HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- The 775th Civil Engineer Squadron has welcomed a fresh face to its explosive ordnance disposal team.
1st Lt. Alexis Miguel just spent a year in technical school learning how to render safe anything and everything explosive, from a grenade to a half-ton bomb, in every category from biological to chemical to nuclear.
“It was an intense training but also fun,” Miguel said. “You learn to really understand the job and its risks.”
That job of helping to keep both the base and its surrounding communities safe from undetonated explosives is quite a bit different from her first job with the Air Force. After enlisting in the Air Force straight out of high school, she spent four years as a weather forecaster. But she knew forecasting weather wasn’t how she wanted to spend her career.
“I always knew I wanted to be an EOD officer,” she said. “I had heard a lot of good things about the career field. I wanted the small team dynamic that EOD offers and working with people with a lot of personality and a lot of grit was appealing to me.”
To get there, she applied and was accepted to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She spent five years there getting a degree in civil engineering. She joined Hill’s EOD team about a month ago. Miguel said there will be lots of opportunities to hone the skills she’s learned, specifically at the Utah Test and Training Range.
“The range is a huge playground for aircraft to drop ordnance and we get to go out there and clean it up,” she said.
She is excited for the opportunity to be in what she calls her “dream job,” and said young Airmen coming into the Air Force should never lose sight of their goals.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something,” she said. “Set your goal, find your passion – whatever sets your soul on fire – and then work hard to make it happen.”
Miguel said Women’s History month is special as it gives individuals a chance to acknowledge glass ceilings that have been broken by women.
“Those women who came before me have paved the way so we could accomplish our dreams,” she said. “They went through the hard stuff and fought the battles, so we don’t have to.”
When she is not detonating bombs, Miguel can be found in the outdoors, doing “granola activities,” including snowboarding, rock climbing and mountain biking.