Air Force Academy cadets deploy, help support 379th AEW missions Published June 16, 2007 By Senior Airman Clark Staehle 379th Air Expeditionary Wing SOUTHWEST ASIA -- While many people have had to write the obligatory school report "What I did over my summer vacation" upon resuming classes in the fall, how many can say they deployed to Southwest Asia and help support Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom and operations in the Horn of Africa throughout the area of responsibility? Eighteen Air Force Academy cadets currently deployed to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing will have exceptional stories to tell. "The whole experience gives us a look at what it's like to be deployed," said Darcy O'Connor, who will be a firstie, or a senior cadet when she resumes her foreign area studies at the academy in the fall. "We can all expect to be deployed in the future. It's nice to see what we have to look forward to, what we can learn from this and how we can apply that to each of our deployments." The cadets are deployed here in as a part of Operation Air Force, a program that sends cadets and Reserve Officer Training Corps students to Air Force bases to help them experience what military life will be like once they graduate and receive their commissions. "Being deployed here allows the cadets an opportunity to gain hands-on experience related to active-duty life," said Capt. Dustin Harmon, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Plans and Programs executive officer, and Operation Air Force point of contact. "Here at the 379th it is especially valuable because coming here exposes the cadets to deployed life, which most of them will experience as future officers in the Air Force," the Bentonville, Ark. native said. Their deployment here is different than other Operation Air Force tours to non-deployed Air Force bases. The cadets in and out process much the same way Airmen do when deployed. Once here, they were given a sponsor and assumed duties and tasks that will fall under their purview after they graduate. "(Deploying here helps us) because we had to process through full deployment lines to get the experience of doing it, because we'll actually do that in our Air Force career," said First Class Cadet Matthew Kohles, an Aberdeen, S.D. native and aeronautical engineering major. "We're doing more work. We're actually being placed into a job which we might end up doing out here anyway." This real-world experience will make these future second lieutenants better officers. "In past years with Operation Air Force (in the continental United States), it was more of a tour - you got to work a little bit and see what Air Force life is like," Cadet Kohles said. "Here, it's more of a deployed location - a few tours, but more of our actual job, which is something I like to do." The cadets agreed their time deployed here will benefit them as they begin their careers as commissioned officers. "In the short time I've been here, it's been an eye-opening experience and I'm hoping to be able take a lot more away to our classmates at the academy when we get back," First Class Cadet Kohles said.