Airman Laura Bergeron did not think graduation day would come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the first lonely, addled weeks of basic military training had given way to resolve, then confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You make friends, build relationships,” the 26-year-old from Connecticut said in an interview with Air Force Times. “You build a backbone you didn’t know you had. You see yourself progressing, your trust building with the MTIs. It becomes addicting. You want to know how far you can go.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bergeron came from a military family: Her grandfather had served in the Air Force, her father and a sister in the Navy. Another sister is in the Army. Her decision to join them was a long time coming. But after five years of thought, of working two jobs and going to school and trying to do it all, Bergeron wanted something more. She visited a recruiter; on Sept. 9, she arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland after a long day of flights and layovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The initial sternness of her military training instructors gradually softened. One day, after she and her flight gave a poor performance during physical training, they braced for a chewing-out that never came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We expected to be yelled at,” Bergeron said. “Instead, he talked to us like a father.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She worked all the harder so as not to disappoint him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Nov. 7, Bergeron marched along the graduation parade field. As she stepped up to receive a coin from MTI Tech. Sgt. Enden Harrington, she caught a glimpse of her teary-eyed parents and that same MTI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You could see his pride and why he enlisted,” she said. “It made you want to make him proud.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bergeron will serve in the Air National Guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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