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August 11, 2008 -- For years, Adam Jackson and Steve Belliveau came to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and admired the planes parked at showcase central. This year they arrived on one of those planes.
“It actually felt a little surreal, almost awkward,” says Jackson, who grew up in nearby Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. “But it was pretty neat to come full circle.”
Belliveau, of Dayton, Ohio, agrees. “Flying into Oshkosh was amazing,” he says. “I had always admired the military aircraft there and wished I could fly in one of those. Plus, it was great to talk to the old guys who flew on that particular aircraft 40 years ago.”
The two, who are in Officer Training School at NAS Pensacola, flew into Oshkosh in a T-39 Sabreliner.
Jackson says he’s been coming to AirVenture since he was a toddler. Then, when he was 8, he received his Young Eagles flight. “Dad wasn’t a pilot, but he always had an interest in aviation,” Jackson says. “During AirVenture, we met this guy who needed a place to camp and we let him throw his tent on our campsite.” In exchange, he offered the Jackson a flight.
Already interested in aviation, that flight sealed it for Jackson. He earned his private pilot certificate at 18, and then earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation at the University of North Dakota in May 2007. In September 2007, he started at officer training school.
So far, Jackson says he’s flown the T-6 Texan, the T-1 Jayhawk and the T-39 Sabreliner. Next he will be training on the Prowler or the Super Hornet. He has about 600 hours in the air — 500 private and 100 military.
“Young Eagles is a great program, especially if no one in your family is a pilot,” Jackson says. “It gives you exposure to aviation that otherwise you couldn’t get.”
Belliveau tells a similar story. He says he has been interested in aviation for as long as he can remember. “My uncle and my grandfather were military pilots. But a Young Eagles flight (at 13) really strengthened my interest and allowed that interest to grow.”
That interest continued to grow through high school and college, with Belliveau graduating from Purdue University in aviation technology and being accepted at Pensacola, where he is being trained as a flight officer.
But when he gets out of the military, Belliveau says he plans on building his own experimental aircraft and becoming a general aviation pilot. “My Young Eagles flight left a strong impression. It made the aviation community look good in the eyes of a child, and now in the eyes of an adult.”
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Steve Belliveau, left, and Adam Jackson are former Young Eagles now pursuing an aviation career in the military.
Adam Jackson
Steve Belliveau
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