Wing executive officer shows Airmen higher education is in their reach

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marissa Tucker
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, TURKEY --  Ask a group of first-term Airmen what their career plans are and a common answer for some may be "Four and I'm out the door," but for some, life takes sudden turns down random roads and those who planned a quick return to civilian life become career Airmen.

Capt. Trisha Loede, 39th Air Base Wing executive officer, had her four-year plan mapped out when she enlisted in the Air Force in 1994. She would serve out her enlistment as an optometry technician and return home to the Mount Rushmore state to finish school. Her plan was no match for what life had in store for her, and her journey serves as an example to many Airmen at Incirlik.

As an Airman at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Loede was unsatisfied with her career. Because the field was so small, cross training was not an option. Instead of giving up on the Air Force, she sought the advice of a commander who gave her an idea that sparked a fire in her.

"She told me the only thing she could approve for me was an office training school package," Loede said. "After that, I began working harder and taking more classes to get my degree."

While already taking courses, she was not where she planned to be in her education, a situation many Airmen can relate to. She decided to take an aggressive move on her education and enrolled in a program at Southern Illinois University's accelerated bachelor's degree program. Every other week on Saturday and Sunday for eight hours each day, Loede attended undergraduate classes towards a degree in adult education. For two years, she successfully juggled her demanding career, full-time college, two small children and a husband, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

"We were married for about two years when he was diagnosed," she said. "With a husband in remission for cancer and two young children, you have to re-evaluate your priorities. "

To balance her time between her family and her educational goals, Loede would incorporate school work into her daily activities.

"It was very difficult. I remember on the first day of the second semester I came home and told my husband I couldn't do it, and he told me I was not a quitter," she said. "His belief in me is why I kept going and finished. I was reading my kids my geology homework while they were in the bathtub, or reading them my history books for a bed time story."

Much to the chagrin of one naysayer who told her she would never get her degree, she graduated in May 2003 and began taking classes towards her master's degree. Once she got that feeling of completion because of her hard work and the support of her family, she knew she could continue her education as far as she decided to take it.

Loede commissioned as a manpower analyst in 2004, and her hard work afforded her the opportunity to be an Air Force ROTC instructor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. There, she found a love of teaching and higher education which she hopes to impart on others she meets throughout her career.

"Go to school," she says with a stern voice. "You never know what tomorrow will bring."

Loede's position as the wing executive gives her the chance to share her story with the people she interacts with everyday. As she views all wing correspondence such as award packages, enlisted and officer performance reports and every other document that requires the wing commander's signature and review, she can point out one thing in particular that makes Airmen stand out among their peers:

Education.

"You have so much more time than you think you have to go to school and it will only make you better, no matter what your career path is," she said. "You can have a skill, but without an education, you are less marketable."