Video: FLIGHT TEST: CAFB Students Graduate from Pilot Training

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth story in a regular series by WCBI Reporter/Anchor Emily Cassulo following the lives of young airmen as they begin a year of pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base.

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Student pilots with Class 15-07 are graduating after wrapping up a year of intense training at Columbus Air Force Base.

WCBI has been following them through it all.

These 18 new pilots are thrilled to receive their silver wings, after spending countless hours in academics, and on the flight line.

“It feels very surreal,” said 2nd Lt. Alex Randall, a new graduate. “I don’t think it really kicked in until I actually put the wings on. You’re like, ‘Oh, I think it’s over now. The sprint is done. We’re finished with this.'”

Most are even more excited about their next assignments, where they will be spread out all over the world.

“We’ve been training for so much at this point, and it’s kind’ve nice to know that we will actually be contributing a little bit to the actual global effort for the Air Force, instead of just trying to learn all this stuff,” said 2nd Lt. Christian Minnick, a new graduate. “We can actually contribute our part now.”

These silver wings bring out a special bond between Minnick and his dad – a retired chief master sergeant who spent 23 years in the Air Force.

“We’ll be sitting in different seats in the plane, but it’s really cool knowing that we both kind’ve have this continuing legacy,” Minnick said.

“I was a flight engineer, but he’s driving it,” said Ret. CMSgt. Jerry Minnick. “He’s going to be in charge of this whole crew of 13 people soon, and he’s going to be doing a very, very, very important mission of electronic counter measures. He’s going to be protecting a whole lot of troops on the ground, and a whole lot of people in the air.”

2nd Lt. Andrew Burress looks forward to going back to East Tennessee to fly.

“Oh, I can’t wait to go back home to my family, and see my wife and son again,” Burress said. “They didn’t get to come with me, so I can’t wait to go back home and fly the 135 there from my hometown unit.”

2nd Lt. Carlo Mancini will be sticking around in Columbus for the next three years as a T-6 instructor pilot.

He says he looks forward to passing on what he’s learned this past year.

“Watching them go from somebody who’s never flown an airplane, to someone who has the ability to fly in the airplane in the Air Force – I think that will be especially rewarding,” Mancini said.

Whether they’re here in Columbus, across the country, or overseas, these new pilots may not be closeby, but they will always remember where they started.

Their training here is just the beginning to big careers in the Air Force.