Little Rock Snapshot: Capt. Jacob Johnson
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --
Little Rock Snapshot- Capt. Jacob Johnson
Staff Sgt. Jessica Condit
Q: SSgt Condit: What is your rank, full name and duty title?
A: Capt. Johnson: I'm Captain Jacob Riley Johnson, and a duty title I'm the permanent party flight commander and also a pilot.
Q: Do you like being a pilot?
A: Yeah! It's not like you see in the movies, where it's all glamorous and everything.
Q: Like Top Gun?
A: Right! Which is fine. I don't know if I can live like that, but it's um, I really like flying. It's what I wanted to do since I was little, but you know, now I get to do it.
Q: How long have you been in the Air Force?
A: Since Sept. of 2003 so coming up on 10 years.
Q: How long have you been at Little Rock?
A: Almost five years. Yeah, May of 2008 we moved here. I'll be here at least another couple because I just came to this squadron.
Q: Why did you join the Air Force?
A: Well like I said before, I always wanted to fly. And I didn't think I could because my eye sight is not great. And then after Sept. 11, I was already out of college and grad school when that happened. Yes I'm kinda old. But anyway, I felt like I needed to do something, but I didn't just want to just like enlist in the Army; you know what I'm saying? So I decided to apply, and I had heard that you could get the eyesight waiver and get the pilot slot, so I decided to give it a shot!
Q: Was it hard to come into the Air Force, because it's a totally different lifestyle?
A: I remember, I was just talking to someone about this the other day. My first morning or whatever at OTS thinking, because they drag you out of bed at 4 a.m., you know, lots of yelling, and I remember thinking to myself what am I doing? Five days ago I was playing golf with my friends, and now I'm getting yelled at in Montgomery. I don't understand what I'm doing. But, you know, you live and learn and figure things out, like you went through basic so, same type thing. You adjust.
Q: So what would your dream job be if you weren't a pilot and you were a civilian?
A: I think it would be a lot of fun to be on sports talk radio or something. I think that would be awesome! Because it just sounds like some of those guys that are on sports talk are just sitting around talking about sports like I do with my friends and getting paid for it. I don't know if I'd be good at it but it would be fun to try.
Q: Tell me about the race that you are about to run.
A: It's a 12K Cross Country, which is like 7.5 miles almost exactly. Some people say kilometers in this country, and they're like kilometers, huh? But anyway, I ran a 12K up in St. Louis the first weekend of this month, was it February 2nd? But anyway, I had to finish top 12 military to qualify for Serbia, and I think I was actually 13th or 14th, but a couple guys in front of me couldn't go, so they just go down the list. So it's exciting. I've done one of these; it's called Conseil International du Sport Militaire Cross Country Championship. It's basically an international competition between militaries, and they have it for marathon and they have it for cross-countries. I don't know if there's a track one. But anyway, I did one in Athens, Greece for the Athens Marathon a couple years ago, and that was a real good experience. You get to meet people from other countries who are in the military, and it's a neat experience.
Q: Who's the most interesting person you've met?
A: Like I said, I've only really done one of these overseas. I did meet a girl; she was Romanian. We were running together almost the whole race in Athens, and I barely beat her. But anyway, she was an Olympian. She was in the Olympics this summer, and she did pretty well in the Olympic Marathon. So that was neat.
Q: How many races have you run?
A: I've run a lot of races over the years. I have no idea.
Q: Over 100?
A: Oh yeah.
Q: Over 200?
A: I don't know about that.
Q: Over 150?
A: Certainly over 100. I've been running since 8th grade so like 20 plus years you know, 10-20 races a year. The last few years I haven't raced that much because I've been deploying, but it's probably close to 200.
Q: If there was one person in history that you could race, who would it be?
A: Um. I don't know, because anyone I say is going to be way faster than me. I don't know, that's a tough question. It would have been neat to be alive during Steve Prefontane's era. Again, I would have had no chance of beating Steve Prefontane, but it would have been cool to like, be at some races where he was running just to experience that.
Staff Sgt. Jessica Condit
Q: SSgt Condit: What is your rank, full name and duty title?
A: Capt. Johnson: I'm Captain Jacob Riley Johnson, and a duty title I'm the permanent party flight commander and also a pilot.
Q: Do you like being a pilot?
A: Yeah! It's not like you see in the movies, where it's all glamorous and everything.
Q: Like Top Gun?
A: Right! Which is fine. I don't know if I can live like that, but it's um, I really like flying. It's what I wanted to do since I was little, but you know, now I get to do it.
Q: How long have you been in the Air Force?
A: Since Sept. of 2003 so coming up on 10 years.
Q: How long have you been at Little Rock?
A: Almost five years. Yeah, May of 2008 we moved here. I'll be here at least another couple because I just came to this squadron.
Q: Why did you join the Air Force?
A: Well like I said before, I always wanted to fly. And I didn't think I could because my eye sight is not great. And then after Sept. 11, I was already out of college and grad school when that happened. Yes I'm kinda old. But anyway, I felt like I needed to do something, but I didn't just want to just like enlist in the Army; you know what I'm saying? So I decided to apply, and I had heard that you could get the eyesight waiver and get the pilot slot, so I decided to give it a shot!
Q: Was it hard to come into the Air Force, because it's a totally different lifestyle?
A: I remember, I was just talking to someone about this the other day. My first morning or whatever at OTS thinking, because they drag you out of bed at 4 a.m., you know, lots of yelling, and I remember thinking to myself what am I doing? Five days ago I was playing golf with my friends, and now I'm getting yelled at in Montgomery. I don't understand what I'm doing. But, you know, you live and learn and figure things out, like you went through basic so, same type thing. You adjust.
Q: So what would your dream job be if you weren't a pilot and you were a civilian?
A: I think it would be a lot of fun to be on sports talk radio or something. I think that would be awesome! Because it just sounds like some of those guys that are on sports talk are just sitting around talking about sports like I do with my friends and getting paid for it. I don't know if I'd be good at it but it would be fun to try.
Q: Tell me about the race that you are about to run.
A: It's a 12K Cross Country, which is like 7.5 miles almost exactly. Some people say kilometers in this country, and they're like kilometers, huh? But anyway, I ran a 12K up in St. Louis the first weekend of this month, was it February 2nd? But anyway, I had to finish top 12 military to qualify for Serbia, and I think I was actually 13th or 14th, but a couple guys in front of me couldn't go, so they just go down the list. So it's exciting. I've done one of these; it's called Conseil International du Sport Militaire Cross Country Championship. It's basically an international competition between militaries, and they have it for marathon and they have it for cross-countries. I don't know if there's a track one. But anyway, I did one in Athens, Greece for the Athens Marathon a couple years ago, and that was a real good experience. You get to meet people from other countries who are in the military, and it's a neat experience.
Q: Who's the most interesting person you've met?
A: Like I said, I've only really done one of these overseas. I did meet a girl; she was Romanian. We were running together almost the whole race in Athens, and I barely beat her. But anyway, she was an Olympian. She was in the Olympics this summer, and she did pretty well in the Olympic Marathon. So that was neat.
Q: How many races have you run?
A: I've run a lot of races over the years. I have no idea.
Q: Over 100?
A: Oh yeah.
Q: Over 200?
A: I don't know about that.
Q: Over 150?
A: Certainly over 100. I've been running since 8th grade so like 20 plus years you know, 10-20 races a year. The last few years I haven't raced that much because I've been deploying, but it's probably close to 200.
Q: If there was one person in history that you could race, who would it be?
A: Um. I don't know, because anyone I say is going to be way faster than me. I don't know, that's a tough question. It would have been neat to be alive during Steve Prefontane's era. Again, I would have had no chance of beating Steve Prefontane, but it would have been cool to like, be at some races where he was running just to experience that.
