Lisa Flexen

A reservist’s life

Like most Caltech staff, Lisa Flexen spends most of her days deskbound. A member of the development staff, Flexen’s responsibilities include database management and programming. One weekend a month, though, she does something that is, no doubt, completely different from what the average Caltech “grunt” does: loading and unloading cargo aircraft for the U.S. Air Force.

Not a typical activity for a single mother of two, but for Flexen it’s a chance to do something completely different from her Caltech career. While her development job takes place indoors and is all cerebral, her Air Force job takes place outdoors and is all physical. One weekend each month Flexen reports for duty at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside where, as an “aerial porter,” she and her colleagues load what civilians would refer to as humongous cargo planes, but which Air Force personnel know as C-17s and C-141s. Right now it’s mostly supplies for the war in Iraq, everything “from Humvees and ambulances, to medical supplies and barrels of water,” says Flexen.

Flexen is an Air Force veteran. After graduating from high school, she enlisted in the service for a four-year stint. At that point in her life, college wasn’t on her radar, and the military seemed like a good alternative, a chance to learn a skill and see the world. She chose the Air Force because it seemed, she says, to be a little less male dominated than the other services. It turned out to be the right decision. “The Air Force is its own little world, reflecting, in many ways, the outside world, with just about every profession the outside world has,” she says. “That’s what interested me, because any job skills I acquired there could be carried over to my civilian life. In addition, the work hours were normal—nine-to-five—and there was opportunity for travel.”

Flexen had a top-secret clearance and worked in missile defense; specifically, as an information management specialist for the Plans and Intelligence Division of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing, first in England for two years, which she liked a lot, then in Minot, North Dakota, which she didn’t like. “Too cold!” she laughs.

Flexen left the Air Force in 1990, married (she’s since divorced), had two children (today her daughter, Samantha, is 11; her son, Adam, is eight), and received her college degree from the University of La Verne (paid for by the Air Force). She’s been with the Reserves since 2001. Her reason for rejoining the service as a reservist was simple. “I missed it—missed the camaraderie that you don’t see in the civilian world,” she says. She also receives a paycheck and, if she remains in the reserve for 12 more years, is eligible for retirement benefits as well.

In addition to serving one weekend each month, she must also serve two weeks each summer for job training. But she gets to choose where she wants to train. (This year: Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.) Her Air Force job involves stacking pallets with supplies, then using heavy chains to secure the load. She drives various forklifts and specially designed flatbed trucks that carry the loaded pallets into the aircraft. It’s dirty and often dangerous work.

“The work is real physical,” she says, “and dangerous. I’ve heard of and seen people break bones, crush their fingers, smash their toes. You have to stay focused.”

Several members of her unit, the 50th Aerial Port Squadron, or 50th APS—”Everything’s an acronym in the service” she laughs—have been deployed to countries neighboring Iraq. She is, she says, not afraid of going, although she would worry about being away from her kids for as long as a year. “It’s not as though I’d be on the front lines. So far members from my unit who’ve been deployed were sent to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Karshi Air Base in Uzbekistan, and an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.”

That said, there is one thing that brings home the whole situation in Iraq. Besides cargo, U.S. Marine troop movements are supported on a continuous basis as well. Upon their return, Flexen’s unit will download their equipment from the aircraft. “And every inch of their stuff,” she says, “their duffel bags, rucksacks, the small, foldable shovels they use, all of it, are just caked in brown, desert dirt. It really brings home the conditions these men and women had to live in.” Left unsaid among the returning troops, most of whom were based with the First Marine Expeditionary Forces at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, is the fact that fewer troops return than were sent out.
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