Interviewed by Serena Chen and Serena Tam
How did I get involved with the military? That's such a long story.
I started out with Cub Scouts when I was five years old and continued until Boy Scouts in high school, and then finally Eagle Scouts; it was basically a place for a bunch of young boys to do all kinds of crazy stuff. You started fires with rocks, lived in tents outside, learned how to create baskets, how to make ropes, and just things you didn't think about making in your daily life. You don't really know what life is like until you have a deer eat your food, or until you have a spider wake you up, or until you have a giant cockroach in the shower, or until you've gone to sleep with cougar sounds in the background.
And all these values taught me loyalty; they taught me how to live in the wild, how to focus, how to make informed decisions based on very little information, how to step out of my comfort zone. They taught me how to jump straight into the water, even when I can’t see what's in it. I learned to trust my squad and to swim where they tell me to swim. It was all about honor, loyalty, being a patriot, and about being yourself. It was about the small moments, because I learned that small moments can lead to big victories. I learned not to be focused on myself, because I’m part of a whole, so I learned how to help others because helping others means helping yourself.
I was still in high school when I decided I wanted to join the military. It was senior year, and everyone else was applying to college and thinking about jobs, and my mom had just sat me down after Eagle Scouts to tell me that I had to leave and find my own place after high school—that essentially, I was being evicted. And so, I decided I wanted to join the military. But I was seventeen, and you couldn't join the military at seventeen without having your parent sign their consent. And at that time the war was picking back up, year 2010 or 2011, the war in the Middle East, so when I asked my mom, she was like, “You want me to what? You want me to sign for you to go to war?” And I was like, “Yeah. It'll be fun.”
We met with the recruiters, for both the Air Force and the Marines. And what attracted me to the Marines was so superficial—it was their uniform. It was so badass, all bright and crisp. I'm skinny, but I thought maybe it could look like that on me! And they were telling us how it was just about loyalty and honor and learning things that you couldn't learn in the classroom. It just sounded so similar to Boy Scouts, so I was like, sign me up! But then someone came along and told me I should join the Air Force, and back then I didn't even know that the United States had an Air Force. So, we met with their recruiter, and they took us out to eat, and I love food, so I was wooed. I mean, the Marines didn't take us out to eat. So, then I told my mom I wanted to join the Air Force, and she told me I was kind of crazy, but that she'll let me make my own choices. And so, three months after I graduated high school, I went to boot camp and joined the Air Force.
What does the Air Force do? The Air Force does everything. There's so much the Air Force does that goes unnoticed. So many people think all we do is fight, but 40-60% of the missions we do are humanitarian missions. Combat rescue, pararescue, surveillance missions. 100,000 flight hours in four years—that was the milestone we hit in recon. That's almost like non-stop flying. Our mission was really simple and I still love it to this day: Aim high, and fly, fight, win.
We have a lot of pride in what we do. Every time when I look up in the sky, I'm reminded of what we do. Any plane you see in the sky is there because of the Air Force. The Air Force, you know, we're the best.
Almost everyone think that everyone in the Air Force can fly planes. But I'd say only between 5-15% fly out of over 300,000 people. I never flew, but I was on plenty of planes. But being part of the Air Force meant that everything you did mattered. Imagine assembling and handling equipment worth 4.8 million dollars, and you drop it. Your one small screw up could impact the whole thing that you don't know about. Same for people whose jobs are as basic as cooking for the Air Force. Without food, people will be sluggish. Sluggish people make more mistakes.
Small things matter a lot.
I only did one mission: to South Korea. And it was badass. It was awesome. I was an admin person in the Air Force, which meant that I could be in any unit. I could be sent anywhere as an individual, which is unique because when you think about the military, you typically think about working in groups. But it also meant I had to get comfortable with being alone and meeting new people. It’s just what I had to do.
On my mission to South Korea, I was in charge of security. I was only 23. And I was in charge of the security of over 400,000 people. It felt so strange! All I could think was if I hit the wrong button, this person loses their security. If I hit the wrong button, it could impact our host nationals. If I hit the wrong button, I could be putting lives at stake. If I don’t pay attention, somebody could gain access to certain information they shouldn’t have access to. I was constantly battling against that “if.”
I would say that’s the difference between the Air Force and the Army, Navy, and Coastguard. While they’re more focused on organizing and leading people, everything in the Air Force is about understanding resources. No matter what job you have, you’re dealing with resources. Is this jet ready for flight? Is there anything mechanical I need to inform the pilot about? How are my decisions as security going to impact everyone else? And because of that, you get to make decisions that impact everyone, even if you’re at a lower level. That’s something I’ve found really rewarding, because all the time I get to make a difference and impact lives indirectly, which is just as significant as doing so directly.
My time with the Air Force has also really changed the way I see the world. Now when I hear loud sounds, I think—that could be a bomber. Now when I hear a fast sound, I think—that could be a fighter jet. When I hear a low, humming sound, I think—that could be a 747 plane.
People always say, “Good morning.” I don't like the term “Good morning;” I don't use that term. Even now when I hear it, it makes me shake a little. You never use the term “Good morning” because you never know what the night crew did—they could have screwed something up and now we're down two jets. So, you just say “Morning.” And what's something else you learn in the same process of just saying "Morning" is that no matter what they did last night, or what the crew after you does, just focus on the positive. If you focus on the negative there'll be a lot of negatives, and if you focus on the positives there'll be a lot of positives.