High school students got a chance to explore careers with the Iowa National Guard’s 185th Air Wing Thursday.
Tech Sergeant Adam Allen is one of the guard’s recruiters. “They get a chance to come and talk to individuals to do the jobs every day. Everything that we can we offer we are showing anything from public affairs to human resources to mechanic both aircraft and vehicle,” he says. “Anything not an airplane, we have those mechanics too. We have all the trades, plumbing, electrical, hvac, construction.”
Allen says most of the jobs are part-time, but there are also some 300 fulltime jobs as well. “All of us down here are looking for who’s that person that’s going to take our spot in ten, eleven, 12 years. You never know when you’re talking to that person because that is our future,” he says.
Sergeant Bluff Lutton senior Emmalie Gamble says the Air Guard is an option for her future. “So I actually want to enlist into the guard first and then when I come back from all of my training I’m looking at going into it for police science,” she says. Careers in the National Guard allow members to attend drill on training weekends, plus two weeks each year, while also attending college or working fulltime at a civilian job.
(By Wood Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)