Operation Air Force brings cadets to Tinker

Published June 24, 2010
By Katie Boyle and Alexa Ramsier
Air Force Academy

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Fifteen cadets from the United States Air Force Academy departed Tinker on June 17 after a summer learning program called "Operation Air Force".

Every summer, juniors and seniors at the Air Force Academy are sent across the world to various Air Force bases for two and a half weeks to learn what life will be like upon commissioning and graduation. These 15 cadets at Tinker have been split into four career fields that correspond to their potential careers: acquisitions, maintenance, pilot and public affairs. They not only learned about the different career fields, but gained the most beneficial experience of their military career this far.

Spending most of his time at Tinker working with the acquisitions field, Cadet Bobby Gulla, from Philadelphia, worked more closely with the B-1 aircraft than he ever expected.
"I expected to shadow a young officer, but I instead was able to do a lot of work like participating in meetings for the B-1 radome and reviewing a project for a panel underneath the front landing gear," Cadet Gulla said. "I thought the acquisition field was about finances, but I learned that as a lieutenant, it's mostly project management."

After his time spent at Tinker, Cadet Gulla feels more ready than ever to select his choices of career fields when the time comes late this fall, he said.

He now knows that upon graduating in May 2012 and commissioning into the operational Air Force, he wants to be an acquisitions officer, or his second choice, contracting officer.

"I feel more confident naming acquisitions as my Air Force Specialty Code, for I now understand the expectations of a new lieutenant," he said.

As a first-timer to Oklahoma City, Cadet Gulla enjoyed visiting Bricktown and spending time with the group of cadets.

"I was able to come together with a lot of people I didn't know beforehand, which made for a really great trip," Cadet Gulla said.

Cadet Storm McNab is a senior from Las Cruces, N.M., who will be in maintenance when she graduates in May 2011. During her time at Tinker, she shadowed 552nd Maintenance Group personnel to learn more about the career. What surprised Cadet McNab the most about working with the group was "how vast the network of support is" and all of the efforts that must come together to get the job done efficiently.

It was her first time in Oklahoma, and Cadet McNab enjoyed the activities of downtown and was especially moved by the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, she said.

Taking a different approach, Cadet Daniel "Peaches" Tenpas shadowed the 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron to learn more about his dream job of piloting. Cadet Tenpas was surprised to see that piloting was not all about flying and simulations, but "involved a great deal of interaction with NCOs and Airmen and other clerical work."

He was able to learn about the jobs of others on the flightline such as air battle managers, air reserve technicians and navigators, he said. His favorite experience at Tinker was a flight on the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System. The flight was a simulated mission over Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, S.C., watching two-on-two dogfights of F-15Es, he said. Cadet Tenpas sat on the flight deck for takeoff and landing and listened in on the radio to an ABM during the dogfight.

"Although it was a seven-and-a-half-hour flight, I was awake the entire time. All of the activity held my attention," he said.

For Cadet Tenpas, the Academy's Operation Air Force program was one he enjoyed more than any other. He enjoyed learning about the many career fields, being treated as an adult, and the freedom the cadets were given, he said.

"I can apply more of what I learned at (Tinker) to my military career than any other program I've been though," he said.

As the cadets leave Tinker, they take with them a better understanding of what can be expected when they join the operational Air Force within the next two years. All of the 15 cadets enjoyed their time with Team Tinker and are grateful for all of those who made their experience a memorable one.