Photo By Kelly Morris | Pfc. Kayden Obrick, 110th Aviation Brigade, is honored as the U.S. Army Aviation...... read more read more
FORT NOVOSEL, Ala. — One year ago on Independence Day, Pfc. Kayden Z. O’Brick took his sense of patriotism to another level — by raising his right hand to serve.
Now, O’Brick, who was named the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence Soldier of the Year in May, is already one of the Air Traffic Control voices UH-60 Black Hawk aviators hear over radio communications at Fort Novosel, as he earns his facility rating at Lowe Army Heliport:
“Cape 47, this is Lowe Ground. Whiskey pad via the Whiskey taxiway. The wind is estimated calm. Hold short of Whiskey pad and contact the tower….”
O’Brick said he believes the Army provides a good foundation.
“Everyone works together as a team in the Army, and it’s just kind of inspired me to join. You can make big impacts, do something more than just for yourself,” O’Brick said.
Military service was always his plan for his future, growing up with a father and grandfather in his life who served.
“I want to serve my country because I’ve seen what my dad’s done. I’m proud of what he’s accomplished,” O’Brick said. “My dad has always been a role model to me. I’ve always looked up to him.”
In one year he has completed Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, S.C., Advanced Individual Training at Fort Novosel, and a few months of on-the-job facility training at his first duty assignment at Lowe Tower. The 18-year-old said the Army already has “changed his life for the better.”
At Lowe, he is learning how to control aircraft on the ground, how to read clearances to pilots, coordinate for landing and departing surfaces, and separate aircraft on the ground. In his first few months as a permanent party Soldier, O’Brick is already demonstrating “impressive skills,” explained Sgt. 1st Class Jose A. Hernandez, who serves as the Lowe Tower facility chief with Company A, 1st Battalion, 11th Aviation Regiment.
“He is the most outstanding talent I have seen come through the Aviation branch in my entire career. He is a true professional with unlimited potential,” he said.
Already qualified on the flight data position, he must qualify on ground control and tower/local control before obtaining his rating.
To do his job, he must have an entire airfield memorized to issue the correct route and holding instructions to avoid collisions, which is especially important for the night sortie when a ground controller must rely on memory and not just their eyes. He must also fully understand an aviator’s intentions to assist them correctly, Hernandez explained.
As he listens intently and carefully scans the airfield and horizon, O’Brick is part of a team of NCOs, Department of the Army civilians and more junior Soldiers who, like himself, are still training, that all work seamlessly together and communicate almost intuitively as they issue instructions to a spot where the aviators can do checks, practice hovering the aircraft, and depart.
“We kind of bond together,” he said. “Rank still applies, but everyone is kind of on the same page. So no matter whether you’ve been in for like a year or 10 years, your job is still important.”
The intensity of the workload for Air Traffic Control personnel supporting the aviation training mission at Fort Novosel ebbs and flows with three launch and recovery periods per day. Having the ability to multitask is paramount, O’Brick said.
“Being a base field, it’s a lot more going on than if you’re like at a stage field. There’s a lot more traffic,” he said. “It is a bit challenging at first. It is a lot of information, but they’re there to help you and kind of guide you and teach you,” he said.
O’Brick said there are countless books and much information young ATC personnel are expected to “soak up,” but once they start actually doing the job, they develop an understanding of how things work, and it becomes easier.
“They call it the “ATC ear’ up there. You have to listen — you’re doing your job and listening to everything you have to do, but you also want to be aware of what’s going on for other people’s positions,” he said. “You just have to have general awareness of everything that’s going on. Everyone does their own job, but it all kind of correlates together.”
Radio communication with aviators can be challenging at times, he explained.
“Sometimes their radios come in a little bit broken, and sometimes they can talk really fast, it just depends on the person. Sometimes you have to ask them again. At first it’s a little hard to understand, but once you’ve been listening to it for a while you know what to listen for,” he said.
Soon after he reported to Lowe, O’Brick volunteered for the USAACE Best Squad competition, a weeklong event testing Soldiers’ physical and mental mettle, and he earned the title of USAACE Soldier of the Year.
“I was honestly pretty surprised--I didn’t think I was going to win,” he said. “It was a great experience just to bond as a team. If you were just (competing) by yourself you probably wouldn’t be as motivated to do stuff, but when you have people next to you that are cheering you on, it’s motivating and inspiring.”
He approached the competition with a mindset of enjoying the experience, “because a lot of people don’t get to do stuff like that,” he said.
He said he felt he did well on events like the ruck march and weapons qualifications, and enjoyed the challenging “mystery event” obstacle course event at Eglin Air Force Base, especially with the family history there, as his father was stationed there for seven years. However, appearing before a board of senior enlisted leaders asking tough questions was a new challenge for him.
“This was my first board I ever went to. I was shaking and stuff--there were higher-ups in there,” he said. “It was a whole team as a board, so it wasn’t just individual, so that was better. At first I was nervous, but you kind of get used to it after a while,” he said.
Through days of back-to-back events that tested him physically and mentally to the point of exhaustion, he was grateful for his teammates like Pfc. Giovani Barrara whom he had known since AIT.
“There are certain points where you just don’t really want to do this anymore, but we were both pushing each other to keep on going,” he said.
O’Brick said his family is proud of what he has accomplished in only a year since he joined the Army.
“Even my grandpa, I told him what happened, and he was like, ‘man, when I was in, I wouldn’t even have thought of doing stuff like that my first couple months of being in. I’m really proud of you’,” he said.
After the win at the USAACE level, O’Brick is also preparing to advance to the Training and Doctrine Command level competition in August.
As he continues to hone his skills in Air Traffic Control, O’Brick said his goal is to one day be on the other end of the radio communication, as a UH-60 Black Hawk aviator.
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2024 08:28 |
| Story ID: | 473857 |
| Location: | FORT NOVOSEL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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