Huntington Grad Matt West
Flies to Success
Since Matthew West graduated with Huntington High School’s Class of 2009, he’s been constantly on the go. He’s earned a college degree and is pursuing a career with the US Air Force and he’s brought honor and distinction to not only himself and his family, but to his alma mater and community, too.
Mr. West obtained an undergraduate degree earlier this year at Florida State University. He attended the school on a ROTC scholarship, majoring in international affairs, which allowed him to take courses that ranged from Wine & Culture, Beer Tasting and Modern Popular Music to Advanced Terrorism and World’s Greatest Shipwrecks “and a whole other slew of interesting classes,” he said.
The Huntington grad was in the ROTC program at FSU for four years. ROTC members must compete to advance to field training (officer boot camp) between their freshman and sophomore years. There was a 48 percent acceptance rate the year Mr. West qualified.
“Through ROTC I was able to do exciting events such as security for the governor of Florida, color guard at football games and sky diving (first jump was solo), but more importantly learn how to be a leader, mentor and above all, officer, in the world’s greatest Air Force,” Mr. West said.
The Huntington alum was also quite involved in a local church, volunteering and later interning during his senior year. He watched the church grow from attracting a crowd of 300 on a typical Sunday to 2,000.
When he was commissioned as an FSU senior, Mr. West was selected as a combat systems officer, a modern day navigator. “That’s what I am currently doing at Undergraduate CSO Training (UCT) at Naval Air Station Pensacola,” he said. “Even though it is a Navy base, we still oddly train there. It’s the best Air Force stationing in the U.S.”
UCT is a year-long intensive training program that teaches its participants how to become CSOs, “giving us the skills to either become navigators (‘turn left here’), weapons systems officers (firing weapons) or electronic warfare officers (radar and anti-air and jamming, etc.),” Mr. West said.
The Huntington alum will graduate UCT on August 1, 2014, learning which type of plane he will be assigned to three weeks earlier. “Currently I do not have a top pick, but following in my grandfather’s footsteps (he was a navigator on the B-52), the B-52 sounds cool, as does anything ‘special operations’ for now,” Mr. West said. “I will make more decisions after learning more about the planes and communities associated with them all. Currently we are flying the T-6 Texan plane.”