ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- With the beginning of their Air Force careers rapidly approaching, four future Airmen visited Arnold Air Force Base March 18 and 19 to get an up-close look at the types of work they may soon be performing and hear directly from some who were once in their shoes to help them better prepare for the journey ahead.
The cadets are members of Air Force ROTC Detachment 290 from the University of Kentucky, and they came to complete required Professional Development Training, or PDT. As upper classmen, the ROTC cadets were required to plan, coordinate and execute this training.
Capt. Michael Herbert, a test manager in the Arnold Engineering Development Complex Aerodynamics Test Branch at Arnold AFB, led the group as they toured facilities and heard from Arnold personnel. He said he hopes the visit gave the cadets a greater understanding of what awaits them.
“They’ve all got at least three years of ROTC experience, so they’ve already seen the PowerPoint presentations and heard what colonels expect from them as young lieutenants. They’ve had those briefings,” Herbert said. “I really wanted to peel the onion back a little bit and kind of show them all the nuts and bolts of what Air Force junior officers do day-in and day-out and show them some of the more fun opportunities that we have versus emails and PowerPoints.”
After the first-day base tour, the cadets took a closer look at test facilities within the Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility on day two, including the 4-foot transonic wind tunnel and its control room and the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel.
This visit was about more than just seeing the technical side of the Air Force. The cadets also met with officers who offered advice and answered questions about what to expect after they are commissioned.
Three of the cadets are pursuing majors in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields. Dominick Herbert, Capt. Herbert’s oldest son, is majoring in mechanical engineering. He said the tour provided an opportunity to see some of the terms and concepts he’s learned about in his coursework applied in a real-world environment.
“A lot of the stuff I do is just putting numbers down on paper and solving equations, but it’s nice to see that it’s actually applied somewhere,” he said.
Fellow senior and mechanical engineering major Andrew Kauffman echoed this sentiment. Kauffman said he wants to become a developmental engineer and that the visit provided some insight on what his desired career field looks like in an Air Force setting.
“It was really cool to see everything in action and see how many moving parts there are for this whole operation,” Kauffman said. “It also just shows that no matter what job you have, you are important to the Air Force.”
Mathematics major Dillyn Twisdale, who is interested in an intelligence career, said the PDT provided broader view of what the Air Force is all about.
“It helps paint the bigger picture of what the Air Force does,” she said.
Olivia Liddle, who is pursuing a degree in international studies, said it was interesting to see the wind tunnels and spend time some one-on-one time with Arnold personnel.
“With our whole detachment, where you have so many people around, it’s kind of hard to get that one-on-one time, so I thought this was really great that we had a smaller group and we got to talk to people more individually,” Liddle said.