Sergeant Michael Coleman, an avionics technician with the 908th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, began accompanying his father, a communications technician, on night shifts with his brother when he was not even eight years old.
There he developed the skills, attributes and work ethic that would serve him well as a Reserve Citizen Airman.
“Instead of hiring a babysitter, my dad would take us to work,” Coleman said. “We’d help him fix whatever he was fixing. That’s where I first learned how to troubleshoot and solve problems.”
His parents wanted him to get a college education, but Coleman wasn’t serious about it: He completed two years of classes and then decided he really wanted to know what else there was in life.
In 2012, Coleman took the plunge and enlisted in the Air Force Reserve with the 908th Airlift Wing as an avionics technician.
“I’ve always been interested in machines and I loved working with my hands, and I really wanted to work with aviation… that’s really all I wanted to do… so going into maintenance was a good fit for me,” he said.
Coleman now serves full time with the 908th Wing as a reserve flight engineer and says the greatest reward of his job is seeing planes take off and knowing that his skills, knowledge, teamwork and leadership contributed to creating that powerful warfighting capability.
“I have my dad to thank for that,” he said.
He also has advice for those considering military service or a skilled trade alongside an academic path.
“Talk to people who actually work in the industry you’re interested in. Chances are you know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who can tell you what it’s really like to work in that industry and the best way to prepare for it,” he said. “You’ll learn a lot more from those conversations than you would from attending a job fair or searching the internet.”
Sergeant Coleman is a bold, agile and dedicated Airman who demonstrates outstanding combat ability, which is why he has been named the 908th Air Regiment NCO of the Quarter for the first quarter of 2024.
Date taken: July 10, 2024 Date posted: July 10, 2024 10:05 Story ID: 475835 Location: Montgomery, Alabama, USA Web views: 9 Downloads: 0 Public domain
This work, “I Am the 908th Troop: By Sergeant Michael Coleman and Major John Stamm, Identified by DVIDS,” is subject to the restrictions set forth at https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
