Air traffic controller named the Airman of the Month

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Frank Casciotta
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A 71st Operations Support Squadron air traffic controller is the 71st Flying Training Wing Airman of the Month for July.

Senior Airman Wesley Ritchie is the first Airman of the Month selected through a new process created by Col. Clark Quinn, the 71st FTW commander and Chief Master Sgt. Peter Speen, the 71st FTW command chief, shortly after they joined Team Vance.

Instead of a board and award package, Airmen are now selected based on merits determined by group superintendents.

When Ritchie was called into work early one day he was looking forward to getting his airfield driver's license.

"I thought it would be cool to learn to drive on the airfield," said Ritchie.

Shortly after he arrived, Speen and Quinn, made an appearance for what Ritchie presumed was a routine tour of the air traffic control tower.

The nonchalant mood changed when Quinn handed Ritchie his commander's coin and congratulated him on being the Airman of the Month, he said.

After his supervisors sung his praises to the commander and the command chief, Ritchie spoke with Vance's leaders outside the tower about his trip to Nicaragua.

Ritchie spent eight days in Nicaragua mentoring children with a Florida-based church.

"We were there to share the gospel, play games and take care of the children there," said Ritchie. "We wanted to give them something to do. If they were lucky, the kids were able to attend school, but the rest of the time they had to work."

During his time there, Ritchie became close to one of the boys and still remains in contact with him.

"I Skype with him every week just to check up on him and make sure he's doing well in school," said Ritchie, a Crestview, Florida, native. "My wife and I are giving serious consideration to adopting him."

The boy Ritchie is considering adopting was found wandering a village. No one knows who his parents are or how he arrived at the village.

"I don't want to be part of one of those teams who goes out there and never gets involved again," said Ritchie.

As an air traffic controller, Ritchie gives directions to student pilots landing and taking off from the airfield and directs all ground traffic on the airfield.

"Senior Airman Ritchie embodies what it means to demonstrate 'service before self,'" said Staff Sgt. Brett Smith, a tower watch supervisor with the 71st OSS. "He genuinely wants to help others succeed, and not just for his own enlisted performance report bullets. He doesn't just train the Airmen assigned to him, but anyone who may need it."

Once an air traffic controller becomes a trainer they are assigned one airman to train on the ins and outs of controlling.

"In the year I've worked with him, I've seen him spend more time with Airmen who aren't assigned to him than their actual trainers," said Smith.

For being selected as Airman of the Month, Ritchie will spend a Undergraduate Pilot Training graduation day shadowing Speen.

Ritchie's shadow day will begin a 7 a.m. where he will meet Speen at the Fitness Center and they will conduct physical training. From there, he will attend all meetings alongside Speen and participate in them. Ritchie's day with Speen will end with a pilot graduation dinner.

Though Ritchie may not know any of the pilots by face, he's played a part in their training each time they left the flightline.

"I'm looking forward to seeing a class graduate," said Ritchie. "I've heard all of them progress throughout their training (through) my headset in the tower."

Ritchie has spent two years at Vance, is a father of one with one on the way.

He is torn between continuing his career with the Air Force or moving to Nicaragua and becoming more involved with mission work. He plans to return there next summer for another mission trip.