WEBVTT

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- I'm Airman First Class Elissa Baxter

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and my job is Air Traffic Controller.

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I work in the RAPCON.

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(upbeat music)

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After basic military training

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you go through 70 academic
days of schooling.

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You get to know, like,

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the tower side of things,

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the radar side of things.

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And then, after you complete those

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you get your first duty assignment.

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And then it takes around a year

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before you can actually
get your five levels,

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so before you can start
working by yourself,

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it takes quite a bit of training.

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Day to day, I go in, I study

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and I'll get into position,

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so I'll get in

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and I'll get to actually

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talk to airplanes and pilots

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and get a feel for what's going on

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before they continue moving
me forward in training

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so that they know I know what's going on.

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And then I'll go back to studying

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and they'll have me look things
up that I didn't understand

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or didn't know before I got into position.

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And that's pretty much day
to day until you get rated.

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The importance of our job is
we get to talk to airplanes

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and make sure that they can
get where they need to go

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without having any troubles.

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Just going on the right path

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that they wanted to go
to in the first place.

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There's a lot of things
about air traffic control

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that most people wouldn't know.

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I think one big thing that a
lot of people don't realize

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is it's not just that tower
that's out on the flight line.

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There's a RAPCON and
you're looking at a scope.

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There's a whole nother side to things

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that a lot of people
don't even realize exists.

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My favorite part about being
an Air Traffic Controller

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is that not everyone can do it.

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It takes a lot of time and dedication

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to get to know all the
rules that you have to know

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in order to do this job.

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I think my favorite part about it

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is just how rewarding it is

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and looking back and seeing how much

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your work has really paid off.