VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – Twenty-three students in Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 24-02 received their wings during a ceremony held Dec. 1 at Vance Air Force Base.
Having completed their initial aviation training in the T-6A Texan II, the newly pinned pilots will continue in either the T-1A Jayhawk or the T-38C Talon training aircraft at Vance.
The guest speaker at the Class 24-02 graduation ceremony was Brig. Gen. Rebecca Sonkiss, the deputy commander of Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Florida. An Air Force Academy graduate, Sonkiss received her pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.
The general is a command pilot with more than 4,400 flight hours, including 1,377 combat hours in nine different Air Force manned and remotely piloted aircraft.
Class 24-02 award winners were:
2nd Lt. Jacob Margraf received the Academic Award;
2nd Lt. Benjamin Smith received the Leadership Award;
2nd Lt. Jacob Kahle received the Flying Training Award, the Wingman Award, the Air Education & Training Command Commander’s Trophy and was named a Distinguished Graduate;
2nd Lt. Stephen Delash was named a Distinguished Graduate.
Also receiving their pilot wings during the ceremony were:
Maj. Thomas Roller; Capt. Patrick Almqvist; 1st Lt. Peter Keller; 2nd Lts. Fawaz Alharbi, Abdulmajeed Al Mutairi, Johnathan Caldwell, Kaden Colling, Bridget Daley, Cameron Dickson, Olin Enzor, Levi Feitosa, Kanye Hutchison, Patrick Lopez, Samuel Peterson, Jackson Pingree, Davis Price, John Razin, Hallie Rocco and Shennan Waldron.