2008 Woodie Awards
ROTC alumnus recently promoted to rank of brigadier general
Catching up with: Michael Callan
By Liz Glazier
Rocket Assistant Focus Editor
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Focus
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He did.
Growing up, Callan, 48, said he knew he wanted to be involved in the Air Force. His family moved from Meadville, Pa., to Pittsburgh when he was 5 years old, and he said he remembers the event that prompted his interest in the Air Force: lying in his backyard, seeing an aircraft fly over his house.
"I didn't know what it took to do that," Callan said, "and since then I have always thought flying an airplane was cool."
Keeping his goals in mind, he tried to find a college that met a few specific standards. He wanted a school where he could receive a college education that had a reasonable budget and that also had a good Reserve Officer Training Corps program that would help get him into the military, which would ultimately fulfill his dream of someday flying. With the help of his guidance counselors, Callan said he decided to attend Slippery Rock State College.
During his years at what was then Slippery Rock State College, Callan earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1981 and joined the Air Force as an ROTC graduate.
Following graduation, he began undergraduate pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. Callan then went through qualification training and continued on to become co-pilot and aircraft commander in the 67th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron in Woodbridge, England.
After four years there, Callan attended Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to become a qualified C-130E aircraft instructor. He also became an HC-130H/N/P aircraft instructor and flight examiner pilot in 1987.
Though there were times when Callan questioned his own abilities, he said he never wanted to give up.
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