推選答案The 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews spent the past six months on an unprecedented recruiting drive to lure enlisted men and women to volunteer for the job and, to a lesser extent, to attract pilots. When Air Force One and other planes in the iconic blue and white color scheme were on stops at Air Force bases around the country, the wing invited service members to come take a look. Frequent fliers Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney made video testimonials. Despite the prestige the duty confers, the wing was having trouble finding the quantity and quality of candidates needed, and the right mix of ages and ranks to keep the operation from being top-heavy, says Maj. Kurt Kremser, a pilot who runs personnel in the wing. But the Air Force says the effort -- a large part of it simply making it known that such jobs exist -- is paying off: The service found enough attendants to fill spots in the year ended in September and is well on its way to filling openings for this fiscal year. The Air Force attendants start at about the same pay -- around $40,000 a year -- as senior commercial attendants, but they can eventually earn considerably more. They also receive flight pay and per diems when traveling, and hazard pay for flights that go to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. For some, the goal is to be selected to fly exclusively on the two 747s that serve President Bush, although those duties don't bring extra pay. Tech. Sgt. Christina Sheridan, 32, earns it by flying blind, deep in the belly of a C-17 cargo plane. She staffs one of two 'silver bullets,' Airstream-type trailers fitted out with communications suites, a compartment for the VIP and his or her aides, and lavatories. The trailers nestle inside the giant planes so no one knows a VIP is on board. 'Some places you wouldn't want a blue and white to go,' she says cheerfully. '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.' Staff Sgt. Jon Jackson recalls a trip where the 'distinguished visitor,' or DV, had approved a menu choice of steak or chicken for the entree. But the DV suddenly got a taste for salmon. So the plane radioed ahead and on a fuel stop in Ireland, attendants made a quick trip to procure salmon for 50 people. Sgt. Jackson, working with a tiny sink and a cutting board in the rear galley, did his best to fillet and cook the fish himself. 'Some things we can't do,' says Tech. Sgt. Monique Townsend, who has spent seven of her 18 years in the service as an attendant. 'You can't always get 50 pieces of mahi-mahi,' she says. 'But 'When are we going to eat?' are the first words out of their mouths. Food is No. 1'That was evident when Airman Fauci contacted the defense secretary's office to discuss meal preferences for the trip to College Station and back. Pulled-pork sandwiches won out over chicken fettuccini for lunch on the outbound leg. Buffalo chicken salad and steak fajita wraps, the options for the return flight, lost out to chicken Caesar salads