Air Force Sergeant Sets Rare Mark In The Sky

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE (CBS13) — A landmark event occurred at Travis Air Force Base Wednesday. A long-time flight engineer topped 10,000 flight hours, just months before his retirement.

Sgt. Scott Dillinger flew in from a mission in Alaska and said he had no idea his family and friends were waiting for him on the ground to celebrate. Dillinger is only one of four flight engineers in the U.S. Air Force to reach 10,000 flight hours.

"It was a personal milestone, really important to my military career because I love to fly," said Sgt. Scott Dillinger.

Dillinger has traveled the globe for more than two decades as a flight engineer in the Air Force. He's completed more than 1,000 missions to rack up his 10,000 flight hours just months before his retirement.

"Flying locals out here, flying in the Middle East, doing trips across the Pacific, across Europe," Dillinger said.

A humanitarian at heart, he remembers one mission in Haiti, in which he helped save a baby's life.

"We got called out of our crew rest, which is our normal time off—'Hey we have an emergency, the baby needs to go to Hickam.' We got together and we got the baby there. Mission accomplished, baby lived. That's probably the most rewarding, humanitarian thing to me," added Dillinger.

Many of Dillinger's missions are executed on a KC-10, one of only two special aircraft used by the Air Force that holds enough fuel to fly around the world.

"He has literally been in the air on a U.S. Air Force airplane for more than one year of his life," said USAF Commander Justin Longmire.

Dillinger's extensive flying experience has been invaluable to his squadron, and his commander isn't ready to let him go.

"Scott has the same amount of hours as my next three most seasoned flight engineers, that's gonna be a tough thing to lose," Longmire said.

It was a special day for Dillinger, but even more memorable when he saw his wife guiding him in on his final approach.

"I just expected a patch and maybe have some dinner when we landed. I did not expect this," Dillinger said.

Dillinger will retire in October. He says he plans to take a short break, then head back to the base to continue flying.