HOWARD — Scott Martin, a junior at East Knox High School, has a career in the Air Force in his sights. Martin recently returned from a week at the USAF Academy’s summer seminar in Colorado.
The summer seminar is designed to give high school juniors an opportunity to see a realistic picture of what cadet life is about.
“It was really cool,” Martin said. “I went there the first day. which was a set-up day. We got situated, found our dorms and all that. The next morning we got up at 5:30 for physical training. But I got through that.”
The days were full of activities, including taking classes. Martin was assigned to an element with an upper class cadet as element leader. This cadet was with him almost 24 hours a day as a mentor and guide.
“Every day there were two classes,” Martin said. “There was one in the morning and one in the evening. Each class was three hours long. The first day I took digital circuitry, and codes and cryptography. The second day was propulsion and the optics of lasers.”
At the conclusion of the week, he became a “Doolie for a day.” During this day, he experienced what it’s like to be a fourth class cadet: a Doolie. Martin took part in several activities, including marching, room inspections, military knowledge tests. At the conclusion of the program, there is a graduation dinner and culmination ceremony.
“I am definitely considering [attending the academy],” he said. “The atmosphere there is really cool. Most of the people there are doing what they want to do in life. They have good courses there. The physical training there is definitely a plus. You go in there and come out in perfect physical shape.”
This is not a snap decision for him. It is something he has been considering for a while.
“I’ve been tossing the idea around for a while,” he said. “There’s a history in the family. I’ve had a chance to experience it, so I know what I’m getting into.”
Martin hopes to major in some area of electronics if he goes to the academy. If he graduates, he would have the rank of second lieutenant.
“It was a good experience for him,” said Scott’s father, Jack. “One of the reasons he’s considering it is because his brother went there. He graduated in 2002. He became a fighter pilot and spent six months in Iraq. So they’ve had a lot of dialogue back and forth. We’ve been out there several times for parents’ weekends, and Scott had a chance to see the environment out there.”
“We’ve been to Parents’ Weekend every year,” said Scott’s mother, Donna. “That was several years ago when Scott was young; about 9 or 10 years old. He would be running around for three or four days every year. Now he just wanted to see it as an adult.”
It has shaped up to be a full summer for Scott, who attended the Mount Vernon Nazarene University computer camp held June 15 through 19. He will be attending a three-week session in Columbus at The OSU Engineering Summer Institute through July 24, for which he receives college credit.
Scott also played piano with the Knox County Symphony in the winter concerts at Kenyon College for the past two years.
