Job Includes High-Level Security Clearance, Interesting Assignments

Senior Airman Amanda Fauci has what is undeniably an interesting job. The Wall Street Journal reports the 23-year-old has nearly the same security clearance as a Secret Service agent, and sometimes goes on weeks-long classified assignments.

The job? She's a flight attendant on 17 luxury planes which ferry government dignitaries around the world. That exclusive fleet includes Air Force One.

Unlike commercial flight attendants, Amanda and her colleagues wear drab uniforms, must be trained in survival and food prep skills, are required to be on 24-hour call... and even have to shop for food and clean the plane.

Surprisingly, the paper says despite the adventure of attending to world leaders and occasional stays in exotic locales, recruiting for the positions are tough.

"My friends say, 'I wouldn't do your job if they gave me a bonus,'" said Tech. Sgt. Allison Miller, a 10-year Air Force attendant. But there are undeniable perks... "I've seen the world twice," she adds.

Not all attendants work prestigious assignments, either. In fact, anyone with claustrophobia probably need not apply... as you may find yourself inside one of two "silver bullets" -- Airstream-type travel trailers that provide VIPs with a travel suite and communications abilities, transported discretely in the belly of a C-17.

"Some places you wouldn't want a blue and white [an executive transport aircraft] to go," says Tech. Sgt. Christina Sheridan, 32. "I spend a lot of time in Iraq, Bagram [Afghanistan] and Kabul. We do the same cooking but we serve on plastic instead of glass."

If you're interested, the job starts at about $40,000, about in-line with what senior commercial FA's make. That pay may eventually go much higher, though... and there are also per-diems, hazard pay for dangerous locations, and, of course, the chance to rub elbows with people who make history.

Before one recent flight, Airman Fauci baked sugar cookies shaped like Texas, and frosted in red, white and blue at home. The next day, she got to serve them to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, former President George H.W. Bush and other VIPs on a Boeing 757 flying to for College Station, TX.

Her extra work got her kudos from her passengers, who noticed the shape. "They thought that was awesome."

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov/whmo/af1.html