ARCHBOLD WEATHER

AHS Grad Heading For USAF Academy

Inspired By A Movie, Leininger Says He Wants To Fly Fast, Expensive Jets



Jared Leininger

Jared Leininger

Blame it all on Tom Cruise. At the end of this month, Jared Leininger, an Archbold native and 2009 AHS graduate, is off to the United States Air Force Academy.

His goal: after four years of academic study, physical training, sports, and two years of flight school, he wants to fly USAF jet fighters.

How did this fascination start? The Tom Cruise movie, “Top Gun.”

Leininger said when he was about five years old, he watched “Top Gun.” Released in 1986, it was the story of U.S. Navy jet pilots, and climaxes in a wild aerial dogfight.

Leininger said he’s drawn to “the speed, the power, the adrenaline. I just think they’re very cool.”

While “Top Gun” is about Navy pilots, Leininger shows a practical side when asked about joining the Air Force.

“When I want to have a family of my own, I don’t want to be away from my kids for six months at a time when I have to deploy (aboard a ship). It (the Air Force) is just a little better for what I want,” he said.

He did apply to the Air Force and Naval academies, but was only accepted by the Air Force, “which was my first choice anyway.”

Preparation

The USAF academy is not only tough to get into, it’s tough to finish.

USAF academy cadets must be appointed by their congressmen and must pass rigorous entrance requirements.

“It’s very tough to get in. I knew that up front, so I worked on my grades to get them up to where I was competitive,” Leininger said.

“What they look for is not just grades, but the whole person- the community service, the athletics, leadership areas, to academics as well.

“When I first started, I thought community service and leadership might be my weaker areas, because when I would think of what I’d done, I wasn’t thinking of everything I could put down.

“When I started my application process, and started my resume and stuff, as I thought about it, the little things came back. Little things I didn’t consider community service, because I thought everybody should be doing them.”

The academy also requires cadets to participate in sports, either intercollegiate or intramural. He’s ready for that challenge, having been a three-sport athlete (football, wrestling, and baseball) at AHS.

The academy’s academics are similar to a four-year college or university. He plans to study either aeronautical or astronautical engineering.

“Once you graduate from that, about half of the cadets from each class are selected for flight school. You’ll go to flight school for two years.”

How a cadet performs in flight school determines the type of aircraft he is assigned to fly.

Ready?

Leininger said he’s not nervous about the future.

“I went out in April for freshman orientation, and got a lot of information there. Basically, the first six weeks will be basic training. After that, it will be like regular college, except we’ll have physical training each day.”

The Air Force Academy “is all I’ve wanted to do, and I can’t think of anything else after that.

“Once I retire, I’ll probably fly commercial, but I’d rather fly the expensive, fast planes, than the big, slow ones,” he said.

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