Dad travels world with 'Mini Alyssa'

  • Published
  • By Kathleen T. Rhem
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Nine-year-old Alyssa DeGreef has seen quite a bit of Central Asia from her cozy seat in her dad’s pocket.

Lt. Col. Mike DeGreef, 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron commander at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, has carried a small copy of a picture his daughter, Alyssa, drew of herself since he was deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., in February.

Alyssa made the original picture of herself for a class project modeled on the “Flat Stanley” program. In the title book by Jeff Brown, Stanley is squashed flat by a falling bulletin board. An advantage of being flat is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by traveling in an envelope.

Alyssa’s third-grade teacher in Spokane, Wash., had the students draw pictures of themselves to send to or with friends and relatives in far-flung places.

The first “Flat Alyssa” traveled with a high-school-aged cousin who went on a chorus trip to China. When Colonel DeGreef learned of his upcoming deployment, he printed his own “Mini Alyssa” from a photo the cousin took in China.

“I made it to bring Mini Alyssa along with me,” he said.

Since February, Mini Alyssa has traveled on aerial refueling missions over Afghanistan and Tajikistan, helped refuel an aircraft, and “flew” a KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft.

She also had her picture taken with Charlie Daniels when the famous country singer performed at Manas and with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he visited the base April 14.

Colonel DeGreef said he sends e-mail notes and digital photos to his family outlining Mini Alyssa’s adventures.

“My daughter was pretty thrilled about all the things that Mini Alyssa has been doing,” he said.

Colonel DeGreef said he gets a lot of satisfaction from his unit’s mission in Kyrgystan. “We’re making a difference in the world,” he said.

But, he said it is still hard to be away from family.

“The family makes a big sacrifice too,” he said. “And we definitely appreciate what they do and how they support us.”

The commander said there is a lot of operational stress on the Air Force tanker fleet.

“A lot of guys are gone (more than) 200 days a year in the tanker world because everybody needs to be refueled,” he said.

Because of the amount of time spent away from home, Colonel DeGreef said he works hard to ensure his Airmen stay connected to their families back home.

“As a commander, a big thing I have to do is deal with the people and the people problems,” he said. “So we try and remind them (there are) a lot of good programs out there that help the families out, and we do what we can for the guys here.”