Tech. Sgt. Aubrey Sloan's Final Re-Enlistment
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. — From high school graduation gowns to military uniforms, 1st Lt. Tessa Vandiver and Tech. Sgt. Aubrey Sloan have taken very different paths since they first met in junior high. The two grew up in South Carolina, attended James F. Byrnes High School and graduated together in 2007. After graduation, their military careers took them in different directions.
Vandiver first served in the Army before pursuing a commission through Officer Training School, while Sloan joined the Air Force. As assignments, careers and life moved forward, staying in touch became more difficult.
“Always moving, being active duty, getting stationed everywhere,” Sloan said. “So it's kind of hard to keep in touch when you got your own life as well.” Neither expected their military careers would bring them back together.
When Vandiver attended Officer Training School, she reached out to Sloan. “He was like, ‘Well, where are you going to be?’” Vandiver recalled. The answer brought an unexpected reunion: They would be stationed at the same base.
For Sloan, it was something he had never experienced during his military career. “I was actually excited,” Sloan said. “Like, it's never happened where I've been stationed with anyone from my class, from home, from school or anything like that. So this is, like, new and exciting for me to experience something like that.”
For Vandiver, having a familiar face at a new assignment offered a similar sense of comfort. “I was pretty excited because it's like, yes, I'm not going there by myself,” Vandiver said. “I do know somebody that's here.”
Finding time to reconnect was not always easy. They tried to meet for lunch, but their schedules did not cooperate. Eventually, they found time to go bowling. Vandiver won.
“I beat him real bad,” she said.
The friendship also became part of their professional lives. Sloan said having someone he already knew and trusted gave him someone to turn to when he had questions.
“That is always a good thing to be able to kind of refer back to someone that I'm comfortable with and be able to ask questions that I may not want to ask a different maintainer or something like that,” Sloan said. Years after graduating high school, their paths have crossed once more.
Sloan, an Air Force Reserve Command member assigned to the 414th Maintenance Squadron as an armament supervisor, was approaching another milestone in his military career. Vandiver was serving as a chaplain with the 4th Fighter Wing.
When Sloan reached his final reenlistment before retirement, he asked Vandiver to be part of the ceremony. The moment brought their two timelines together: two friends who met as teenagers, followed different military paths and built separate lives, now standing together at the same base for a milestone in Sloan's career.
Some friendships don't disappear when life gets busy. Sometimes they just wait for the paths to cross again.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
