This isn't your normal family reunion.
Two brothers arrived at the 173rd Fighter Wing in Kalmath Falls, Oregon, to be trained to fly at the U.S. Air Force's only school for the F-15C aircraft. This is the first time two siblings learn to fly the fighter jet at the same time, and in the same class.
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| U.S. Air Force Capt. Jasper (left) and 1st Lt. David Arneberg are the first brothers to train as pilots for the F-15C in the same class. |
Capt. Jasper and 1st Lt. David Arneberg weren't expecting to find themselves in the same career path.
In fact, Jasper, 26, wasn't planning to become a pilot when he first attended the U.S. Air Force Academy. He was going into electrical engineering as a cadet, so he could use that skill to work as a commissioned officer. When his younger brother, David, 24, entered the Academy in 2014, he considered there was a 50/50 chance flying would be part of his military career.
While in school, they joined the Academy's Air Force Parachute team, Wings of Blue, and learned tof freefall in formation and land under parachute.
"That really is what sparked my interest in aviation," Jasper said. "The atmosphere of always being in airplanes—taking off in them but not landing—that sparked my interest in pursuing aviation as a career.”
Jasper went to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years before going to undergraduate pilot training at Sheppart AFB, Texas.
David, meanwhile, was in undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin AFB, Texas.
When the time came to find out what plane they would get to fly, David got the F-15C, a track very few pilots get to take in the current environment. Jasper received his assignment for the same base a month later.
“It’s rare to have an F-15C drop in a pilot class at all, so the fact that we both had one drop in our classes and both got it is surprising,” Jasper said.
They say it’s helpful having their brother at their side during training, but that they can also be "brutally competitive".
“We have a strong competitive streak going all the way back to childhood where we’d have football games and we’d always be on opposite teams, playing quarterback," Jasper said.
The brothers have yet to compete in a one-on-one dogfight in the F-15, but it doesn't seem like a prospect that is too far off.
