Pilot wings make world smaller for small-town lieutenant

  • Published
  • By Frank McIntyre
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AFB,Okla --  When 2nd. Lt. Matthew Osgood graduates from Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training here Friday with Class 07-04 he'll be comfortable being a member of a class of just 20 graduates. That class size is nearly as large as his high school class of 22 students.

The 2005 Air Force Academy graduate is from the northern Maine town of Easton, near the Canadian border, where the total population of 1249 is smaller than Lieutenant Osgood's freshman class of 1290 at the Academy. But one of the Air Force's newest pilots doesn't see the small town and school system as a disadvantage.

"I was as well-equipped as any of my fellow students for the challenges we faced at the Academy," he said. "We had a diverse curriculum at Easton High that kept us busy focusing on the big picture and that certainly was a benefit to me."

It is the students' willingness to participate in a variety of activities offered that makes success possible for a small school system, according to Frank Keenan, superintendent of schools for the Easton School Department.

"When there's a small student population it takes everyone's involvement in order for individual programs to work," Mr. Keenan said. "Matt is a perfect example of that. He played on all the sports teams, was with the band, chorus and jazz choir, as well as being on the student council and member of the National Honor Society. His success with the Air Force speaks well of our school department."

And Lieutenant Osgood is not the only Easton High alumnus to further his education. School department statistics show an average of 95 per cent of all graduates continued their education in recent years. One of those would be another Osgood, brother Michael, currently a junior at the Air Force Academy.

Lieutenant Osgood said he has dreamed of being a pilot as long as he can remember. The desire was fueled when his father took his sons to air shows at Brunswick Naval Air Station, Maine and across the border in Halifax, Nova Scotia. One of the rewards for exposing their son to those air shows will come Friday, when Tom and Ann Osgood pin silver pilot wings on their son's uniform. That will be a joint service effort too, dad is a 1978 graduate of West Point.

With the climate difference between Maine and Oklahoma, Lieutenant Osgood had to replace his skiing and snowmobiling hobbies with horseback riding, which he first took up while at the Academy. Interest in horses became more than just a hobby however; it led to his engagement to Jessica Lewer, an Enid horse trainer. A wedding date will be set after the new pilot receives his training schedule before reporting to his first operational assignment as a C-17 pilot at Charleston AFB, S.C.

The aircraft and base of assignment were Lieutenant Osgood's first choices and the result of his class standing.

"He was one of our top students," said his flight commander, Capt. Zach Brady, 32nd Flying Training Squadron, M Flight. "He is a solid, well-rounded individual who did real well in training."

As a C-17 pilot, Lieutenant Osgood will be flying the Air Force's newest, most flexible cargo aircraft. Recent Air Force statistics show the C-17 is currently deployed an average of 121 days a year performing rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases worldwide in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

Air Force pilot wings just made the whole world a lot smaller for the young lieutenant from a small town in Maine.