November 6, 2024, Arlington, TX
CMSAF#19, retired, JoAnne Bass attended an Air and Space Forces recruiting and AIMS (Advocate to Inspire Military Service) event on November 6, 2024, at the University of Texas, Arlington (UTA). She met with UTA education leaders, spoke to an audience of about 100 students from the engineering and nursing departments, and made a short video for the AFA (Air & Space Forces Association) to help inspire military service. Bass spoke during an Air Force recruiting effort at the college on national security, the importance of education and critical thinking, as well as military service. The students asked a wide range of questions and some expressed interest in the Air and Space Forces.
The 342nd Recruiting Squadron set up the event in coordination with UTA lead Amanda Burkink, Julie Croxton, and Joseph Carpenter, and senior leadership. The event was designed to expose students to the Air and Space Forces through interaction with a senior military leader. Bass spoke with Dean Paul Couch, Engineering, Professor Wei-Jen Lee, Engineering, Rhonda Hampton, a Navy veteran from Nursing, along with members of the 645th Aeronautical Engineering Systems Squadron (AESS), and AFA AIMS Co-Chair, Vance Clarke. Bass asked questions about the college, about leaders’ relationships with the military and shared some leadership and other challenges with the small group.
After lunch, Bass spoke for 90-minutes with students from engineering and nursing disciplines. She spoke about national security, nation threats to the U.S., and the importance of land, sea, air, space, cyber, and info security. Conversation about the importance of both enlisted and officer opportunities in all our services and how they are all designed to meet the needs of the nation’s security. She expressed that if you want to do something you can do it in uniform!
Students asked a range of questions. Questions like: With only 23-percent of our youth being eligible for military service, what is our nation and military doing to change that?, What can you tells about the challenges of driving change is such a large organization like the military?, What concerns do you have with the dis-information and deep fakes we are seeing today? Afterwards, Bass said, “The quality of the student questions was noteworthy and challenged her to provide solid answers for them.”
After a rousing applause for her answers and for taking the time to speak openly and candidly with them, Bass asked them all to take a photo with her to record this first AFA AIMS event she was able to participate in. And all obliged. “What a great event and opportunity for students to hear from one of our top military leaders,” said Joseph Carpenter, from the History Department, and was the videographer who captured Bass’s oral history a few weeks prior.
This visit was orchestrated as a recruiting event to complement the partnership between the Air Force Recruiting Service and the Air & Space Forces Association. The AFA AIMS program is designed to get past military members, educators, and the like, to espouse the benefits of military service to ensure youth are aware of the great opportunities military service provides. AIMS Co-Chair Vance Clarke coordinated the effort with AFRS lead, CMSgt Stan Franklin, and the UTA recruiting/inspire event came alive.
The 342nd Recruiting Squadron, led by Lt Col Florence Yee, with lead officer accessions recruiters MSgt Korey O’Shea and TSgt Devon Downing taking charge of the event, things ran smoothly and provided a first of its’ kind event at UTA. Several specific questions about serving in engineering, nursing, and cyber roles in the Air and Space Forces came up and were handled by the recruiting team.
The AFA AIMS efforts are well under way. You can learn more at www.afa.org/aims.
