Houston Airshow 2024

Alamo Wing shines for Radiance Academy

  • Published
  • By Capt. Shane Huff
  • 433rd Airlift Wing
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  About 100 students in 2nd through 12th grades, from the Radiance Academy and Shekinah Radiance Academy, recently visited the Alamo Wing for the grand tour of a C-5, complete with static load display.
Students watched Senior Airman Greg Cortez, 26th Aerial Port Squadron, drive a one-and-a-half ton truck up the nose ramp and park inside the aircraft. Senior Airman David Fink, a 68th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, showed how aerial porters and aircrew work together to load and secure the truck for flight.
Mr. Daniel Martinez, Principal of Radiance Academy, is also Master Sgt. Martinez of the 26th APS. Sergeant Martinez is the unit joint inspection instructor and has been part of the 433rd Alamo Wing for 21 years. Sergeant Martinez found a way to bring together his civilian career and his Reserve commitment through this tour in hopes of showing his student population that limits placed by circumstance are not necessarily limiting factors in life.
According to Sergeant Martinez, "75 percent of these students are considered at risk due to factors such as their socio-economic status, coming from single parent homes or having been uprooted by a natural disaster."
For those who were evacuated after Katrina, this was the first time they had seen a C-5 since their lives were uprooted and they landed here.
One such student is Deundra George, a sixth grader from Radiance Academy. Deundra is one of eight children in the George family who relocated to Texas as a result of Hurricane Katrina. When asked what she thought of the trip, she said, "It was an overall good experience and I learned how to put a truck onto a plane."
Deundra's teacher, Ms. Karen Sutherland, said "The behind the scenes tour for the students was most beneficial in helping them to see how airmen operate on a day to day basis."
Principal Martinez said this was an important day for the students as most of them do not have the opportunity to travel or sight-see due to financial hardships. Hearing personal stories from the airmen hosting the tour helped the students understand that it is their own hard work that truly effects where they take their future.
Principal Martinez said the tour leaders gave personal proof that staying in school and doing your best is not only vital to military service but translates to every career.