Different paths to the cockpit.

As Utah State University seniors prepare for their final semester before graduation many are looking to a future of 9 to 5 jobs and working to climb the corporate ladder.

This isn’t the case for Isaac Fifield and Bryan Haslip.

Fifield and Haslip both look into their future and see their desk as a cockpit and their office 30,000 feet in the sky.

Fifield, a 25-year-old senior and Air Force cadet, looks forward to fulfilling a dream he has had since childhood. “I’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot,” Fifield said.

Haslip, a 22-year-old senior, is in the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class. Like Fifield, Haslip is guaranteed a flight slot after he commissions. Though his grandfather was a Colonel in the Air Force, Haslip saw the appeal of the Marine Corps. “If I’m going to serve, why not be in the most bad ass branch,” Haslip said.

Fifield comes from a family with a strong military background. Both of his brothers served in the Army, but he was impressed with the options the Air Force offered. “If I’m looking at a career in any branch Air Force is the best one,” Fifield said.

While both Fifield and Haslip will become pilots, the paths in their respective services will be different ones.

Haslip attended Officers Candidate School, or OCS, in the summer of 2010. Located in Quantico, Va., OCS is the basic training for future Marine Corps officers. During OCS, candidates are tested on a variety of things such as fitness and their ability to lead troops during stressful situations.

“It was interesting because it was an evaluation period, they could send you home,” Haslip said. “You lived with that fear. If you messed up, if they saw qualities they didn’t like, they would send you home.”

Fifield’s training was in Maxwell, AL and Camp Shelby, MS. Field Training, as it is known in the Air Force is a 28-day basic training. Similar to OCS, Field Training is designed to evaluate the cadet’s level of leadership in stressful environments.

Upon returning to school both Fifield and Haslip thought everything seemed less stressful. When deadlines approached or it was finals week, they knew how to handle the stress.

 “It seemed I had all the time in the world and I finished tasks instead of procrastinating. I can now manage my time and keep an overall picture of what matters.” Haslip said.

Fifield now puts his seniority and the skills he learned in Field Training to use in training his younger cadets.

After he went through Field Training, he returned to Camp Shelby as a member of the cadre. Here he helped train the junior cadets who were passing through the program. "Training the cadets at Field Training helps me to better train the cadets now at USU,” Fifield said.

Fifield sees his upcoming service as a chance to make a difference in the world and also a way to support a family. “Health care will be a big benefit, as will a retirement pension. Overall I can look back and have a feeling of accomplishment and know I was a part of something that was real and made a difference.”
(J.Dunford)