From the field to the air, Beverly Cole, a senior on the women’s soccer team, has been enlisted in the U.S. Air National Guard since April 2010.
Cole’s older sister has been in the Air National Guard for over ten years and really enjoyed it, which fueled Cole’s desire to join — plus, it pays for tuition.
Contributed photo / Beverly Cole
After eight weeks of basic training and two months of individualized training Cole was getting prepared to travel to El Salvador.
“Our base in Portsmouth [New Hampshire] has a partnership with a base in El Salvador and the woman who coordinates it found out I spoke Spanish and wanted [me] to translate,” Cole said.
Cole is a Spanish major and said she wants to be a translator when she graduates. This was her favorite experience because she got to incorporate KSC with the U.S. Air Force.
“We were there for six days and we had an air show and people on the ground in a tent showing off equipment and letting people try stuff on and take pictures,” Cole said.
Cole has taken on many different jobs in the air force. She was a command post controller, in which she coordinated with pilots and the base to re-fuel planes in the air, until last summer when she switched to aviation resource management. Now, she said she’s more of a personnelist, making sure everyone has training and is “good to go.”
“Her overall responsibility is way beyond her years … She has a huge family, babysits during the week, has an amazing boyfriend and still has time to hang out with us [the team],” senior soccer teammate Alex Haley said of Cole.
Haley continued, “She always, always, always works things out with the air force so she can be at games,”
She said, “We love Bev. She’s such an asset for us on the field. She gives one-hundred-and-ten percent and brings some of that mentality from the military.”
Cole said that going through boot camp has especially helped her mental game on the field.
“In boot camp, it feels like you can’t do it a lot of the time and I think that’s the point, but then you have to keep telling yourself that thousands of people do this and hundreds of people graduate each week,” Cole said.
She continued, “You have to tell yourself ‘I can do this, I’m fit’ — you have to talk yourself through it and keep re-focusing. Obviously on the soccer field that’s a big thing.” This mentality prepared her for the upcoming soccer season when it came to conditioning and training.
“My KSC conditioning helps me out on the air force side because I condition here more than there, and I recently had my yearly PT test and I had my best time for the mile run because I’m so fit from soccer,” Cole said.
“I remember she came to practice one day and was super excited because she killed it at her physical test,” sophomore teammate Dani Warhall said.
Although Cole has to miss practice once in a while, she has never missed a game.
“One weekend a month we have drill weekends and they have been giving me Saturdays off ‘cause of soccer games. But it’s almost like the reserves where you just stay up to date with everything, so if they call you up you’re ready to go,” Cole said.
After attending these drill weekends for six years you’re enlistment is over, Cole said.
Cole continued to say that her six-year enlistment will be over in about a year-and-a-half, but she is considering becoming an officer and looking to deploy.
“I feel like I’ve put so much time in and the air force has put so much time in training me, it’s like finally, you get to put all your skills to use. It’s the real deal — it’s what your always preparing for,” Cole said.
This past Tuesday, Nov. 11 was Veterans Day. Cole’s sister, Emily, has voluntarily deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Ecuador and Guam.
Cole said that she thinks Veteran’s Day is a day to remember people are still serving even though there’s not a war in our country.
“I think it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we’re still fighting in other places, and it’s a good chance to remember people who miss things like weddings and birthdays serving for people who they don’t even know,” Cole said.
Cole continued, “I think it’s heroic.”
Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com
