The Nest Podcast
The official podcast of the Jefferson R-VII School District.
The Nest Podcast
Air Force Ambitions and High School Excellence: Catryn Cattoor's Journey from Jefferson R-7 to ROTC and Beyond
Ever wondered how a well-rounded high school experience can set the stage for an ambitious military career? Join me, David Haug, as I chat with Catryn Cattoor, a 2021 Jefferson R-7 graduate, who recently embarked on a life-changing journey to Italy through her Air Force officer development training. Catryn shares her firsthand experience working with NATO, the balance of academic rigor at Washington University in St. Louis, and the invaluable lessons in time management and teamwork she gained from high school. Tune in for her insightful advice on navigating the ROTC program and the importance of language learning.
Discover the unique opportunities provided by the Air Force ROTC program, where traditional college life intertwines with military training. In our discussion, we delve into the diverse career paths available within the program, from piloting to financial management. Learn about the commitment required, including leadership labs and physical training, and how scholarships like "You Can Fly" can help cadets explore their interest in aviation. Get a detailed look at the support offered by ROTC cadre, ensuring that cadets are guided towards fulfilling and exciting career opportunities.
Finally, we celebrate the exceptional talent within our community by highlighting the remarkable achievements of our high school athletes. This heartfelt segment is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of our student-athletes, and an expression of gratitude for their contributions to our community. Don't miss this engaging episode filled with practical tips, inspiring stories, and a deep appreciation for our students' talents.
I'm David Haug, superintendent of Jefferson R-7 School District, and we're kicking off our fall podcast series, again Really honored to be joined by Catryn Cattoor, class of 2021. Catryn and I spoke this summer about different topics we could look at, so part of this will be talking about her and kind of her journey, but also more specifically, maybe students going looking at the ROTC route while they're in college. So we'll get to that first. But first thanks for joining us.
Catryn Cattoor:You just got back from Italy and yeah, all kinds of places on my first two times out of the country. But thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to get this going.
David Haug:How was the travels?
Catryn Cattoor:Oh, it was fantastic. Yeah, italy is definitely a very good place to start. First time out of the country, almost everybody speaks English, at least like in the really touristy areas, but it was nice to see some non-touristy areas too. We went down to Naples and actually just got to spend a day on the beach and meet a lot of the locals and some people that had never seen Americans before, so they thought we were awesome.
Catryn Cattoor:But yeah, no it was a really cool experience and the whole purpose of me being out in Italy was to learn more about NATO about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, so we had some really cool opportunities to meet some commanders down there and then also shadow a few people that are specifically in NATO career fields.
David Haug:So it wasn't just the vacation you got to see things, but it was actually over there to kind of help maybe look at furthering your career as well.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes, it was an Air Force officer development training opportunity, so I wasn't out there with family. I was out there with five other cadets and two cadre members Awesome.
David Haug:I will say this and if you've seen the prior podcast with Bradley, just in general out there, and then I had talking to Brendan Reese in the past and some of our other graduates who've gone to middle, it is amazing all the different places you get to kind of travel and see if you're really passionate about it.
Catryn Cattoor:Absolutely yeah. There's a ton of opportunities out there and it's hard to find them. Sometimes they take a little bit of work and you've got to put in your word early if you want something specific. But they're definitely out there and I really can't speak highly enough of the people that have helped me get some of the opportunities I've had while on ROTC.
David Haug:Seems like that's been a good path for you. We'll get to more of that in a minute. So when I look back at your high school career very, very well-rounded student, student-athlete you know, I know your mom and I have talked. We had kind of a funny conversation before we started about trying to make sure I didn't call you Amy.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, and I had to make sure I called you Dr. Haug. Mr. Haug, I said don't worry about that, Mr. I called you Dr. Haug.
David Haug:I said don't worry about that, Mr. Haug's fine. Like I told you to Jefferson, I'll always be Mr. Haug. It's okay, I don't worry about that stuff, but I just remember what a really strong student you were. You really had an outstanding ACT score. Did you do much in the way of ACT prep outside of what we did for you at Jefferson?
Catryn Cattoor:did you do anything extra and beyond that? Um a little bit, but it was mostly based on the preparation that I had in class here um Ms. Schockner especially guided the way in that regard.
David Haug:yeah, we had some. We had some really great momentum early to get our whole staff trained. I don't want something we're kind of looking to make sure as our staff's turned over a little bit. That'll be a focus for us next year, but we do embed that here. So do you think academically that you know you're at Washington University now in St Louis very challenging academic school Do you think the Jefferson experience helped you? And I'm going to ask you to follow up a question what could we have done better?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the biggest opportunities that I had at Jefferson was not only academically but to be able to play sports and play a lot of sports while I was here. I feel like sometimes when I'm at WashU I'm like man, like you've never played a team sport, have you? Like when I'm in groups and stuff like that. So I feel like being at a smaller school and having the opportunity to really touch a lot of different areas rather than just being focused on academics. I feel like that's what really prepared me.
Catryn Cattoor:Time management, like being able to work with teams, communication-wise. I think that's what really prepared me to go into college, because there's nothing that I feel like can really prepare you academically. I mean, maybe initially it really helped Shout out to Ms Schockner again it really helped that her Calc 1 class actually covered a little bit of Calc 2. But I mean otherwise, like there's not much that you can do academically. I feel like to prepare because it's completely different, but there's a lot that you can do as far as like the skill building before you before you get out in the real world.
David Haug:That's a great answer. Anything we could have done better and maybe the way I'll, maybe another way to phrase that is is that is there anything you look back? If you could go back and tell your eighth grade self, hey, take, make sure you take advantage of this in high school. Talk to the language stuff.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, I would say I would say the language stuff and this is something I only realized in maybe like the past month or two, now that I've been to Italy and I've been to Costa Rica too Like I really wish that I spoke a second language and had taken that more seriously when I was in high school, I think. I think a lot of people would say that at least a lot of people that I know in college would say that. But yeah, that's a big one. And then if I had to go back and tell my eighth grade self anything, I would definitely say, as far as, like, careers go, like you don't have to know what you want to be, from the time that you're five, I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was in eighth grade.
David Haug:I do remember that.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah. So I was like dead set on it and I had kind of like a mid-high school crisis and I thought it was the end of the world. I distinctly remember it being the end of the world and I found myself sitting in like a military recruiting office and I was like what am I doing here? I felt unprepared because I hadn't wanted to do it for my entire life. So I feel like if I could go back to my eighth grade self, I would definitely say hey, there's so many career fields out there. Don't limit yourself to your childhood aspirations necessarily. It's great to have those, but they aren't necessarily the guideposts by which you need to live the rest of your life.
Catryn Cattoor:So that's 100% what I would tell myself.
David Haug:Some of the advice we try to give and it's hard to give it because things happen so fast in people. But when we deal with students that are having a tough time or something, we do bring up the career path thing and one of the things we say is do you have a career field you're interested in? And often they say no. We all take it the other way, like is there things that you don't want to do? Like you know you would not want to do that. Then you can start kind of looking at what you're interested in. I think it's great advice because I think if you look at the days of coming out of high school, coming out of college and having that one place, that one career, I mean you look at the mobility that's available, people working from home it's such a changing environment and I'm really glad you shared that. That's not something we discussed. That was a wonderful answer. If you want to go back and listen to that again, I would recommend you do that.
Catryn Cattoor:Thank, you Dr.
David Haug:Young you actually really had a really okay so academically outstanding had a really okay so academically outstanding Athletically. We knew you from a youngster. You were just so passionate about softball but at the end of the day you were also involved in basketball. You were also involved in track place at the state meet in the discus Just a well-rounded individual. I did want to pick your brain a little bit because this is something that I could relate to and that is like you're so passionate about a sport as a youngster and it's something like I want to do this. In college I did, I knew young, I wanted to do it, but ultimately did this softball. How much did the softball opportunity really create opportunities for you? I guess, is what I'm trying to get at.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes, absolutely Playing select softball.
Catryn Cattoor:It really got me out of R7, I should say, not that R7 isn't a lovely place, but I would say that on September 1st, when recruiting really opened up for softball and I started to receive some calls from some coaches from some schools that I had never considered before, I never thought that I had what it took to play or to be academically successful at these schools. Softball really led me to the idea like hey, like I can use my sport to get into a really really good school, and that that's exactly what I did with it. There was the childhood dream, of course, of going D1, but that's not ended up. What happened? Because of some guidance that I got while playing softball from my coaches and from some people that I talked to at various schools. So I would 100% say that without softball I wouldn't have ended up where I am. It's absolutely a wonderful tool for meeting new people and really putting yourself out there and exposing yourself to people who can help guide you in a direction that could really make a really big difference in your life.
David Haug:What a great approach. And again, I would really listen to that as well.
David Haug:I think even in life sometimes you're just charging along for a dream or a goal and you begin to realize, well, maybe I'm maybe I'm a better fit there and I might enjoy that more, and I think that's a really great summary and analysis of it and I would encourage every student and I'm just going to share this real quick about my experience. You know, I went to play college football and I just love football. Right About a year in, and you're starting to listen to people around you some of your teammates and other things you begin to realize that the college sport is almost a business at that point. And then you're actually there as a job, for a job, and at some point you're kind of making that decision like is this worth it? And for me it was just because you know I walked out of college with no debt, which is a big deal for me, absolutely. So I understand there became a shift in my mind to how good can I be at football, to I'm going to do this, but there's also opening some doors for me.
David Haug:And I think that I'm really glad we had that conversation this morning. So one of those doors that opened for you was being introduced and taking advantage specifically of the Air Force ROTC. We want to stress that and I will also say, if there's anything that I'm asking that you can't answer, it's okay, like I don't want to put you in a bad spot with this, because I know there's some confidentiality in some of these programs you're a part of and everything, um. But before I ask anything about specific, you're busy. You are at Wash U, which is a challenging school academically, um, you are playing, uh, softball on the softball team and you're doing ROTC. I'm going to just ask a simple question why, what are you doing? I'm just kidding. Oh, I know I question every day.
Catryn Cattoor:No, I get this question all the time, I mean even from my own teammates and from people in ROTC, just because of being dual hat the way that I am right now, and honestly, I feel like it wouldn't make sense for me without all three, without academics, without ROTC and without softball.
Catryn Cattoor:And, like you know, I can go into this crazy spiel about like balance and like wellbeing and like all of these things, but I would just say that when one of them really really sucks, like when softball is horrible, I can focus on ROTC. Or when ROTC is like really, really a grind, and I feel like I'm I have, you know, have a lot of early Saturdays, a lot of early Wednesdays, um, I can just focus a little bit more on school and really it's like a constant circle of running away from one of them, um, but no, it's. It makes a lot of sense for me and it's not for everyone, of course, but you make time for the things that you care about and I really do not regret all the time that I've spent playing softball, doing RTC and then, of course, pursuing my degree.
David Haug:Yeah, it's impressive how busy you are. And a fun fact during the Olympic season, Francis Field hosted the 1904.
Catryn Cattoor:Olympic Games. They're very proud.
David Haug:I'll throw that out there. That's on the campus of WashU. What drew you towards the Air Force ROTC program at WashU?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, absolutely Like I said, I had a little bit of a mid-high school crisis and I ended up in a recruiting office and I would just say I didn't necessarily have a military family or a lot of friends in the Air Force. I didn't want to be a pilot. Since I was five years old, I just kind of had a draw to the idea of joining the military and ROTC really gave me the perfect opportunity to pursue that draw. I was able to go to the college of my choice, still pursue a degree that I was interested in, I was still able to play softball and ultimately, being in ROTC, as opposed to being somewhere else, gave me the opportunity to really experiment around and see what I wanted to do with this feeling. You know, rotc was really the perfect opportunity for me and it's treated me really well ever since.
David Haug:So I guess, in summary, you're not committing to a full military career out of high school.
Catryn Cattoor:No.
David Haug:You're able to get the college experience.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes.
David Haug:And kind of look and see. Is this a path I think that's really the summary of our podcast today as far as related to the ROTC program is just making our kids aware of it? Absolutely and there's many more questions I have here I will say you've been flying.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes, yeah, in the past.
David Haug:So kind of walk me through. You had mentioned something about trying to get a slot and logging some hours towards that. You've been actually flying and I think that's awesome, tell us about it yes.
Catryn Cattoor:So when I was a freshman in the program, I actually wanted to go in as a developmental engineer. I was like, oh, like I don't know much about piloting, like I'm just, I'm going to go in as an engineer because that's my, that's my major mechanical engineering major. But I got a scholarship it was called the you can fly scholarship in October and it was basically I can't remember what the amount was, but so much money to go out specifically just to get some flight hours, okay, just to see if I was interested. And I loved it. It was. It was really awesome and for some reason, the idea of just going out and being able to fly for a little bit before I committed to something, um yeah, it's, it adds to the charm.
Catryn Cattoor:Oh yeah, it's a very special touch. It reminds me of being in middle school. But, yeah, the idea of being able to fly a little bit before you know I got to my grueling engineering desk job was really exciting to me. So I continued to fly and the idea of that scholarship is not only build interest but say you're already interested. It gives people the opportunity to build hours, because when we apply for pilot slots, a second semester, junior year one of the components that goes in to our ranking is how many hours we have okay yeah, so right now it goes up to, I think, 49 hours.
Catryn Cattoor:like between 49 and 60 hours is the maximum points for that category. Yeah, so really being able to build hours early in ROTC can actually help you get the career that affects, you know, the entire rest of your experience in the Air Force.
David Haug:So did the scholarship find you or did you find a scholarship?
Catryn Cattoor:The scholarship definitely found me Okay. That's the wonderful thing about ROTC is we have absolutely wonderful cadre active duty officers and non-commissioned officers that help us find opportunities that they think would be advantageous to our development, and it was definitely something like hey Couture, I put you up for this. I think it'd be a really cool opportunity.
David Haug:So nothing on my end. You gave me some guidance here. So what exactly is the Air Force ROTC?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, absolutely. Air Force ROTC or AFROTC is the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. Rotc is one of the three officer commissioning sources that the Air Force and the Space Force use to commission second lieutenants. And the Air Force ROTC mission is to develop air and space force leaders of character whom we expect to fight and win our nation's wars, which is something I had to memorize when I was a little, first year.
David Haug:I do think it's kind of interesting. We take things for granted today, but at one point there was no Air Force. I mean, the planes were either embedded into the Army or the Navy and then eventually there became an Air Force branch of our military. So how is the ROTC structured?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah. So contrary to popular belief a lot of people ask me this ROTC cadets don't necessarily train at all at the Air Force Academy. It's almost an entirely separate program, but there are a lot of similarities. Both programs allow cadets to complete officer training in coordination with the completion of their undergraduate degree. So both programs produce commissioned second lieutenants that are ready to move off to their first training base. But ROTC differs in the fact that cadets and ROTC can go to one of the 1100 universities that are affiliated with the program.
David Haug:They don't have to just go to the academy, okay yeah, I know, in speaking with not only students at Jefferson when they were looking at different things, that sometimes at ROTC. In fact, one of my good friends in high school.
David Haug:we went to the same college. Starting out he was in the ROTC program there as well. That was the Army, not the Air Force, and I remember I was playing football so we didn't always see each other a lot. He was out the door early doing ROTC stuff in the mornings and then mine extended more in the evenings with the football. So what are the time commitments?
Catryn Cattoor:to the.
David Haug:ROTC program specifically to the Air Force.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, it's a big commitment. All training is completed through respective host detachments. So there's currently 145 specific detachments and they have cross-town agreements with other universities. So although all of my college classes, my advisors, my meal plan, my softball team anything affiliated with a typical college experience that happens at Wash U for me, all of my ROTC training takes place at SLU, at my detachment DET 207. And there's three main commitments. There's aerospace studies.
David Haug:Party bell.
Catryn Cattoor:Yep Aerospace studies class or AS class.
Catryn Cattoor:There there's leadership lab, which we call a lab very affectionately, and then physical training, pt, and the first two years of rtc are known as the general military course or the gmc years.
Catryn Cattoor:Um, at this time cadets are required to attend one hour of class, two hours of lab and then at least two hours of physical training each week.
Catryn Cattoor:And then, upon completion of the GMC course, cadets are required to then compete for entry into the professional officer course, which is what I'm in right now, and this is typically the last two years of the program. There's several factors that kind of go into competing for this, and this is where the commitment part comes in, because you have to keep your GPA up, you have to get certain aptitude testing scores, which I can talk about a little bit later, and then fitness test scores and then finally, commander's ranking racking and stacking against your peers but those are used for selection to eventually enter the POC course, the professional officer course, and then to attend field training between your sophomore and your junior year. This is like a two-week, a little bit more training down in Maxwell Air Force Base, and you're required to attend this sort of leadership camp before you become a trainer within the program and then, once you are a trainer, once you are a POC cadet, you're still required to attend the two hours of L-Lab because you'll be running it.
David Haug:Two hours of physical training each week but the classroom commitment increases to three hours per week. That was a lot to take in, but it does sound like. When you talk about did the scholarship find you? And the leadership, it sounds like they do a good job of kind of building, sustaining their own.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes for sure, rotc is almost entirely cadet ran. We have cadre supervision, of course, and the cadre are really the backbone of the entire operation. But ROTC is a really good place to build those tangible, like hands on leadership skills, not just as an underclassman being trained but as an upperclassman that I am now that's actually planning and executing and like just finding all the resources to actually train. Our leadership labs are really, I would say, the bread and butter of what people like think of when they think about ROTC and those are entirely ran by the POC Cadet Corps. So they really create this cycle where we not only get leadership experience in the stuff that people think about in the whole. You know marching around campus, you know certain procedures that we learn. Just teaching those skills can also be really valuable as far as developing yourself as a leader.
David Haug:I'm listening to you and I think about the title ROTC. Sometimes you say it quickly, but it's Reserved. Officer Training.
Catryn Cattoor:Corps yes.
David Haug:That's what you're doing.
Catryn Cattoor:Absolutely.
David Haug:It's really fascinating to hear this. I'm going to ask this question. Maybe it will make sense. So you have two hours of PT and you're also playing a college sport. Do you ever get to allow one workout to cover for the other, or do you have to do both?
Catryn Cattoor:Fantastic question. It was my question when I actually signed all of my paperwork, Because I don't go to PT as an athlete.
David Haug:I do not have to go to PT. Well, that's neat.
Catryn Cattoor:Which is really huge it is huge. Yeah, I have lift at the exact same time as PT, because PT is normally like 6.15, 6.30 in the morning and lift is at 6. So if I had to go to both, it would be quite the crisis.
David Haug:Do you do it in the same area or are they two different places?
Catryn Cattoor:Lyft. I do at WashU with the softball team, and then PT. We have PT at both SLU and SIUE, one of our crosstown universities.
David Haug:Really.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, about half of our detachment is actually coming from SIUE, so because there's so many of them, they don't want them to have to drive the 30 minutes to SLU. You know every single Tuesday Friday. So Tuesday Friday is at SIUE and then I think Monday Thursday is at SLU, so people can attend any two of those.
David Haug:I don't know if I can ask this question, but where do you get to when you were flying? Because it seems like, as a kid, there was some sort of detachment at Lambert Airport and that may have been just the Missouri Reserve. Where do you get to fly? What airports are you going to fly out of?
Catryn Cattoor:That's the great thing about a lot of the ROTC flight scholarships is you can pick where you want to fly out of. So I chose to fly out of downtown airport in Cahokia. Yeah, yeah, so that's normally where I flew out of, but yeah, there have been other cadets who've flown out of Spirit of St Louis and other local places Gotcha.
David Haug:Cool this. I'm learning a lot here. So what opportunities are available to ROTC cadets? Well, we actually spoke about one of them earlier you got to travel Italy and get a taste of that. So go ahead.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, countless opportunities really. I'm going to start with money and then I'm going to move into kind of some of the cooler stuff, but basically, even as a student interested in ROTC, as a high schooler high schoolers are eligible to apply for the high school scholarship program. There's the Air Force part of it and now there's a Space Force part of it. They didn't have this back when I was in high school.
Catryn Cattoor:Just so long ago, Katie I know I, just so long ago, kj. I know, I know Well, rotc is always changing. I'm just kidding. This podcast might even not be relevant any year.
David Haug:But the point is, is explore.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes.
David Haug:Keep your options open and explore.
Catryn Cattoor:Absolutely yeah, because I mean there's always new stuff opening up. But yeah, the high school scholarship program, I encourage people to kind of start thinking about this in the first semester of their senior year. But I encourage people to kind of start thinking about this in the first semester of their senior year. But four-year scholarships they're referred to as Type 1 scholarships. They're really very generous full tuition and fees and then they also include an annual book stipend and a monthly living stipend. There's also, out of high school, the Junior ROTC Scholarship, known as the J-100. And this is very similar to the Air Force Type I, except the book stipend can actually be converted into a housing room and board scholarship as well. So those are kind of the high school options. And then once cadets are in ROTC say, you know, they didn't even know about the high school option or they competed and didn't get one.
Catryn Cattoor:There's also in-college scholarships. These are Type I and type two. The type two are very similar to the type one in that they also have the annual book stipend and the monthly living stipend, but they cover $18,000 in tuition rather than the full tuition. And then, lastly, there's the General Charles McGee Leadership Award, and this is a new one. This is actually a really cool one, but it's an in-college scholarship awarded to all contracting cadets who are not already on scholarship, and the reason I had to read that like word for word was because of how cool it is. It's basically Anybody that isn't already on scholarship after they complete field training, because normally you would contract, you would officially sign all of your military paperwork after you complete field training. Anybody that isn't already on scholarship is going to be automatically put on scholarship and this program wasn't in place until I think it was one or two years ago, but it's really cool and it can also be converted into a housing scholarship like the J-100. But a really cool opportunity and there's also other incentives, like I talked about converting into a housing scholarship like the J-100, but a really cool opportunity. And there's also other incentives, like I talked about converting into a housing stipend that can be kind of worked through the host attachment.
Catryn Cattoor:But yeah, besides actual ROTC affiliated scholarships, there's other organizations that offer ROTC scholarships, including the Order of the Dallians and then also Arnold Air Society. But yeah, whatever scholarships you apply for, there's a lot of different eligibility requirements and that's what kind of draws people away. But if you start researching early and you reach out for help like I'm always available for help, they're out there, they just take a bit of work to apply and then, beyond scholarships, there's actually tuition waivers too. So some states, like Illinois, they offer tuition waivers to cadets in Air Force ROTC, meaning that the state itself is willing to waive tuition costs for resident Air Force ROTC cadets that are enrolled in their public institutions. So basically, like our cadets at SIUE, if they live in Illinois, attend SIUE and then cross town to our detachment, they're eligible for the Illinois state tuition waiver. And even though, unfortunately, missouri doesn't offer these at the time, if you know any Jefferson R7ers who find themselves in a weird situation where they suddenly live in Illinois, like yeah, that option's always out there.
David Haug:We'll have them, we'll send them to Mr Schaefer and let them kind of low down. Really.
Catryn Cattoor:But, yeah, the opportunity to pay for college is out there, like between scholarships and tuition waivers. But honestly, when talking about opportunities, I think what the Air Force does best is the officer development trainings that I kind of mentioned earlier.
David Haug:Yeah, that's impressive.
Catryn Cattoor:Or the ODTs odts because seriously like they're outside of the classroom events and programs and they're meant to motivate, inspire the gmc, the younger cadets, but they're meant to further develop and really enhance the leadership skills of poc. And what I found it really is like the light at the end of the tunnel, because rtc is a lot different than the real Air Force.
Catryn Cattoor:So, it's really encouraging to go out to an ODT and see people actually doing the job. But yeah, the catalog comes out normally in January of each year and there's all kinds of stuff. This actually is an opportunity where cadets can go out to the Academy. The Academy has a free-falling parachuting course. They have a survival training course. They have gliders, fundamentals. They got all kinds of stuff out there, even some Space Force stuff.
David Haug:We were out there a couple years ago on vacation and I never got to see Brendan do this out there, but we happened to be there the day they were doing the glider thing.
Catryn Cattoor:Really, oh, it's so cool.
David Haug:It's so neat to pull over the highway and just watch it, and anybody can pull up and watch it, and it's so pretty there with the mountains and they and they just let the gliders come down.
Catryn Cattoor:That's awesome. I'm sorry to distract you. Oh no, we sat there for probably like 30 minutes just watching that, it was so relaxing.
David Haug:Oh yeah, anyway it's so cool.
Catryn Cattoor:Um, there's other opportunities. Like you can shadow operational units pretty much anywhere in the country through a program called Ops Air Force. They've made a lot of opportunities available after field training. So one of my friends went straight to Vandenberg Space Force Base right after field training Super cool ODTs. They can also help cadets secure internships. So I know people who have had internships at Boeing, the Air Force Research Lab, global Strike Command, the 45th Launch Control Group and even the Pentagon. I had a friend who just got back from the Pentagon. And then, lastly, one of the cooler ODTs that I know of is Project Go. I have a friend right now in Oman. He comes back in, I think, eight days, and then a friend in Indonesia and they're learning Arabic in Indonesia or Indonesian in those countries for the ODT. So truly, the opportunities are endless.
Catryn Cattoor:I would never have had the chance to do some of these things if it weren't for the Air Force Like we kind of talked about. I went out to Italy my first time out of the country. I've had numerous incentive flights. I've flown the C-130 very recently, the A-27 last year and then, while I was on my ODT that eventually took me to Italy. I got to go down to Texas and fly the T-38, which is so awesome, yeah. And then two summers ago probably the coolest ODT I've had I did do the Air Force Academy free-for-all program and I got five solo jumps out of an airplane. Oh my gosh, yeah.
David Haug:So that's all you.
Catryn Cattoor:Cannot speak enough. Like really, the Air Force has some really awesome opportunities and they all come out in that little catalog at the beginning of the semester. And, honestly, someone asked me the other day, like, oh, like well, how did you end up in Italy, like you know? Did you have to do something crazy to qualify for this? Not really I. Basically I said I'm interested in this major favor and she said, okay, send me back a one page memorandum on why you'd like to go. So the opportunities are out there. It's just. It's just really like making those connections, talking to people and letting them know what you're interested in.
David Haug:It's funny because we think about, we know Catron and the softball, but the softball thing has opened up this opportunity for you. Definitely it's really been worthwhile. Before I get to the next question here, you mentioned Vandenberg. I love reading about military and space stuff that they actually tried to. There's actually a picture of a space shuttle sitting at years ago at they were trying to use that as a military weapon.
Catryn Cattoor:Oh really.
David Haug:Or use. It never actually happened and they contracted through to get them up, but they were worried about launching from Vandenberg because it would put it over civilian, over the continental and not over the ocean. If you're really bored out there, I've got that book for you Anyway. So I'm going to ask this kind of twofold question when do you? What kind of jobs are available to cadets? And then, how do you see this playing out as you sit here today for you?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, absolutely. There's a full, complete list of jobs. It's called the Air Force Officer Classification Directory and this is a 250 page resource that people have there and I don't say that to like scare people, but I do say that to put it out there. Like not everybody in the Air Force is pilots Very common misconception. But basically, if it exists in the civilian world, there's a chance that the Air Force probably has some kind of equivalent. Like, yeah, you can be a financial management officer, a weather officer, a nurse, a chemist, you can even be a civil engineer, like you don't even have to be like an aerospace engineer. But the cool thing about the Air Force and what people normally ask about is the jobs that don't exist in the civilian world, or at least the jobs that aren't readily available to cadets like when or I should say, students fresh out of college, so as an ROTC cadet.
Catryn Cattoor:Fighter pilot, yeah, fighter pilot literally, those aren't in the civilian world, yeah but I applied for a bunch of rated jobs and pilots one of them combat systems officer, is another one air battle managers and then remotely piloted aircraft pilots.
David Haug:Air battle manager.
Catryn Cattoor:Air battle manager. Yeah, An air battle manager is basically like the coordinator of the sky. So if you see a big plane with a radar dish on it, there's probably a guy in there coordinating refueling is a very common task that they've got. And then remotely piloted aircraft pilot they're the ones flying our unmanned vehicles. And then combat systems officers they're the back seaters, the ones that are controlling your electronic warfare assets and then also your weapon systems.
David Haug:I forget where I was at, but I was. I'm pretty sure I was somewhere in Missouri, but I just by chance saw one of the stealth bombers flying over and it was being refueled.
Catryn Cattoor:That's awesome. It was pretty cool. That's a very cool sight yeah.
David Haug:And it wasn't like I was there to see it, it was just happening. It was pretty cool. So who's eligible? How can you join?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, absolutely so. Basically, once you've been accepted at a full-time undergraduate university that hosts ROTC or one of the crosstown schools like WashU, for example, joining ROTC is really as simple as reaching out. So, just like with reaching out for opportunities like ODT opportunities, just reaching out to that host attachment, making those connections, odt opportunities, just reaching out to that host detachment, making those connections, and that connection should really take place in the spring summer, before your first year of college. Unless you're applying for the high school scholarship, then that would probably happen a semester earlier. And then there are opportunities even after you've started college to join ROTC, but that's very detachment specific. So, once again, just reaching out to your local detachment, yeah.
Catryn Cattoor:And then, as far as eligibility goes, I'd say one of the biggest barring factors to people trying to join ROTC is the medical review process. So if you don't remember anything else from this and you're interested in joining ROTC, please, please, please, start the medical review process as soon as possible. You have to be medically cleared by the DOD medical examination review board before you can attend field training. So for those of us that were listening, field training is between, like sophomore, junior year typically. So you might think like, oh, like I have two years before I have to qualify to do this. But some disqualifiers are waivable and some are not, unfortunately. So it's really important to start the process as soon as possible. So either A you have time to pursue waivers and get those waivers before field training, because with a system that's dealing with thousands of people trying to go to field training in one summer, it can get really backed up and can take some serious time, and I've seen people get delayed from going out there because they were working yeah, because they were working on a waiver. And then, b, so that you know, if your disqualification is not waivable, that you can discontinue the program, because as much as we want to bring in as many interested people as possible, there's just some things that aren't waivable and it's unfortunate and you don't want to have to waste any more of their time than you have to make sense.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah. And then, as far as other requirements go, there's gpa minimums, so it's 2.5 for folks on scholarship and then folks applying for scholarships and then um 2.0 for non-scholarship. Then there's fitness scores, um. So I don't know how much we touched on on physical training, but typically takes place in the morning. Um consists of body weight exercises um, and athletic competitions, knockout, ultimate Frisbee, my favorites Um, but it's largely cadet, ran um and it's encouraging preparation for the physical fitness assessment.
David Haug:This is a just like running not just running.
Catryn Cattoor:Um, yeah, it's a minute of pushups, minute of sit-ups and a mile and a half run.
David Haug:I mean on the physical PT, are you running Like, do you have to go run a mile or two or three?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, a mile and a half, okay, yep, so there's specific scores that you have to meet and, of course, like, just going to PT is not going to prepare you for that, it's just meant to encourage it. But, yeah, that's one of the minimums that people have to maintain in order to stay in. And then I also mentioned the standardized testing that we do, the Air Force officer qualifying test. It's basically like an ACT, to be honest. I think you'd mentioned the ACT earlier, but it's like an ACT with planes at the very end and then some various critical thinking things, but there are certain categories that you have to meet a minimum before you can apply for field training. Yeah, those are the main eligibility requirements.
David Haug:Final question to ROTC why join?
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, this question comes up all the time, like talking about like, why? Like, why are you here? Why do you want to join this program? Why do you want to go into the Air Force? And, like I talked about, like when I was in high school, like I really didn't know this was my path, it was. It was really just like a draw to maybe giving it a try. So that's where ROTC comes in and, like I talked about, it was just the perfect opportunity for me.
Catryn Cattoor:And it's not for everyone, absolutely, and it's not even available to everyone, unfortunately, but joining the military isn't new for everyone. But I at least hope that I've given some information regarding ROTC, kind of you know, swelled or quelled some disbelief that someone can go and join this program just on a whim, kind of like I did, because truly, the leadership and the time management and the communication skills, especially that I've developed in this program, they're truly priceless. That's awesome, yeah, and the people that I spend every day with are my lifelong friends. So I can't speak highly enough of this program and please, please, please, like, if you're interested in all, just give it a try. Like, you're not locked in your first year, even if you're on scholarship. You're not locked in your first year and chances are you won't be locked in your second year either. So who knows?
David Haug:Give it a try. Yeah, that's really great advice there.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, maybe you'll find a reason to stay like I did.
David Haug:Yeah, before we close back out, we're going to go to two more Katrin R7 questions. So your mom recently showed me a video of you guys down in Costa Rica and you guys are out kind of on a beach. I actually didn't see you in the video. It was actually Peyton and there was this monkey.
Catryn Cattoor:Yeah, I didn't let the monkeys climb on me.
David Haug:That's why I wasn't in the video. Thank, you yeah it's an oldest child thing. We know better than let those little things. Yeah, they're cute as can be for sharp crawl right up her dress and she fed it.
Catryn Cattoor:I'm like, oh no yeah, that was one of her favorite parts um and I fed them, I fed them. I have a picture of it, like, taking it from my, from my hand, but like you best believe, like I was like.
David Haug:And you're doing what I would do. I would call it an it, yeah, and not. You know, a monkey, or he or she or whatever, I don't know, but thank you for not letting the monkey run up and down. Okay, I'm going to go back to your softball days here.
Catryn Cattoor:Yes, I want One to two, you can go three kind of your favorite memories associated specifically with Jefferson softball. I would say my favorite memory from Jefferson softball was the time that Brittany Biddick brought her horse to practice.
David Haug:Didn't see that coming 100%. I actually saw Brittany the other day.
Catryn Cattoor:That was so easy, that was such an easy answer. Okay, all Brittany, that was so easy, that was such an easy answer. Okay, um, when we went to regionals my senior year and we beat Pius gotcha is probably like the actual softball related answer that was. That was awesome. And I remember when um Megan struck out the last girl, it was like swinging like high, like no, nowhere even near the zone and Megan just kind of stood there and she was like shocked like that. That was the coolest thing was going to regionals and just being pious like we didn't even win. But the fact that we beat pious like that was like probably like the highlight of my entire career here.
David Haug:I will say this and I'm going to close out with this, as far as your softball stuff, years ago when I first started in this business, I was at St Dominic and there was a young lady in there I think her name was Jenny Schellert and she was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Missouri and our practice football field was kind of here and the softball field was kind of here and it was a little bit of a hillside. It seemed like when they had a game it seemed like every 25, 30 minutes I would just hear just a crack and that ball would just go sailing. I mean she just could smash it and I have only heard that sound twice and you were the other one. You could just absolutely smoke it. So it was a joy to watch you play. You're a great person. We were so fortunate to have you at our high school. Good luck in all your endeavors and thanks for joining us today. You know there's some great points that you want to listen to, not just about the ROTC program, but kind of her.