coming to life together. Soon
after, Voss deployed to the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan.
Voss coordinated through email with Perroux while serving his country
overseas; ensuring parts were received as Perroux continued working from
home.
Perroux never expected their time working together to come to an end so quickly.
"I was at work when the news came through that an aircraft had gone
down," Perroux reflected. "That bad feeling in my gut took over."
When the names were finally released, Perroux was busy working on the plane, as he did most weekends.
"I placed a flag over the wing and wrote up a small piece about Tyler,"
Perroux said. "When I met his parents a week or so later, I offered to
finish the project and close that chapter for Tyler."
The plan is for the plane to be flown down to Voss' hometown of Boerne, Texas, once the project is complete.
At the point of the accident, the plane was mostly gutted, as Voss and
some friends had been working on the interior of the plane. Perroux
continued working on the wiring and panel from home.
Some of the work Perroux has done includes power distribution, engine
information systems, lighting systems, rebuilding the canopy and
re-integrating the panel and wiring from nose to tail and from wing to
wing.
While friends of Tyler's helped out with some expenses, about 90 percent of the costs have come straight from Perroux's pocket.
"I'm working on the plane every week, at least once a week," Perroux
said. "I've even taken leave to work on it for weeks at a time. I'm to
the point that I mostly know where everything goes and how it fits, I
just need to put everything into place."
In several short weeks the plane will be ready to fly, with just a few
items left to replace, and hopefully make an appearance during Skyfest
2014 at Fairchild AFB.
"Tyler's family lost their son, but I was more than happy to give them
back a piece of Tyler to keep with them always," Perroux lamented. "If
he wasn't flying a tanker, he was working on his plane. Being able to
finish this for him means more to me than anyone will ever know." |
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