JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas -- Airmen with the 559th Flying Training Squadron welcomed younger family members to Hangar 64 on Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph for Bring Your Child to Work Day August. 11.
The event offered children of the 559th “Billy Goats”, T-6 maintenance team members, and simulator instructors the opportunity to see many of the facets that encompass the T-6 pilot instructor training mission. It included putting on flight equipment in an aircraft egress classroom, flight time in training simulators, and a static T-6A Texan II aircraft that kids could look at. The JBSA Fire Department got to represent their part of the mission by having a firetruck and gear available for kids.
“This is a great way to stop and show children what their adult family members are doing and why it’s important,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Russell, 559th FTS commander.
Bring Your Child to Work Day was also a way to celebrate family members’ support.
"We go to work and do our amazing jobs every day and our families support us without question, but a lot of times it’s tough to articulate exactly what that means, especially to our young kids," Russell said.
One of the outcomes was a sense of family for the squadron as a whole.
“We really wanted to just have a day where we could get all of the families and spend time together as a big family,” said Maj. Jonathan Fruge, 559thh FTS instructor pilot. “I think we accomplished that,” Fruge said
“Bring Your Child to Work Day” will likely continue as a part of this squadron’s family tradition.
“I am really excited about this event because it’s not just for the guys wearing flight suits. It’s for our operations support personnel, our simulator personnel and our maintenance personnel,” said Russell.
“It’s really an all-encompassing effort to show everybody their family is valued and important.”