HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – Last week, Airmen from Hill Air Force Base provided a possible glimpse of the future to junior high-schoolers from Davis County.
Nearly 300 students from Fairfield Junior High School in Kaysville, came to the Hill Aerospace Museum March 20 where they learned about different careers in the Air Force.
Many of the students are familiar with the base and the jets that fly overhead everyday, but don’t understand the variety of work that goes on behind the gates, organizers said.
“We talk to them a lot about different career opportunities and we want to make sure we include the military in that,” said Francesca Suarez, military support team lead with Davis County Schools. “Since we’re right by Hill AFB, the only thing most of them think you can do is be a pilot. But we want to show them that there’s so much more.”
During the two-hour event. Students were able to visit 11 different stations where they learned about Air Force specialties like avionics, weather, weapons, survival (yes, flying) and more.
Airmen manned each station, took questions from students and let them get hands-on with military gear. Students were able to see an F-35 helmet up close, interact with a robo-dog used for law enforcement work, put on body armor, see how munitions are built and computer models of how the weather is tracked for airfield operations.
“I joined the Air Force for the career opportunity, the education, the paycheck,” said Senior Airman Alanise Campos-Cruz, a squadron aviation resource manager with the 4th Fighter Squadron, who planned the event with the school district. “But, it has become so much more than that to me, and to be able to share the idea that these students can have the same opportunity if they choose is why I volunteered.”