Starbase Alumnus, Navy Pilot Shares His Experience

MERIDIAN, Miss. (NNS) -- It's been 15 years since Jordan Riggs was a 10-year-old student at Starbase at McConnell Air Force Base, but once he stepped into the Starbase-Atlantis building at Naval Air Station Meridian, the memories came flooding back.

Riggs, now an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and a student pilot with Training Squadron 9, served as a tour guide for a class of Starbase Atlantis students from Clarkdale Attendance Center recently.

"As a kid, I was always fascinated by anything air and space (related), so Starbase was an easy sell for me," Riggs said. "Among the experiences I remember are meeting active Air Force pilots, learning about Newton's Laws of Motion, and touring a KC-135 tanker.

"However, one moment I remember vividly happened when our class was given a chance to try out a desktop flight simulator. It was nothing special, just a PC and a joystick. As I was concentrating intently on trying to land the airplane smoothly, one of the teachers tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'You've got what it takes'," said Riggs. "That made me feel enormously prideful and confident in my abilities. In school, I was always the smallest kid with the biggest glasses, and was picked on a lot for it, but when the teacher said that to me, I felt 10 times cooler than all the cool kids."

NAS Meridian's Starbase-Atlantis Director Pam Litton said this is the first time she has had a pilot who experienced the program in their youth.

"This experience was unique because Ensign Riggs could relate to our students on a personal level," Litton said. "He could talk to them about how attending Starbase as a fifth grader was an inspiration to him. Our students were so excited to hear about his experience as a former Starbase student."

Riggs was a student at Wichita Independent School in Wichita, Kan., when he attended the Starbase program which focuses on a curriculum of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). There are currently 76 DoD Starbase programs worldwide. Fifteen of these are Starbase Atlantis sites located on Navy bases.
The week-long program exposes fifth grade students and their teachers to real-world applications through experimental learning, simulations and interaction with military personnel.

"Starbase was but one small piece of my life experiences that moved me to join the Navy. But yes, it was a definite force that shaped my ambitions on flying," Riggs said.

It wasn't until college at The University of Colorado in Boulder that Riggs became serious about the Navy.
"Starbase helped to draw my gaze skyward, which ultimately put me on a trajectory to wanting to become a pilot," he said. "I also had a few heroes; my grandfather was a B-17 pilot in World War II and my violin teacher's husband was an American Airlines pilot."

Riggs said his experience at Meridian's Starbase Atlantis was truly memorable.

"When making the decision to join the military, one of the things I imagined doing someday was talking with like-minded youngsters about my experiences," Riggs said. "Having come full-circle to meet with students in the same setting I was in 15 years ago was inspiring to me and, I hope, to them as well. A lot of forces exist that can challenge a child's confidence and sully his or her dreams. Programs like Starbase give positive focus and encouragement to those kids."

For more news from Naval Air Station Meridian, visit www.navy.mil/local/nasmeridian/.