Rising senior Christopher Ballinger has already marked his place in history. The seventeen-year-old has become one of the nation’s youngest black pilots, as he received his Private Pilot License (PPL) as a member of the Air Force Junior ROTC flight academy program per WUSA9.
“This has been a phenomenal experience for me all the way around, but it has been intense,” Ballinger said in a recent interview with WUSA9. “We wake up at 6 a.m., some mornings at 4:30 a.m. to get ahead of the winds to fly six days a week, hours and hours of ground school, studying to pass all the tests, but it’s so worth it.”
The Air Force Junior ROTC flight academy program is an eight-week summer aviation training program that inspires and encourages high school young people to take to the skies. The program’s mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in aviation, hoping to address and correct the nationwide pilot shortage, in addition to increasing the numbers of minority pilots.
According to the academy website, “Currently, women make up less than 7% of pilots, and minorities represent less than 12%,” the academy states on its website. “Air Force Junior ROTC currently has almost 100,000 cadets enrolled in high schools across the nation and is the Air Force’s most diverse program. Minorities represent 58% of the Air Force Junior ROTC student body, and females make up 40%. Cadets selected for the flight academy represented females and minorities more than three times the national averages.”
The blue skies were somewhat beckoning to Ballinger. Flying was something that he had had interest in for awhile.
“I have had this interest for a while,” Ballinger said in his interview. “This was something that was calling for me. I feel relieved that I actually did it.”
So what is next for this outstanding 12th grader after graduation. Well, if you guessed, “the Air Force,” you’d be correct. Ballinger plans on looking into becoming a part of the Air Force Academy when he graduates, with a desire to one day fly military airplanes.
Congratulations, Christopher! We have no doubt that you will one day achieve your dreams.
