| A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT ME! Why, Because It's All about Me! |
|
| Last Updated 8 February 2004 |
| Hello! My name is Matthew A Slabaugh. I was born in the state of Michigan in the mid 1970's. I lived the majority of my life on the farm near Bryan, Ohio. I still reside in Bryan. I may live in Ohio, but I'm not an OSU fan. I graduated from Bryan High School in 1993 (an average student and a member of one of the best golf teams in the state). I enlisted the U.S. Air Force on 2Mar1994 as a lovely Airman Basic. My Air Force Career has taken a number of pleasant, yet unexpected turns. After Basic training, they sent me to the U.S. Army Ordnance School in Aberdeen MD for 4 months where I learned to weld armor plate for tanks. How does that translate to the Air Force, they call it auto body repair! I spent the next 3 years fixing and painting cars, trucks, and buses at Offutt AFB NE, home of USSTRATCOM. This turned out to be a productive assignment that I enjoyed. I left Offutt in March of 1997 under palace chase for the Indiana Air National Guard at the rank of Senior Airman thanks to a below the zone promotion. While assigned to Offutt, I attended classes full time at Metropolitan Community Collage and Bellevue University. I graduated from the Community College of the Air Force in August of 1996 with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Vehicle Maintenance. I followed that up with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Bellevue University in Bellevue NE in January of 1997. Finally, I was a civilian again and I was headed back home to work on the farm. Nothing like the great outdoors and working your own schedule! I immediately joined the Air National Guard to give back the two years for getting out of active duty a year early. I was now home farming for a neighbor and still doing my drills. I had to retrain because the Guard didn't have Body Shops. So I went to Refueling Maintenance school for 5 months at Port Hueneme California. I learned to work on R-9 and R-11 aircraft refueling trucks. My job was to repair the vehicles used to refuel aircraft. This was one of the best schools I've ever been to. The school was fairly easy and I graduated at the top of my class, in fact now that I think about it, I aced the course! My former shop superintendent from Offutt (a good friend) was teaching 7 level classes out there so we hung out and played golf almost every day at a different course. I worked as a traditional guardsman for several years and was promoted to Staff Sergeant in January of 1999. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and a position opened up for a transportation officer a few months later. I put my package in and got selected to be commissioned. Almost a year after being selected I found myself at McGee Tyson ANG in Knoxville Tennessee in July of 2000 Attending the Academy of Military Science where I was commissioned as a 2Lt in the Air Force. If anyone wants to know, it was worse than Basic training. I never made it to transportation officer school because in November of 2000 I was hired as a full time Logistics Plans officer for the 122FW at the Fort Wayne Intn'l Airport in Fort Wayne Indiana. Basically, I handle exercises, deployments, and work airlift issues for the unit. In June of 2001 I attended the Log Plans Officer school for 4 weeks at Lackland AFB. Again, another fairly easy school! I have been working as a plans officer ever since and was promoted to 1Lt in September of 2002. In August of 2001 I began attending Indiana Wesleyan University where I started working on my Master of Science in Management. I completed half of the required classes for the program when I opted to drop in May because I needed to concentrate on getting my pilots license. I needed to finish my pilots license because I had received my notification of acceptance to pilot training for the Air Force Reserve for a FY03 Class date! Yippee!! It was about time! I had tried on a couple of occasions to get a pilots slot but had no success. In September of 2001 I interviewed with the 63ARS at Selfridge ANGB and was notified a week later that they would like to sponsor me to UPT. I am now a 1Lt with 9 years of service getting ready to attend pilot training. I started working on my private pilots license in September of 2001 because I wanted to learn how to fly. I went down to the local airport and they gave me an instructor who turned out to be a pretty good friend in the end. He was your typical snot nose kid:) Needless to say 56 hours later in a Cessna 172 and the FAA awarded me my private pilots license on September 5th of 2002. 1 year to the day I took my first flying lesson. IF THEY ONLY KNEW! As for my instructor, he is now flying for PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of U.S. Airways, good luck! I have now resigned my Federal Technician Job as an ANG Log Planner as of 30 November 2002. I had hoped to take LWOP but since the job is tied to a military position, that wasn't possible. Oh Well, kiss a GS-12 goodbye! I am hoping to get into Selfridge flying full time when I get out of pilot training in a couple of years. If not I'll be hitting the streets looking for a job! No sense in worrying about that right now. I'm sure I'll survive. I would like to thank everyone who got me to where I am today! I could have never achieved what I have with out the help of the many people around me. AGAIN, THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAD A PART IN GETTING ME TO WHERE I AM TODAY! I can say that life has been good to me, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!! Matt |
 |
