Features & Articles
Air National Guard
Just Your Average Kim
Dwight Kim used to be your average 18-year-old trying to figure out what to do with his life.
"I wasn't the smart guy. I was more the lazy slacker," said Kim, a 2002 graduate from McKinley High School. "I graduated from high school, and I was thinking about college, but I was in that transition where I was working full time."
Dwight had no clue what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. The Kalihi native really didn't take his future into consideration until it was looking him straight in the eyes.
"I wasn't really considering anything. Actually, I wanted to be a pilot or an astronaut when I was growing up."
These days Senior Airman Kim is a ground radio communications specialist in Hawaii's Air National Guard. This guardsman in the 297th Air Traffic Control Squad is currently serving his country in Iraq, and believe it or not, he actually volunteered for active duty. In the Air National Guard, officers seek out volunteers before activating guardsmen for deployment.
"I just want to go places and experience new things while I'm still young. There's always going to be danger everywhere you go."
A ground radio communications specialist maintains the operations of all the necessary equipment used by the air traffic control unit. Kim oversees all the transmitters, receivers, and transceivers used to communicate with government aircrafts.
At McKinley High School, Dwight excelled in Science and Math, and spent four years playing the alto saxophone in the school's band. Working with electronics and computers was not his forte. "Before I went away to tech school I didn't know anything about electronics. In tech school they teach you all the basic components. I learned about the motherboard, circuits, and I opened up a computer for the first time."
After joining the Air National Guard in October 2006, Kim left home for basic training at the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Over the course of a four-week period, he was crammed into a dormitory with 60 new recruits, slept in a bunk bed, and awoke at the crack of dawn (5 a.m.). According to Kim, lunch and dinner were the only things he really looked forward to, and the rest of the experience he was better off trying to forget.
From Lackland, it was off to the Kessler Air Force Base in Mississippi, where he was trained to perform his Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) or enlisted job. In Biloxi, Mississippi, Dwight received a hearty background in ground radio communications, learning everything there is to know about combat communications.
At this point in his 10-week journey, Dwight was already starting to yearn for the familiarities of home. He missed the sun, the sand, some white rice, and of course, his steady girlfriend Amy.
Amy Tong, 22, is Kim's high school sweetheart, and one of the deciding factors in his joining the Air National Guard. After graduating from high school, Dwight got a job at JC Penny, when he abruptly decided to take the next step in his life.
"I was there for eight months and that's when I decided. I was talking to my girlfriend for a while (about joining the Air National Guard), and she kept asking me 'when are you joining the military.' She kept pushing me so I just decided to just look up the numbers in the phonebook. She really wanted me to do something with my life."
Once Senior Airman Kim returns from Iraq, he will pick up right where he left off, pursuing an engineering degree at Kapiolani Community College. Dwight maintains a 3.8 cumulative GPA, which is two-tenths of a point higher than his girlfriend Amy's 3.6 GPA. Amy… I guess you could say he's doing something with his life.