How I Became an Air Force Pilot

Before I dive right in to how I became a pilot, it’s worth mentioning that there are tons of ways to get where I am today, this is just my story.

I didn’t always want to be a pilot. My dad took my brother and I to the Grand Junction Air Show almost every year when we were kids and I thought it neat but never imagine I could do that. Fast forward to middle school and high school and I became super involved in sports. All I wanted to do was run track at a Division 1 school and figure out a way to get it paid for. Well just over the mountain, in Colorado Springs, was the US Air Force Academy. They had a D1 team and track camps every summer. My parents sent me there for 2 weeks during the summer between freshman and sophomore year and I fell in love.

If you’ve ever visited the Academy you know the grounds are extremely impressive, second only to the athletic facilities. I hit it off with the coaches, the challenge of the military and academic rigor intrigued me and I knew was my school. Oh, by the way, everyone that goes there is on a full-ride scholarship. Check and check. However, wanting to go to the Academy and getting accepted are two vastly different things. Bridging that gap took hard work and dedication to the application process. It took me 6-8 months to finish my application and I received my acceptance April 1. I remember because when my coach called to tell me the news, I thought he was playing a really cruel April Fool’s joke.

Fast forward through freshman and sophomore year, I was finally a junior. There’s a “ceremony” the first week of your junior year where you commit. That’s just a really nice way of saying, “from this day forward the Air Force owns your ass and if you fail out/want to leave you’ll have to pay back a huge chunk of money”. No pressure, huh? Anyway, towards the beginning of senior years it’s time to pick your job. Pilot and navigator career fields come with a 10 year commitment and everything else (for the most part) only instills a 5 year commitment. Which, can I just say, when you’re 22 years old and literally picking what you want to do with your life off a piece of paper, 10 years sounds like an eternity. Initially I didn’t pick pilot, I chose acquisitions.

GASP! WHAT!? Hear me out. I was scared of failing out of pilot training, and hello 10 years! I immediately regretted it. But I’ll tell you something, God was with me and he gave me a second chance. It just happened that the submission system got messed up for our whole class and a couple months later we had to resubmit our jobs. You bet I put pilot at the top of the list and never looked back.

I started pilot training in the spring of 2013 in Enid, Oklahoma at Vance Air Force Base. I could do a completely separate post about the rigors of Undergraduate Pilot Training but I’ll keep it short and sweet: it was HARD. Insert cliche quote here. (If it was easy everyone one do it) But really, that’s pretty true. It was a year of 12-hour days, endless studying, quite a bit of partying and a lot of growing up. Towards the end, again, my entire future was simplified into a list on a piece of paper. Our “Dream Sheet” came out, and honestly I don’t remember what I put after C-17s. I just know there were 3 of those and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t want. Not to say KC-135s, C-130s, C-5s and all our other heavy planes aren’t cool! I just knew I wanted to fly the Globemaster.

Following my year of pilot training I went to C-17 initial qual for about 4 months. You want to know something hard? Learning 4 completely different planes in a year and a half. (DA-20, T-6 Texan II, T-1 Jayhawk & C-17A Globemaster III) Being a military aviator is not easy, but it’s something I take great pride in.

I’m trusted to take out a $225 million dollar asset and get the mission done. That’s pretty awesome! I’ve been flying the C-17 since August of 2014 and it’s been nothing short of incredible. If you follow me on Instagram you know I absolutely love my job. I hope this small novel was insightful and maybe helpful. If you want to know more specifics about my journey just DM me, email me through IG or comment on this post and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

xx, Emily