September 13, 2007

From Leland grad to Air Force fighter pilot

Jason Wall jets off to South Korea

By Carol Rosen
Editor

When Jason Wall graduated from Leland High School in 2000, he knew he would be off to the Air Force Academy within two weeks. But he wasn’t sure if he would attain his goal of becoming a fighter pilot.

Seven years later, the 25-year old first lieutenant has achieved his lofty goal, but it was a challenging climb.

First, he endured four years of college at the academy and graduated with an engineering degree. Then Wall, along with about half the 1,000 cadets that graduated as second lieutenants, got to go to “pilot school.”

But before any Air Force flight training takes place, the newly commissioned officers are sent to get their private pilot’s license. “I trained on a Cessna,” Wall said.

The first step in pilot school is six months of training in Oklahoma on a T-6, which is a turbo prop plane, “to see if you’re sure that this is what you want to do,” he said. Depending on how the officers do in class, they get to choose the type of planes they want to fly. There are cargo planes, transports and helicopters as well as fighters.

“Two in my class of 20 chose to be fighter pilots. The choice is dependent on how well you do in the class. It isn’t just flying planes, it’s also academics. I think I did well, you can gauge from your tests and things. My friend and I got our choices and got to start training as fighter pilots,” he said.

“Now I’m going the fighter route. We start with a T-38 fighter trainer and work that for the next six months. Once we finished this class we get to choose which of the four fighter planes we want to train on.”

The four types include the F-16, the F-15c a single seater, the F16-E, a two seater or the A-10, a variety of bomber. Wall chose the F-16, and again based on class rank he got his choice.

After receiving a badge and his wings that certify he’s an Air Force pilot, Wall was off to Georgia for two months training on fighter fundamentals in the air. “This is where we learned all the fun stuff--how to dog fight, how to drop bombs, air to air [combat], air to ground [fighting].”

Wall’s next training assignment took him to Phoenix where he began training on the F-16. Again, not all the work was in the air, the pilots also are required to take academic classes as well as train on computers, and flight simulators “to know where all the switches are and what to do or how to fix things if there is an emergency.

“The first couple of flights we had an instructor, in a two-seater—after that we were on our own,” Wall said.

The F-16s cost more than $30 million each, but that’s typically not what Wall says he’s thinking about. “That’s the last thing on my mind. It’s always good to be slightly anxious or nervous,” he said, “because that keeps you on your toes. One of the things we learned is to fly in close proximity in bad weather. Our wing tips are about three feet from each other flying at 400 mph cruising speed,” he said, noting that it’s not the easiest nor most complacent way to fly.

At the end of his training in Phoenix, he was assigned to a year in South Korea, where he expects to “basically just continue to practice and train and to refine my skills and study the aircraft and tactics. There’s always something to study. “

During his term in South Korea, he hopes to get a promotion to captain.

He said he was glad South Korea is his first assignment, because even though he’s not yet married, the officers are not allowed to bring family, so it’s a good thing to do before he has a family.

Graduates of the Air Force Academy do not have to pay for their college, but are required to fulfill a commitment to their country. When a student graduates, he or she is required to spend five years in service. But for pilots the commitment is different. All that training requires a 10-year commitment, which Wall says he is happy to serve. He’s not sure how long after that he will stay in the service, but he eventually would like to fly for the airlines, he said.