1 00:00:00,961 --> 00:00:04,628 (contemplative piano music) 2 00:00:08,690 --> 00:00:09,570 - There's a lot of history here 3 00:00:09,570 --> 00:00:12,727 sometimes you just get sucked into it 4 00:00:12,727 --> 00:00:15,200 and that history becomes your life 5 00:00:16,095 --> 00:00:17,210 and it's part of your present now. 6 00:00:17,210 --> 00:00:19,710 George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, 7 00:00:19,710 --> 00:00:21,710 like all the things that they symbolize. 8 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,220 I did get in trouble a lot growing up 9 00:00:27,220 --> 00:00:29,298 whether you believe it or not, 10 00:00:29,298 --> 00:00:33,090 but I've been in the back of police cars a few times. 11 00:00:33,090 --> 00:00:35,670 Juvenile court, things like that. 12 00:00:35,670 --> 00:00:38,060 I'm not proud of it, but it helped me grow I think, 13 00:00:38,060 --> 00:00:39,000 as a person. 14 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,470 And ever since then I took things with a serious approach. 15 00:00:41,470 --> 00:00:43,660 But I'm always trying to learn 16 00:00:43,660 --> 00:00:44,980 and be a listener of those 17 00:00:44,980 --> 00:00:47,690 who's teaching or saying things. 18 00:00:47,690 --> 00:00:50,510 I wanna be an aerospace engineer, and I wanna fly, 19 00:00:50,510 --> 00:00:51,820 and I wanna be an astronaut. 20 00:00:51,820 --> 00:00:53,220 That's my foundation, 21 00:00:53,220 --> 00:00:54,490 I gotta live up to my word 22 00:00:54,490 --> 00:00:55,790 and I gotta keep on pushing. 23 00:00:55,790 --> 00:00:58,840 And of course I'll make the Tuskegee Airmen proud 24 00:00:58,840 --> 00:00:59,673 while doing so. 25 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,390 They started this non-profit, 26 00:01:04,390 --> 00:01:05,950 Red Tail Scholarship Foundation, 27 00:01:05,950 --> 00:01:09,540 to increase the minority African-American pilot percentage, 28 00:01:09,540 --> 00:01:11,480 which is less than 2% by the way. 29 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:15,890 And I was one of the first guys that they selected. 30 00:01:15,890 --> 00:01:16,910 I got lucky, 31 00:01:16,910 --> 00:01:18,730 or right place and right time I must say. 32 00:01:18,730 --> 00:01:21,580 And ever since then, they've paid the way for me 33 00:01:21,580 --> 00:01:23,720 to get my private pilot license, 34 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:25,977 my instrument rating, my commercial rating, 35 00:01:25,977 --> 00:01:28,060 and my certified flight instructor rating. 36 00:01:28,060 --> 00:01:31,300 So now I'm able to teach and give back 37 00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:33,073 and keep that full circle going. 38 00:01:34,350 --> 00:01:35,310 I mean, there's not a better place 39 00:01:35,310 --> 00:01:39,080 than Tuskegee to learn to fly, 40 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,150 and for minorities to learn to fly, 41 00:01:41,150 --> 00:01:43,380 because it started here. 42 00:01:43,380 --> 00:01:45,470 The Tuskegee Airmen, they paved our way 43 00:01:45,470 --> 00:01:46,570 in the aviation field. 44 00:01:47,820 --> 00:01:49,550 I remember back, four years ago, 45 00:01:49,550 --> 00:01:52,330 I first started flying at Box Aviation in Montgomery, 46 00:01:52,330 --> 00:01:54,520 and I was the only minority seeking pilot there. 47 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:55,500 One token. 48 00:01:55,500 --> 00:01:58,340 And now I look and I see 32 people 49 00:01:58,340 --> 00:01:59,850 that we made a pilot, 50 00:01:59,850 --> 00:02:01,240 and that's gonna go and do great things 51 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:02,450 for the Air Force, 52 00:02:02,450 --> 00:02:03,380 or for the airlines, 53 00:02:03,380 --> 00:02:04,760 or wherever they wanna go. 54 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:06,083 They gonna do great things. 55 00:02:07,890 --> 00:02:09,020 I'm definitely a different person 56 00:02:09,020 --> 00:02:10,040 than I was back then. 57 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,060 Probably at the age of 15 to 22 58 00:02:12,060 --> 00:02:13,669 I've grown so much. 59 00:02:13,669 --> 00:02:15,660 And the experiences that I've had 60 00:02:15,660 --> 00:02:18,030 have taught me to be a better person, 61 00:02:18,030 --> 00:02:19,120 be better with my time, 62 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:20,430 and with the community. 63 00:02:20,430 --> 00:02:21,780 Cause it's not always about yourself, 64 00:02:21,780 --> 00:02:23,723 and I've started to get that. 65 00:02:27,550 --> 00:02:29,750 What can I do to make Tuskegee better? 66 00:02:29,750 --> 00:02:32,210 Not what I can do to make myself better. 67 00:02:32,210 --> 00:02:33,900 I've moved on from that page. 68 00:02:33,900 --> 00:02:36,660 I wanna know what I can do to make Tuskegee better, 69 00:02:36,660 --> 00:02:37,770 in terms of the community. 70 00:02:37,770 --> 00:02:39,420 Because it's not always about yourself. 71 00:02:39,420 --> 00:02:40,760 If you get up high, then, 72 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:41,810 if you didn't bring no one up with you, 73 00:02:41,810 --> 00:02:43,510 then what have you done? 74 00:02:43,510 --> 00:02:45,880 I can tell that I've grown in that aspect, 75 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:47,510 but I've got a lot more growing to do 76 00:02:47,510 --> 00:02:49,410 to get to a place that I wanna get to. 77 00:02:52,890 --> 00:02:55,660 No matter what I do for the Air Force, 78 00:02:55,660 --> 00:02:57,140 flying is my passion. 79 00:02:57,140 --> 00:03:00,760 And no matter what I fly, I'll be happy with. 80 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:02,660 But it's always about accomplishing a mission. 81 00:03:02,660 --> 00:03:04,550 So it's more than just about me, 82 00:03:04,550 --> 00:03:05,383 like I said earlier, 83 00:03:05,383 --> 00:03:06,902 it's about the team. 84 00:03:06,902 --> 00:03:07,735 What do we need to accomplish? 85 00:03:07,735 --> 00:03:09,420 What objectives are set forth? 86 00:03:09,420 --> 00:03:11,500 And how we can best tackle them and approach them. 87 00:03:11,500 --> 00:03:13,493 So, that's what I care about.