Dear 4-H Family:

I arrived back on March 5th from San Antonio, TX, where I've been since November 29th. Many of you may be wondering what I was doing in San Antonio, TX, for that long. Well, as many of you may remember, two years ago I went to Officer Candidate School for the Air National Guard and became a 2nd Lieutenant. Since then I've been working as an Executive Officer for the Mission Support Group Commander. Well, the National Guard Bureau decided to eliminate the Executive Officer position for the MSG Commander across the nation. That left me without a job. So, I went on the journey of searching out a new job at my Guard base. I was offered a position in the Logistics Squadron as a Logistics Readiness Officer, well, of course I took the job! Well, just like any career change in the civilian world, I had to get trained to be able to do that job. So, I went to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX for my Logistics Readiness Officer Training.

My training to become a Logistics Readiness Officer consisted of four 2-hour classes per day, which, by the way, makes for a very long day! The four classes included: Contingency Operation (Deployment of troops & equipment and War Plans), Distribution (Transportation of troops and equipment via aircraft or ground vehicles), Materiel Management (Supplies and equipment ordering, delivering, issuing, etc.), and Fuels (The different types of jet fuel and ground fuel, safety and testing of fuel).

While I do have training and experience in dealing with some of these topics, as you can imagine some of them aren't necessarily topics that I was very familiar with. So, needless to say, I studied A LOT and learned A LOT!!! Overall the training was a very good experience for me. I met lots of great people; there were 47 other students in my class, and 6 instructors. And not to mention, I missed the Illinois winter and got to enjoy San Antonio weather for a few months!

The really neat part of my experience at Lackland Air Force Base was seeing all of the young adults going through Basic Military Training. Lackland is where I went to Basic Training 18 years ago and it brings back a lot of memories to hear TI's (Training Instructors or Drill Sergeants) yelling, oops, I mean providing guidance to the new recruits! I even got to take a tour of my old Basic Training dorm with a TI. And I got to take a picture in front of my old Basic Training bed. It's amazing how clean a place can be even with 50-70 new recruits can be!

So, with those experiences behind me and with a certificate that says I am now a Logistics Readiness Officer, I am back at the Extension Office and getting right back into the routine here. I'm excited to be back and glad to have my training behind me. And just a note for all of you High School age 4-H'ers out there, or anyone for that matter – if you are ever interested in talking about the Air Force or the Air National Guard with me, just give me a call!

- Kim