Ordinary people make extraordinary impacts

Published April 21, 2010
By Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson
U.S. AFCENT Combat Camera Team

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Senior Airmen John Wardean was 14 years old when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 flashed across his television screen at his home at Mayport Naval Station, Fla.

John spent his high school years growing up in a country at war.

He is a part of a generation who has lived with war as a part of their lives. It has been a part of the background of everything else going on in the world.

In 2005, while living in Belfair, Wash., Airman Wardean graduated from North Mason High School. He was unsure of what he wanted to do.

"I worked in a hardware store for about a year after high school," he said. "I didn't know what I wanted to do, college, join the military, travel or whatever. All I know is I needed to get out of my home town."

Airman Wardean consulted with his mother and father, a retired Navy Lieutenant commander, about what to do with his future.

"My father never pushed the Navy on me. He said if I decided to go that route I should join a submarine unit," Airman Wardean said. "I didn't want to do that and then my dad told me to consult an uncle who was in the Air Force."

It was that day he was introduced to the idea of becoming an Air Force loadmaster.

"I'd get to see the world from the back of an airplane," he said.

A loadmaster is in charge of all cargo loading and offloading, cargo restraints, aircraft weight and balances, passenger loading and offloading, passenger safety, aircraft preflight checklists and cross checking all aircraft systems.

During the flight a loadmaster assists the pilot by running checklists and checking engine and hydraulic systems to ensure passengers and cargo arrive to their destination safely. For the young Wardean, not only would he become a loadmaster, he was also going to be qualified as a rescue loadmaster.

"My family was extremely interested in my job," Airman Wardean said. "most of them are firefighters, so they were proud that I was going to have a job helping people. I couldn't wait to get started."

After finishing basic training in 2006, Airman Wardean started down the road to becoming an Air Force rescue loadmaster -- 15-months of training.

"It felt like I had been in the Air Force forever, all that training," Airman Wardean said. "But I did it. I was a loadmaster and in a rescue unit."

Airman Wardean was now the third-generation of Wardeans to serve his country by way of military service. His grandfather John Francis Wardean, retired as a Chief Warrant Officer Four from the Navy after more than 20 years.

Airman Wardean joined a military, in a country at war, attached to a unit that lives by the motto "That Others May Live," so it did not take long for young Airman Wardean to start seeing the world.

In 2008 he deployed to Djibouti where he received an Air Medal for his aircrew's 10 saves.

"On one of my trips on my first deployment, I actually felt kind of patriotic for the first time," Airman Wardean said. "We picked up some guys and they were shaking my hand and saying thank you. It was the first time it struck me; we help people and we get them to a safe place."

Helping to save lives in Djibouti inspired him, he said. He thought back to his father's outrage on Sept. 11, 2001, he thought back to the war America was in and he wanted to be a part of it.

He finally got his chance when the 79th ERQS deployed to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan in March. The squadron, which stood up March 29 and went on alert status April 8, consists of 86 Airmen. The aircrews, maintainers and pararescuemen making up the squadron brought a unique capability back to Afghanistan by providing a dedicated fixed-wing multirole platform to be used for personnel recovery, medical evacuation, casualty evacuation and aeromedical evacuation.

His first mission was delivering medical supplies to a hospital in Her'at.

"I want to help people; that's what makes my job fun," Airman Wardean said. "We have a cool job."

"I am just a regular guy, who likes hanging out with his crew, but what I get to do every day for the Air Force is extraordinary," Airman Wardean said. "For now life is cool!"

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