USAF Captain Ilma Vallee

By: Ilma Vallee

“Žiurek kaip graziai musu pasaulis atrodo,” my mother said in Lithuanian as we both stared out the window of the aircraft. This was my first time on an airplane, as we crossed the Atlantic Ocean en route to the United States to start a new life. Born in 1988, when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union, I never even dreamed of flying across the Atlantic Ocean, let alone someday becoming a pilot. It was that day, at 11 years old, that I looked out the window of the aircraft and decided I wanted to earn my wings.

My mother and I eventually settled in Redondo Beach in Los Angeles, California. L.A. was much different than my Lithuanian roots; however, I did my best to learn English and fit in with the American culture as quickly as possible. Over time, my English skills sharpened, and I was able to make some friends.

Senior year of high school I worked as a bagger at an Albertsons grocery store. The possibility of becoming a pilot or even going to college was not an option for me at the time. College cost money, scholarships required good grades, and unfortunately, I had neither of those things. Not wanting to bag groceries for the rest of my life, I began looking for opportunities to get out of the house and into the world.

On something of a whim, one day my stepfather recommended that I see an Air Force recruiter. After doing some research, I realized it could be a good way to earn a living, go to college and pave the way to opportunities to earn my wings. The next thing I knew, I had enlisted and was completing boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

My goal at the time was to make the most out of my four years—to learn different skills, get out and utilize the Air Force college scholarship programs. To begin my Air Force journey, I had to pick a job, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. There were countless options and opportunities, but I was fairly young and didn’t have many skills to speak of. I realized as a newly enlisted Air Force member with no training, I wasn’t able to hop in a cockpit right away, so I figured I would become a cook in the Force Support Squadron (FSS).

Which is exactly what I did. I was trained at the FSS cooking school and received my first duty assignment to Travis Air Force Base, California. I worked nights to cook for the late shift Airmen, and I enjoyed it. Most importantly, I was out of the house, working on my own and enjoying my new friends while living life in the dorms. At this point in my Air Force career, I was settling in rather well to a life behind the line and had no idea how many career opportunities lay ahead of me. Little did I know that with my hard work and determination, once the first door opened, so many more would follow.

It was with this hard work that drove my first big opportunity toward my dream to fly. An officer in my FSS squadron noticed my determination and told me about the option of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) Prep School, where people attend to study and also compete for direct admission to USAFA. He said it would be a challenge and I would have to prove myself, but after one year if my performance stood out, I would earn the opportunity to attend USAFA and become an officer.

At the time, I wasn’t sure if this is what I wanted, but my dream to be a pilot was ever present in my mind, and this seemed like it would be my best shot to make it a reality. Thankfully, this officer helped me put together a great admissions package and I was accepted to the USAFA Prep School.

The next year was a blur. I moved to Colorado Springs, performed well at the prep school, and was accepted to USAFA. I was extremely excited, but also nervous. I never felt as though I excelled at academics, and I knew the Academy was a challenging school, so I had my doubts about the program and if I would be able to earn a pilot spot. My intuition had been correct, and the academics were very challenging for me. I decided to study Foreign Area studies, which I enjoyed but also had to put in a great deal of work to keep my head above water. However, if there has been one constant in my life, it’s that I must work hard and stay focused on my mission if I am going to succeed. Once again, paid off and after four difficult years I graduated as the Thunderbirds flew overhead. I became a Second Lieutenant with a pilot training spot. I felt at that moment as though I had made it, but of course, the work as I knew it, had only just begun.

If I had found USAFA difficult, I had no idea what I was in for with pilot training. Military pilot training was to be the most difficult hurdle I have faced, even to this day. We started training immediately after my arrival at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. Pilot training was like going to the moon for me; I couldn’t have felt more out of place. I was the only female in my flight, an immigrant and I found that I struggled tremendously with my adopted English language. It’s one thing to speak conversational English as a second language, but to absorb the systems and components of an aircraft and to read technical manuals without a full understanding of obscure words, was a whole new challenge.

The hardest part I found was my own self confidence or lack of it. Every day I would look around at my classmates and wonder, “What am I doing here? I don’t belong with these people.” Everyone seemed to understand the systems, many of them had engineering degrees and seemed so smart compared to how I viewed myself. When I would look around, I did not look, talk or carry myself like the rest of my classmates. This thinking led me to believe that perhaps I wasn’t cut out to be a pilot and maybe I would be better off in a different career field. To some degree, these thoughts were familiar to me; I had always been something of an oddball. I arrived in the United States unable to speak English, from a small Eastern European nation with only a few million people, and mostly, I was a young female who wanted to be a pilot. I was used to being told my ideas were crazy, I was used to the challenge of rejection and, most importantly, I was used to the hard work I knew I had to do to overcome these thoughts and challenges, which is exactly what I did.

When I had moments of doubt in training, I would dig even deeper, using these thoughts as motivation to continue working toward getting my wings. Before I knew it, the year was over, and I was the proud recipient of my shiny new pilot wings. Everything I had worked for after all of these years had come to fruition and now, I was a Pilot in the U.S. Air Force. I was assigned to fly the KC-135 Stratotanker at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, and it was a dream come true. Through it all I learned that as long as I worked hard, listened to mentors and stayed focused on my mission, I could accomplish anything. I learned that the training would take care of my apprehension, and the intimidating switches, buttons and lights weren’t so scary once I understood them and could relax to let my knowledge takeover. Now, after 14 years with the Air Force, a thousand flying hours, a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, I look back on my decision to join the Air Force as the best decision I ever made. I now get to impart my skills to a new generation of flyers as an instructor at Randolph Air Force Base and as a motivational speaker.

What’s most important to me is the joy and amazement I feel from flying has never lost its charm. Even now as I fly across the Atlantic, eastward this time, sitting not in a passenger’s seat but in the pilot’s seat, staring out upon the sky above the ocean, I still hear my mother’s words in my ear “Žiurek kaip graziai musu pasaulis atrodo.” What a beautiful world it is indeed.