SAN ANGELO, TX — The unconventional career path of one U.S. Air Force officer, Major Russ Foster, allows him to provide an effective example for mentoring the next leaders of the U.S. military as a professor of aerospace studies at Angelo State University’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC Detachment 847, where he also serves as the Operations Flight Commander, commonly called the ops officer.
“Eighty to 90 cadets are in the program starting with the fall semester,” Foster said. By the end of the first semester, he said they experience nearly 50 percent attrition, with most of those leaving the program being the freshmen.
“Two things get you out of the program. Academic standards are stringent, as are physical fitness standards,” he said.
Health and fitness are important to Foster. At the age of 45, his goal is to be a professional bodybuilder. He entered his first amateur competition last month at the National Physique Committee’s Battle on the Bay in Corpus Christi. He came in second place, twice, in the novice and heavyweight categories.
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Above: Russ Foster competing at the NPC Battle on the Bay in Corpus Christi in June 2019.
Foster plans to go pro within two years.
Foster said ROTC cadets today are seeking careers outside of the traditional “rated” specialties of becoming a pilot or navigator. Last year was typical. Of the 9 cadets commissioned, most chose to enter the intelligence field, acquisition, or logistics. . “We only commissioned one pilot candidate,” Foster said.
“The Air Force is dying for pilots. No one wants to do it. People want to do anything but be rated,” he said.
“The Air Force even raised the age restriction for entering the pilot career field to attract more candidates,” Foster added.
Foster surmised that the arduous pathway to becoming a pilot might be a barrier to interest. “It’s a long road to get commissioned and then there’s at least two years of pilot training before your career really begins,” he said. “And there’s no guarantee you’re going to make it.”
If anyone knows about the long road to earning his wings in the Air Force, it is Foster.
In the late 1990s Foster was a busy crew chief working on one of the 44 B-52H airframes on the flight line at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana. Hot, humid afternoons, always covered in heavy sweat, and with spare parts that needed special fabrication may have forced Foster to think outside the box.
The old bomber, the first model “A” flew in 1952, no longer has a consistent parts supply line. The last “H” model came off the Boeing assembly line in 1961, a decade before Foster was born. When a spoiler actuator broke or was covered with too much corrosion, Foster had to get a new one manufactured at the base machine shop. You didn’t necessary have a new part ready to go off the shelf for repairs.
He was enlisted, near the bottom of the ladder, forced to work long hours in the sweltering northwest Louisiana heat for not as much pay as he witnessed the aircrew arrive at the jet fresh out of the air conditioned base operations building just prior to takeoff.
Maybe earning his wings could be a benefit, he thought.
Working on obtaining his college degree at night, Foster learned of a program called Palace Chase that would allow him to continue his career but at a part-time pace and possibly open more doors. It would also offer him more time to finish his college degree, a prerequisite for acceptance into Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training, or SUPT.
He ended up at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, where the Air National Guard unit Foster was assigned operated the B-1B Lancer bomber. Foster, whose first experience and love was for the much older B-52, learned the difference between a 1950s Cold War machine and a more modern aircraft built two-and-a-half decades later.
The complex B-1B required three maintenance trucks to follow it to the runway prior to takeoff. “Something always broke,” Foster said. In contrast, the older but less complicated B-52H only needed one maintenance truck.
At McConnell, Foster finished his degree before transferring to a guard unit in Phoenix where he served as a crew chief on KC-135s, the tanker aircraft that refueled the bombers in flight. While there, he was selected for commissioning as a second lieutenant and earned a slot to pilot training to be assigned to a C-130J special operations wing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Flying was enjoyable, but after a few years flying what he called a “flying radio station”—the C-130J has onboard radio and TV equipment used to broadcast friendly programming over hostile territory containing messages for local populations— Foster turned back to his first unit at McConnell for a job opening there.
By that time, McConnell had gotten rid of the B-1B and its KC-135s and was then an intelligence unit with drones. Moving to back to McConnell required Foster to give up flying and head to San Angelo at Goodfellow Air Force Base for intelligence school.
In the guard and reserve, having a continuity of orders, or days where one can work and get paid, are more important than the assigned specialty. Foster was willing to give up flying to get fulltime employment with the guard.
“At McConnell, I got the intel ‘stink’ on me and it opened lots of doors,” Foster said, explaining how he leveraged his Air Force training to stay on active duty earning a full paycheck every month. Being rated with an intelligence specialty increased Foster’s demand within the Air Force throughout the world. He served in Germany, CENTCOM in Tampa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Shaw Air Force Base, back to USAFE in Germany, then to Colorado Springs, Colorado at AFSPACE.
Earning his intel specialty was also how Foster met his wife, Amanda, from San Angelo. Mandy comes from a family dedicated to public service as well. Her sister, Rebecca Stewart, is a detective with the San Angelo Police Department. Mandy is applying for medical school. She wants to be a doctor.
While at AFSPACE, an opportunity arose for Foster at Angelo State’s ROTC detachment. It was a chance to move back to his wife’s backyard.
The ROTC assignment is also a three-year controlled tour. Here, Foster can remain on active duty for an extended timeframe. While here, he is doubling down on the intel field by getting a masters degree in Intelligence Studies and Analysis at Angelo State. Much of the coursework he completed at Goodfellow AFB transfers to his masters degree program at ASU.
Foster admits he has taken a non-traditional career path. Because of that, he’s uniquely qualified to say, “This is the best gig going.”
“From my standpoint, the benefits you receive, the money, the travel… nothing in the civilian life can match this,” he said. He rattled off the exotic locations his career has taken him. “Your career in the Air Force is what you want it to be. Your attitude determines the altitude.”
“It’s a small military and you’d be amazed at ‘who’s in the zoo’ who will give you a by-name request and where that will take you,” he said.
Getting there isn’t easy, Foster said. “If I were advising someone in high school about a career in the Air Force, I’d tell them it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You’re being evaluated every day, especially here in ROTC. I have just four years to put as many or none, it’s up to me and our cadre here, into the officer corps,” he said.
When he’s not leading at the ROTC at Angelo State, you may find Foster hard at work at the Tru-Fit Fitness center on Sunset. He’s just starting to prepare for his next bodybuilding competition. He has advice for those starting down a fitness lifestyle, too.
“You cannot lift your way out of a bad diet,” he said.
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