spotlight on... jennifer wolf, air force pilot, at gURL.com

What does an air force pilot actually DO?

In just a few months I will be flying the C-130, (which is a cargo plane that can pretty much go anywhere) out of Ramstein Air Base [in] Germany.

What kind of training do you need?

I started my training at the United State Air Force Academy just after graduating high school. There, I received a Bachelors of Science with an emphasis in History, and a commission into the United States Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. Just before graduating the Academy, I was selected for Undergraduate Pilot Training which is a totally separate school. After graduating from the Academy, I was a commissioned Officer, not yet a pilot. I started Pilot training about four months after the Academy graduation and a year after that I graduated Pilot training with my wings as a fully qualified pilot.

Soon, I will be in another school to learn my specific plane I will be flying. Once that is completed I will finally get to go out into the operational Air Force and start flying missions. So, overall I will spend about two years in training before I actually get into operational Air Force flying.

What was college like? Did you have typical college classes?

I actually had anything but the typical college experience. I went to the United States Air Force Academy, which is a military university, like West Point or Annapolis.

At the Air Force Academy, I had to wear a uniform to class, march to lunch and live in the dormitories all four years. My core classes consisted of a ton of engineering and science. Once the core was finished, I got to choose the rest, and preferred mostly history.

The upside of my experience was making some of the best friends I will ever have, getting to play Division 1 soccer, graduating with a Bachelors of Science, a guaranteed job and no college loan debt. The downside of the deal was that I did not get a typical college experience with dorm parties, sororities or the ability to own a car until I was a junior.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about women in the armed forces?

Where to begin? Women get a bum wrap because the military is a traditionally masculine profession. I've heard somewhere that female military pilots are less than 2% of all pilots, and because we are so few, every woman is under a microscope. No matter what misconceptions men (or women) bring with them about women in the armed forces, all you need to do is show them you are awesome at your job, and most of the time attitudes change rapidly.

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