True Blue: Always An Eagle

“I was an Eagle at Georgia Southern and now I’m an F-15 Eagle pilot,” said Will Martin (‘16), a management information graduate and a Madison, Georgia, native.

A typical day for Martin is simulating a combat engagement.

“We’ll fly about 150-200 miles out to our training airspace,” said Martin. “So our mission with the 123rd Fighter Squadron is defensive counter air. Essentially, what that means is we are guarding the coast. So our skill set is based on adversaries trying to get to a point that we’re defending. A typical fight will last anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes. There is a lot of us going supersonic, a lot of us at 50,000 feet, that sort of thing. Then we’ll knock off the fight and fly home. Typically we’ll debrief anywhere from an hour to three hours.”

Another day for Martin could be an alert day. 

“So we’ll go sit for a 24-, 48- or 72-hour alert. We’re available 24/7/365. On Christmas, or anytime, we have people sitting here, ready to go. From the time that we get the notification that there’s something going on, to the time that we have live, armed F-15s in the air, is no longer than 15 minutes. We do that a lot. I’ve got 72 hours coming up this weekend.”

Martin’s dream started in childhood.

“I’ve just always been interested in flying,” he said. “My dad is a Delta Airlines pilot, and before that he had been a Navy fighter pilot. So it was just something I had wanted to do since I was a kid. I got my first experience flying when I took lessons in college. Expensive but worth it!” 

Martin included the Air National Guard in his long-term planning.

“My plan was to get a business degree that was more on the technical side of things so that if flying didn’t work out, I still had something to fall back on,” he said. “But flying was always the goal.” 

Martin is stationed at the 123rd Fighter Squadron, a unit of the Oregon Air National Guard 142nd Fighter Wing located at Portland Air National Guard Base, Oregon. The 123rd is equipped with the McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle and Boeing F-15EX Eagle II jets, guarding the Washington coast from potential danger.

Martin credits Georgia Southern with helping him develop his social and leadership skills through his time at Delta Chi fraternity.

“I got some of my best friends through Delta Chi and we played a lot of intramural sports,” he said. “I joined the Inter-fraternity Council for two years, which gave me leadership experience. Best of all, I met my future wife, Tess, at a fraternity event.”

Tess, originally from north of Atlanta in Johns Creek, graduated in 2018 with a degree in child and family development.

In the Air National Guard you apply to individual units rather than just joining the military and then seeing what happens. So, for Martin, his goal was to develop life skills and then take those and apply them towards the Air National Guard after college. 

Although it is not a requirement, Martin got his private pilot license at the Statesboro Bulloch County airport while he was in college. Martin knew he had two years of intense flight training ahead of him if he got into the Air National Guard. But he could still fly friends around for a hobby if he didn’t make the cut. Alternatively, if he didn’t get hired by the Air National Guard, he could pursue his commercial pilot’s license.

“After I graduated I worked for an actuarial firm in my hometown,” said Martin. “That job was great because it allowed me to take time off frequently to apply to Air National Guard units” 

Applying to an Air National Guard unit is a lengthy process. You have to take numerous tests and then submit the package of scores to the individual Air National Guard units. Then they decide whether to interview you or not based on the information that you provide them. 

It can be a multi-year process. Each unit only hires a couple of people each year. So if you apply to one unit and if they don’t pick you, then that unit is basically not hiring anymore until the next year. 

Martin applied to three units. He interviewed for two and then got hired by one. 

“The unit that I got hired in had 300 applicants, and they only took three of us,” said Martin. “It was a pretty big deal to get in.”

“Then after what seemed like ages, I got to fly solo and soar over the mountains and coastline of Oregon and Washington State. That was a really incredible experience.”

Both Martin and Tess are True Blue Eagles through and through.

“Going to Georgia Southern gave me the skills to apply to be an F-15 Eagle pilot,” said Martin. And meeting my wife, Tess, a fellow Eagle, made everything complete.” –– Liz Walker