WEBVTT

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I'm first Lieutenant Melinda Benson . I

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graduate tomorrow in 24 07 . Officer

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trainee Jeff Benson . I'm in class 24

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08 . I graduate in two weeks . Uh ,

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we've been married 11 years . This year

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is 12 years . Halloween October 31st

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2012 . It's like OTs . We didn't plan

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on that particular date . We didn't

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plan on being here at the same time .

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It just kind of worked out that way .

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It's been hard because we're going to P

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CS right after he's done . So we have

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to navigate us both being here and

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trying to get all the logistics stuff

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together for our next duty station .

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Having my wife here has been

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interesting . A lot of the other OTs

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have noticed like , hey , you have the

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same last name as someone in the class

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ahead of you . Are you guys related ? I

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was like , yeah , that's , that's my

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wife . We've been able to support each

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other a lot through the training . It

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has been challenging for both of us not

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being able to be around but , uh ,

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whenever I had issues or I was upset

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about something I could talk to her ,

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she's able to do the same for me . Jeff

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has a lot of leadership experience

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being prior listed master sergeant with

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almost 17 years of service . So I think

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this just kind of tweaks his leadership

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style and very good at leading airmen .

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I'm really excited for uh for mel to be

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able to actually go out and fly and

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deploy and kind of fly the line and get

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that experience as a new air crew

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member . Um she's had to watch me do

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that for the past 1617 years . Um I'm

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ready to hang that up and do something

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a little more stable . So I think for

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her to be able to get that experience

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and go out and be a flight nurse and

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deploy and see the other side of

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everything and just kind of take that

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action to help save lives and just care

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for people . I think that's gonna be

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really exciting .