Chief's Corner #3 -- SrA Nathan Petit

all right team hey welcome back to uh Chief's Corner this is uh your Gunslinger chief chief Master Lance power excited to be here today with a special guest we have senior Nathan pedit who is currently a student in the 39th iOS uh debt one here at joint Bas San Antonio laan currently uh in in our uh iqt portion of his of his training pipeline you just wrapped up uh IST a few months back at kler Air Force Base excelled at that and then now you're in the midst of iqt to become a one Bravo 4 um to to advance in your training so excited to have you here today with with us uh honestly uh it was a few weeks ago uh I had I had an interesting exchange of emails with the the the bar Center command Chief so chief Master aren't Lackey uh it's a great story great story so he was here in town uh jbsa lacklin uh to attend an aetc conference and I think if I understood the story correctly he was he was brought to lacklin he was walking on base it was raining at the time and uh lo and behold an awesome Airman pulled up next to him in the rain and offered him a ride and that that's kind of where you came in if you could maybe highlight that that experience a little bit yeah sure so I I distinctly remember it was um it was a Sunday night probably like 8 or so p.m. and I was doing laundry on Bas cuz I just moved into a to a house and I didn't have like a washer and dryer so so I was uh coming back on base to to come pick up my laundry and I was just going through the gate and um it's very dark you know it's raining and I I see this this uh person walking with like a like a suitcase luggage I'm like well jez man it's like don't want all his stuff getting wet so um I kind of just pull it to the side put the uh emergencies on and say Hey you know would you like a ride and he kind of he's like a little hesitant for a second but he's like yeah sure you know he kind of goes for it so we're both like non in uniform I have I have no idea who this individual is like Hey sir you know um where can I take you and he's like oh yeah I just want to go to the um Gateway in I think is what it is like the checkin for the the hotel the Air Force ents and so we ride over there we're kind of talking a little bit we're discussing like oh yeah you know I just cross trained a one before and he talks about he's here for a conference I'm like oh so what's the conference about he's he says um you know the the new Air for is professional military education P that's what it stands for correct um and so I like oh yeah you know there was like an enlisted all call that I attended a few few weeks ago that talked about like you know the Airman 100 200 300 400 and it'll be like U one of the requirements for ALS is to attend uh one one of the I think it's Airman 200 mhm yeah foundations yeah and and he was like really surprised he was like what you know about this like what that I'm so I'm so surprised you you've heard you know um obviously it was pretty short ride so around that time I I pulled up to to drop him off and kind of wished him well and told him to have uh you know great rest of his day and um and we didn't exchange any names or anything so the only thing he had to go off of me was that I recently cross trained as 2011 bra4 and I recently PCS from offit so it was it was Tuesday the next week where uh my supervisor he texts me he says hey did you pick up a chief in the rain and I thought that was like like code for something you know I I didn't I was like I'm not sure what you mean he's like haha funny story you know there was this chief who's looking for this Airman that wants to be recogn he wants to recognize this Airman but he didn't catch his name and he said he came from offet and know you came from offet and they kind of put all the pieces together and somehow they they found me and um it was It was kind of it's kind of interesting because I got pulled into someone's office and they showed me all this email track of traffic of all these Chiefs looking for me and I was like gez this probably the only time in the Air Force for like a bunch of chiefs looking for an Airman is like a like a positive thing right um and then it all kind of kind of went from there you know um and then later down the line they said hey um you know Chief Powers would like to do an interview with you just to kind of talk about a few things I like yeah I'd love to you know that would be awesome awesome so hopefully I didn't go like too far oh yeah gosh you know so it was it was such a great experience uh you know you know very very surprisingly just got an email from Chief Lackey you know uh saying hey I I I had a great uh encounter and you know conversation with one of your Airmen don't know his name I think he's a one Bravo 4 and he was station at off it so I I had that uh to to kind of start the mystery and kind of you know figuring how how I can solve solve this but uh you know it was just so exciting to to kind of you know get the opportunity align for for not only him to come recognize you because in in that short conversation you uh kind of read back to him all of the Air Force's enlisted professional military education changes that Chief Lackey and his team the barn Center and area University have come up with so it was like music to his ears they just randomly get picked up in in the middle of the night in the rain and you know and a great Airman just just kind of telling them uh about the changes that he helped kind of Kickstart uh sometime back and then you're just super professional very very impressive to to him so it was important to him and and certainly all of us to make sure we recognize you and I believe the Barnes Center commander and our air University command Chief uh Chief Stephan Blazer um it was exciting to to be a small part of that but even more so I think in the process that was great for me is kind of hearing your story sure and a little bit more about who you are and kind of what led you down this path so if if you're willing to share maybe a little bit about your background who you are and kind of what what led you to become a a cyber warfare operator so uh home for me is uh Raleigh North Carolina just outside kind of the the carry area and um I graduated high school in 2017 um and and I didn't really know what to do so I so I went to Community College and was kind of figuring out and I was kind of thinking of like career paths and where to go um and I think the the thing that really kind of like set me down the the path of one Bravo 4 is it's so weird I distinctly remember it um it was in 8th grade they had like a like a career day where they were like putting on like different YouTube videos like nurse engineer you know uh scientist like all these different things and one of the videos they put on was these people in like a computer lab and and kind of the the hook was like these people are hacking the government but getting paid by the government you know and so the idea that like there were all these they know what it was at the time of penetration testers and like hackers and whatnot that like ethically got paid by the government to to do these things um you know cuz like growing up from a kid that point you only know of like the illegal side you don't even know that's like a like a possible like legal career um so that was kind of like the the seed that kind of got planted in my brain uh in middle school and then as I as I progressed through high school and you know just fell in love with computers even more I was kind of like well you know let's let's look at this as an option and so when I was thinking about en listing in the Air Force I um just went went on Wikipedia and like went down the list of all the afsc's and was trying to find you know cuz I figured in my mind you know 19-year-old me was like what branch of military is going to be the most like powerful in cyber well probably the Air Force because cyber isn't the Air Force's mission statement if I don't recall it's like control the space cyberspace and the air I think they might have taken the space Park even the space force now but um in 2019 that that's that's what I saw um and so I I went to a recruiter and we we started doing all the the Ms and ASVAB and whatnot and I was like hey you know I'm really interested in Ju Bravo 4 um but it seems like you know I'm hearing it might be retrain only but it was It was kind of murky cuz they were doing some pilot programs of sending onesie twozies and the recruiter was like no I'm sorry it's not an option well that that didn't deter me you know from from day one from day one I knew and it was actually um when I enlisted let me know if I'm getting to Too Deep no this is perfect yeah please yeah when I when I enlisted as a 9 S100 um I set a I set a calendar reminder for November 1st 2022 cuz that was my my day of retrain eligibility yeah um and so November 1st 2022 put in that package um and I loved I loved my job as an N 100 it was such an amazing career field and um I have nothing bad to say about it but I kind of feel like my my heart always wanted to be like a one Bravo 4 um so November 1st I applied I got notified uh I think the first or second week of December that I was in and then I was in class for uh Technical Training and January 20th of you know 3 yeah so here we are one day at a time wow now you know to hear that you were once you know Upon a Time sitting in a classroom thinking about what profession that that is is going to help you achieve you know your aspirations on how you want to serve and there there's a lot of great professions out there right right so many you know friends and family have served you know as as doctors or you know nurses or other other professions but you know I think you and I and all those who wear this uniform we're proud to be a part of the profession of arms but um your your passion to be a cyber warfare operator you know from from literally before day one uh drove you to a path that you know you excelled as a 9 S100 doing great things uh you know in that part of the Air Force a very important part of the Air Force but but literally a countdown until the day you could retrain to be a one Bravo 4 so it you know great news for the Air Force we now have direct ass Session One Bravo fors that's right we're growing that number each and every year um but you know I I Envision a future where you're probably going to uh connect with those you know very young Airmen and and and tell this story to them on you know how lucky they are they can come right in and they don't have to set a timer to remind them when when they're eligible to retrain for that uh but a and petett you know Nathan we're excited to have you on the team you know we we are a you know America's competition Force you know being a part of 16th Air Force uh but we're in the fight every day in competition and and knowing that you're going to be leading this fight as a cyber warfare operators is is very exciting and we can't wait to continue to follow your career so um thanks so much for you know being a great Airman and then being a great cyber warfare operator you know good luck to you in your training can't wait to find out uh where where you're headed next I think I heard you know maybe there was a chance you you you could have gone to Germany but yeah as a 9s but but but uh you know I'd be here thankfully uh we we we have you on the Cyber Mission Force team and you know we're excited to uh flight follow you through cyber and kind of see where you head next and uh I think I think the sky is a limit for you I hope so awesome well thanks for you know team thanks for tuning in this Chief's Corner thanks for joining uh Nathan and I we we're just excited about what we do in the 67 cyberspace Wing excited about Nathan and uh what we do uh for America's Air Force