VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – When 2nd Lt. Matthew Osgood graduated from Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training last Friday with Class 07-04, he found himself a comfortable member of a class of just 20 graduates. That class size is nearly as large as his high school class of 22 students.
The 2005 Air Force Academy graduate from Easton found himself amidst a class of 1,290 upon entering the academy – a size slightly larger than Easton’s population of 1,249 – but has quickly established himself in an elite group of pilots.
“I was as well-equipped as any of my fellow students for the challenges we faced at the Academy,” Osgood said. “We had a diverse curriculum at Easton High that kept us busy focusing on the big picture and that certainly was a benefit to me.”
It is the students’ willingness to participate in a variety of activities offered that makes success possible for a small school system, according to Frank Keenan, superintendent of schools for the Easton School Department.
“When there’s a small student population it takes everyone’s involvement in order for individual programs to work,” Keenan said. “Matt is a perfect example of that. He played on all the sports teams, was with the band, chorus and jazz choir, as well as being on the student council and member of the National Honor Society. His success with the Air Force speaks well of our school department.”
And Lt. Osgood is not the only Easton High alumnus to further his education. School department statistics show an average of 95 percent of all graduates continued their education in recent years. One of those would be another Osgood – brother Michael, currently a junior at the Air Force Academy. His younger sister, Michelle, now earning top honors as a senior at Easton High, has been accepted into the pre-med program at the University of Maine.
Lt. Osgood said he has dreamed of being a pilot as long as he can remember. The desire was fueled when his father took him and his brother to air shows at Brunswick Naval Air Station and across the border in Halifax, N.S. One of the rewards for exposing his son to those air shows came Friday, when Tom and Ann Osgood got the opportunity to pin silver pilot wings on their son’s uniform. That moment was a joint service effort too. Tom is a 1978 graduate of West Point.
“It’s gratifying,” Tom said. “He’s worked hard and done well and been rewarded for it.”
Matt Osgood will report to his first operational assignment as a C-17 pilot at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. The aircraft and base of assignment were his first choices and the result of his class standing.
“He was one of our top students,” said his flight commander, Capt. Zach Brady, 32nd Flying Training Squadron, M Flight. “He is a solid, well-rounded individual who did real well in training.”
In fact, Matt Osgood finished in the top-three in his class, no small feat in the rigorous, 55-week training.
According to Col. Richard Klumpp, Jr., 71st Flying Training Wing Commander at Vance, training consists of several hundred hours of academics and two weeks in simulators before students are moved into the T-6, which is the initial training aircraft. Once training is completed, students track into the T-38 aircraft, which are the fighter planes or the T-1, which are for tankers and transport.
Because Matt Osgood finished so well in his training, he had a choice between the two aircraft, but finishing strong alone doesn’t assuage the fears of most parents.
“Flying is an unnatural act,” Tom Osgood said. “I’ve talked to enough people at the Academy who have flown to know that you want to be a good stick and rudder person. You can be smart at academics and you can be a good flyer but there’s very few who do both … They assured me that Matt is a stick and rudder man.”
Matt also had his choice of stations because of his good standing, and after a bit of research chose Charleston over Hawaii.
“His brother thought he was crazy,” Tom Osgood laughed, “but Matt did the research and said that Charleston is the best facility in the country.”
As a C-17 pilot, Lt. Osgood will be flying the Air Force’s newest, most flexible cargo aircraft. Recent Air Force statistics show the C-17 is currently deployed an average of 121 days a year performing rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases worldwide. For now though, the young pilot is still reeling from his graduation.
“It’s still kind of surreal,” Matt Osgood said of the moment his parents pinned the wings on his uniform. “I’d always dreamed of that day and … to have it happen … It was nice to have them be a part of it because it was Dad’s dream to fly and I know how proud of me that they are. To have them there and be a part of I meant the world to me.”
Air Force pilot wings just made the whole world a lot smaller for the young lieutenant from a small town in Maine.
Staff writer Sara Gray contributed to this report.
