From Refueling Missions to The Transportation of Remains - Episode 62

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Samantha Gassman served eight years in the Air Force as a Special Operations Instructor Navigator (1,600 flight hours, 305 combat). During her time in the Air Force, she deployed to Afghanistan and Africa in support of OPERATION Enduring Freedom. She is the recipient of the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, AF Special Operations Command Company Grade Officer of the Year Award, Institute of Navigation Superior Achievement Award and the Brigadier General Ross G. Hoyt Award. Currently, she is a Human Resources Operations Manager at a major defense company. Samantha is also a children's book writer and is seeking literary representation. She lives with her active-duty husband, toddler son, and two naughty cats in Wichita Falls, Texas. Samantha learned about the Reserve Officer Training Corps Program when she was flipping through a college magazine. She thought it was interesting and wanted to learn more. When she did she found out she could try out the military for a few years while in college with no commitment and if she liked the ROTC training she could continue and become an officer in the Air Force. It felt like a win-win. She ended up loving the program and ran into one problem. Even though she had spent a good portion of her life in America she wasn’t actually an American citizen. To be an American military officer you must be an American citizen. She became a naturalized citizen while attending college and ROTC and was able to get her citizenship before the end of her sophomore year so she could attend Field Training, which is the summer boot camp for officers who are working to be officers in the US Air Force. While you are attending ROTC you have the option to apply to be a part of the flying community (rated officers). She was interested in flying and decided to apply to be a pilot or navigator. So when she graduated from college she became an officer in the Air Force and headed to San Antonio to learn to be a navigator on a heavy aircraft. It took about two years to complete her training as a navigator before she went off to be a navigator in the operational Air Force. Her next base was in Japan. She was there for three years. She got to travel a lot around Japan on her own personal travel and for what the military calls work trips or Temporary Duty (TDYs). She also deployed to Afghanistan. While deployed there are two navigators. One for navigating the plane to the destination and the second working on the electronic warfare aspect. When she was in Afghanistan it was a pretty dangerous time to be there and they had multiple threats while flying various missions. She also deployed to Africa. Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/world/africa/south-sudan.html You can read the whole interview here. Thank you to my Patreon Supporters! And thanks to Kevin Barba for sponsoring at the Colonel Level! Do you want to support Women of the Military Podcast? Check out how you can here.