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20th CONS Airman owes career to Chuck Yeager

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jonathan Bass
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  A 20th Contracting Squadron Airman here traces his desire to join the Air Force back to playing Chuck Yeager's Air Combat simulator when he was five.

1st Lt. Alex LaVelle, 20th CONS contracting officer, remembers playing The Chuck Yeager game on his computer all those years ago, and from that day on, he knew he wanted to join the Air Force.

"I played Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, and Yeager said, 'Welcome to Chuck Yeager's Air Combat', and I was hooked," said LaVelle. "I was hooked on airplanes and the Air Force."

While his desire to become a pilot faded with time, his ambition to join the ranks of the Air Force did not.

"Lt. LaVelle is just an overall great person," said 2nd Lt. Wesley Batot, 20th CONS contract manager in infrastructure and infrastructure officer in charge. "He took me under his wing and helped me learn about contracting and what we do in this job."

It was during his junior year of college at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, that he arranged his job shadowing in the contracting office at Hill AFB, Utah, and found his calling.

"I was sitting with a CGO," LaVelle said. "He was explaining what a contract file was, and out of nowhere someone comes in and says, 'I need someone to buy $96,000 worth of furniture.' To me, as a college student, that was way more than I had ever dealt with, and nobody even batted an eye, they weren't fazed by it at all."

Before he administered contracts for the Air Force, LaVelle grew up in a family with a broad legacy of Airmen.

"My mother and father were active duty Air Force," LaVelle said. "They got out before I was born."

Besides his parents, he had three grandparents who were Airmen, three uncles and aunts, and three cousins.

"I was halfway through ROTC before I said, 'you know what? I just realized my whole family was in the Air Force.'" LaVelle said.

Being raised by Airmen taught LaVelle how to conquer whatever obstacles life may throw in his way in order to achieve his dream.

"The biggest obstacle I faced was that I was the cadet who lived the farthest away from the squadron," said LaVelle. "I lived in Brigham City, which is far north, I went to school in Ogden, which is a bit farther south, and the squadron was in Salt Lake City, which is still farther south."

"It was a such a struggle to do ROTC, I was never able to do the extracurricular stuff, because I had to take a bus to school, then a bus down to Salt Lake, then a bus back all the way to Brigham City," said LaVelle. "I would literally spend eight, nine, even 10 hours in transportation a day in order to get to ROTC and back."

During the last three-and-a-half years in the Air Force, LaVelle has been to multiple states, as well as many countries throughout Southwest Asia on two deployments.

"I've gotten to travel more than my peers," said LaVelle. "I count the number of countries I've been to, the states, the temporary duties and permanent change of stations; the Air Force has taken me a lot of places, given me adventure and purpose."

His time in the Air Force has given him the ability to travel the world and serve his country in a fashion that the civilian sector would never get the chance. He sums up his Air Force adventure with a quote from his Mormon faith:

"I've been anxiously engaged in a good cause," said LaVelle.