McChord Field spouse Ashley Parker got the chance to see the C-17 Globemaster III up close a couple of times after her husband took her on a static tour of the jet.

When she got an email last week from her squadron's Key Spouse asking if she wanted to take part in an incentive flight on a C-17, Parker got real excited.

"I thought ‘How cool would that be?'" said Parker, whose husband is in the 62nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and left on a deployment April 27.

Fellow spouse Christina Pezoldt got the same email. With her husband - who's also in the 62nd AMXS - on a temporary duty assignment to Korea, Pezoldt decided she needed a break from watching her two children.

"I needed some mommy time," she said, "and I wanted to try something new."

About 30 McChord spouses got to experience a mission briefing and a ride in a C-17 Saturday as part of the 62nd Airlift Wing's annual spouse incentive flight. The flight gives spouses a chance to see first-hand what their husbands do on a daily basis and get to know more about the C-17.

"The girl sitting next to me said I was acting like an excited school kid," said Parker with a laugh.

After the C-17 lifted off, it was evident who were the rookies and who'd been on a C-17 flight before.

"You could tell who were the rookies because we had the little ear plugs, while the spouses who'd been on a flight before had the ones that went completely over their ears," Parker said.

While it took a while for some spouses to overcome their bouts of motion sickness, once they got comfortable with walking around the aircraft all were able to visit the flight deck.

"The view from the cockpit was awesome," said Pezoldt, whose husband is in the process of studying to become a C-17 pilot.

Although Parker couldn't see much out the cockpit windows due to heavy clouds when she visited the flight deck, she enjoyed it nevertheless.

"It's completely different getting to see pilots fly using only their instruments and in action doing their jobs," said Parker, a Navy brat who moved to McChord with her husband and their children about a year ago.

Back in the cargo bay, spouses also got to feel the sensation of the aircraft undergoing a simulated combat airdrop - descending suddenly to drop cargo and then climbing back up to altitude.

"You could really feel the plane slow down," Parker said. "It was real smooth. It was great."

Pezoldt is convinced she'll never look at flying commercial the same again. She got to walk around the cargo bay while the aircraft was in the air and even snapped some photos of the pilots.

"I'd love to go again," she said.

The flight was just one more example to Parker about how great the outreach programs at McChord have been for spouses like herself at her first duty station.

"Our Key Spouse really keeps us in the loop, and I feel like this base really offers a lot of services," she said.