Reporter's Notebook

Inside Gates’ ride

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Welcome to Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ personal airline where they vow never to charge you an extra $25 for luggage.

Gates and his staff flies on an Air Force C-40B/C, which is a Boeing 737-700 business jet specifically modified to carry combatant commanders as well as members of Congress and the President’s Cabinet.

Here is a shot of the cabin where the press corps sat. All the seating was first class with plenty of leg room. Next to each seat was a data port where you could connect to the internet as well as a power chord.  As for what was playing on the drop-down screens, I hate to disappoint all those Fox News fans because CNN was the channel of choice. However, that might have something to do with the fact a CNN correspondent, Jaime McIntyre, was traveling on the plane.

The plane is broken up into four sections. The first is a communications suite where communications airmen sit at their stations.  I can’t imagine their’s a better communications assignment across the service than flying on these jets getting to travel all over the world with different dignataries.

The second portion looks like a U.S. Airways first class section where the press corps sat and the third has tables for Gates’ staff.

The back section is where Gates resides with a couch and a desk for him to get some work done during the sometimes lengthy trips. The extra room also proves handy to host round table sessions for the traveling journalists.

As for the plane’s toilets, the bathrooms were impeccably clean and much spacier than typical commercial plane. There was even complimentary mouth wash and shaving cream.

If only airline travel was always as comfortable as this.