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In 2006, SrA. Anatu Oyedeji moved from the crowded African coastal city of Lagos, Nigeria to the less-crowded coastal city of Jamestown, R.I. Four years later, she graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and joined the Air Force Reserve. During basic training, she sustained an injury that she feared would be career-ending. She said her spouse, Olalekan Akinsete, “encouraged me and helped me to channel my pain towards achieving my goal.” She graduated from BMT and now serves as a services apprentice with the 439th Force Support Squadron. She joined the Air Force “to improve who I am as a person--mentally and physically--and to be a defender of the vulnerable wherever the service takes me,” she said. After emigrating, she was surprised to find that life in America was just like life in Nigeria, “except people are more comfortable,” she said, with more access to gas, water, and electricity. She grew up speaking English in school and speaking Yoruba, one of three main languages in Nigeria. One expression in Yoruba is, is Ire o! (Best Wishes). “It gives me satisfaction knowing that I am contributing to the growth of freedom worldwide,” she said of her reserve service. (By Lt. Col. James Bishop)


SrA. Anatu Oyedeji

In 2006, SrA. Anatu Oyedeji moved from the crowded African coastal city of Lagos, Nigeria to the less-crowded coastal city of Jamestown, R.I. Four years later, she graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and joined the Air Force Reserve. During basic training, she sustained an injury that she feared would be career-ending. She said her spouse, Olalekan Akinsete, “encouraged me and helped me to channel my pain towards achieving my goal.” She graduated from BMT and now serves as a services apprentice with the 439th Force Support Squadron. She joined the Air Force “to improve who I am as a person--mentally and physically--and to be a defender of the vulnerable wherever the service takes me,” she said. After emigrating, she was surprised to find that life in America was just like life in Nigeria, “except people are more comfortable,” she said, with more access to gas, water, and electricity. She grew up speaking English in school and speaking Yoruba, one of three main languages in Nigeria. One expression in Yoruba is, is Ire o! (Best Wishes). “It gives me satisfaction knowing that I am contributing to the growth of freedom worldwide,” she said of her reserve service. (By Lt. Col. James Bishop)

Related Imagery
Staff Sgt. Jose Gutierrez, 439th Bioenvironmental Technician, responds to interview questions conducted by media representatives from Futures Magazine, Jan. 10, 2015. SSgt. Gutierrez was chosen to represent the Air Force Reserve in Futures magazine which features service members who go above and beyond the call and is distributed to high school guidance counselors to shed light on otherwise unknown military possibilities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kelly Goonan)
Staff Sgt. Jose Gutierrez, 439th Bioenvironmental Technician responds to interview questions conducted by media representatives from Futures Magazine, Jan. 10, 2015. SSgt. Gutierrez was chosen to represent the Air Force Reserve in Futures magazine which features service members who go above and beyond the call and is distributed to high school guidance counselors to shed light on otherwise unknown military possibilities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kelly Goonan)
SSgt. Elizabeth Antunez is a personnelist with the 439th Airlift Control Flight and a member of the Air Force Reserve since 2010. She began her career at Westover with the 439th Operations Support Squadron before switching to the ALCF in January 2013. “I wanted to travel more”, SSgt. Antunez said. “The ALCF is able to travel twice a year for training.” Switching to the ALCF has enabled her to network more within the ALCF. “It was a growing opportunity,” she said. SSgt. Antunez, like many others, joined the Air Force for education benefits and graduated from the University of New Haven with a Bachelor’s Degree in U.S. National Security. “I have my bachelors and will be going back to school to pursue my masters in January”, she said.
Aside from reporting for drill periods throughout the summer, SrA Ladlee had the opportunity to visit the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and was able to hang out at the beach a few times. Airman Ladlee enlisted in the summer months of 2009 and has been with the 439th Airlift Wing Force Support Squadron since graduating from technical school. (by SSgt Kelly Goonan)
SrA. Kara Schulz, from Chicopee, Mass., is a 439th FSS fitness specialist, who is following in her mother’s footsteps. Enlisting right out of high school, SrA. Schulz said she thought the Air Force Reserve would be a good experience and a great opportunity to start a career. Her mom was her recruiter. “My mom joined the Air Force when she was 17 years old and just recently retired after 30 years. She had made it a great career and raised my brother and me. I felt like I wanted to do the same thing. SrA. Schulz has been at Westover for 4½ years and says it’s a great, friendly environment. “I’ve made a ton of friends and have been with these people for years now. I’ve deployed with them, I’ve grown very close with all of them,” she said. After returning from her recent deployment to Southwest Asia, SrA. Schulz decided she liked the warmer weather and headed south. She took a job with a business management company and is currently residing in Florida.
“In August 1986 I was faced with a choice,” said SMSgt. Joe Fournier. “Either go to college or join the military. I opted for the opportunity to travel and enlisted into the Air Force.” Shortly after his active-duty commitment was up, serving as a crew chief on the C-5 Galaxy at Dover Air Force Base, Del., he was called back. “I was heading home to Maine when they told me I’d been activated for Operation Desert Shield,” he said. “I remained active for Operation Desert Storm as well, deploying multiple times.” Soon after the conclusion of Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, SMSgt. Fournier decided to continue his Air Force career in the reserve and submitted his resume at Westover. At the time, the C-5 Galaxy was just arriving here, so his background as a crew chief on the C-5 made him a stand-out. He was selected for the position. Since that time, SMSgt. Fournier has flown about 5,000 hours in the C-5, which has involved him in nearly every contingency and humanitarian aid mission since 1992. From 2003 to 2007, he left the engineer section to work in the safety office where he garnered the nickname “Safety Joe.” “Being in the safety office opened my eyes to the ‘bigger picture,’ he said. “We get so focused on our own careers that we forget there is much more involved in making them a success.” Having the opportunity to work on an aircraft he loves, being part of a base he enjoys and being surrounded by people who inspire him is irreplaceable, he said. “A 20-plus year military career has given me a better understanding of how everybody fits into the puzzle,” he said. “We’re called Team Westover because we are exactly that -- a team.” -- SSgt. Kelly Goonan
“Aside from the diversity and camaraderie, the reserve gives me the opportunity to excel in my civilian career as well as my military career.”
“You get the best of both worlds being in the reserve! I’m a construction laborer in the Boston area, so I’m able to maintain my civilian career but also serve my country when they need me.”
“The best aspect of being in the reserve is that because I'm in EOD, I’m able to take the specialized training and apply it to a civilian career field. I’m a radiological controls technician in my civilian career, so the sharing of knowledge between that and my military career is very valuable.”
A1C Jason English, from Hillsborough, N.J., is an aircraft structural maintenance specialist with the 439th MXS. He’s fulfilling a life-long dream. Prior to joining the Air Force about a year ago, A1C English worked in a medical laboratory for over 14 years. A1C English’s best friend is a U.S. Marine who enlisted at around the same age as English. Seeing how his friend changed his life for the better after enlisting drove the Airman to finally make the change he had eagerly wanted to make. He’s finishing up his seasoning orders and is working at becoming an air reserve technician. A1C English recently moved into base housing near James Street, loves the area and hopes to continue working at Westover fulltime for years to come.
Fleeing the first Chechen War, then 15-yearold Sergey Grigoryan sought refuge in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his parents. “Back in the early ‘90s when the war was going on in Russia, it was a dangerous place to grow up, not to mention the school systems were very corrupt,” SrA. Grigoryan said. He didn’t know any English when he started high school in America. He was forced to learn on the spot. A few years later, at age 18, SrA. Grigoryan took and passed the tests to enlist in the armed forces. “My cousin told me to wait and see what I could become in the civilian world, so I did.” After six years of obtaining on-the-job training, working with not only Iron Chef Morimoto but also Iron Chef Bobby Flay in New York, he decided to obtain an education at the Art Institute in New York for pastry baking. “Even after all that, I still wanted to join the Air Force,” SrA. Grigoryan said. In May 2012, he signed a contract with the Air Force Reserve as an air transportation specialist, assigned to the 42nd APS. When asked what he liked the most about the military, he stated matter-of-factly that “he loves the camaraderie. “It takes a certain calibre of person to be in the military… not everyone in this world is willing to put their life on the line.” “My ultimate goal is to get as involved with the military as I can and be as effective and useful as possible.”
A crew chief with the 439 AMXS TSgt. Adam Jackson was a member of the U.S. Army for eight years before joining the Air Force four years ago. Originally from Hopewell Junction N.Y., TSgt. Jackson joined after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and now plans on making the military his lifetime job and retiring. (By SrA Charles Hutchinson)
Lt. Col. James Bishop
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