Taking Flight: Roots and Wings

I have served in the Air Force on Active Duty and in the Reserves since 2001. In my current role with the 313^th Airlift Squadron on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), I support the C-17 unit in an administrative career role on a part time basis.

Several years ago I decided to give life to a dream I had put on hold. When I was accepted into Puget Sound’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in 2022, I felt like I was finally able to answer that little voice inside my head that kept asking me “when are you going to do it?” Being able to learn this new craft at age 43 has been exhilarating, exhausting, and energizing all at the same time. The most consistent emotion I have felt over the past few months since being in this program is gratitude.

I was on the playground at recess with my students in September and we saw the C-17 flying over. I noticed several of my students looking and pointing. I thought “The flightline is right across the highway.” I ran an idea by my squadron to host a tour of the C-17 for the students, and they readily agreed to host all of Stafford Elementary School’s 5^th graders for a field trip to JBLM. My mentor teacher, Tracy Gray, was hugely supportive and she organized all of the logistics required by the school district and liaised with families to make it happen.

Sitting at the front of the bus as it rounded the corner toward the flightline, I heard the students’ shouts of excitement “WHOAH!” “There it is!! BRO!!”, and probably the most poignant for me, “I never thought I’d get to be here.” The aircrew had loaded the plane with cargo including a Humvee and parachute equipment so the students could visualize an actual relief or cargo mission. The volunteer team of aircrew spent hours showing them the special features and capabilities of the cargo plane. The students learned what missions the C-17s support around the world, from re-supplying scientists studying global warming in Antarctica, to transporting over 800 refugees from Afghanistan to safety in 2021. One highlight for the students was being able to sit on the cargo ramp as it lowered to simulate the offload of cargo during an airdrop mission.

There aren’t many things as pure as watching someone experience something for the first time. As I floated around watching the students take in the scope of the cargo bay (its size still amazes me too!), hearing their questions “How did the plane carry an orca?” (It did! See: Operation Keiko Lift) “How do you land on the ice?”, and watching them grip the controls in the pilot seat, full of concentration and pride, with my perma-smile planted on my face, I just felt so grateful. Grateful for the opportunities in my life that gave me roots in the Air Force, grateful for circumstances lining up for the students to be able to have a piece of this experience for themselves, grateful that I got to be a fly on the wall, watching their joy as they took part in learning about the plane that flies over their playground almost daily, and marveling at the poetry of me pursuing my dream while watching my students begin to form theirs.