Building big things: stint with RED HORSE springboards Airman to engineering degree

Airman, Dec, 2004 by Michael A. Ward

Most children use Play-Doh to mold animals and other shapes. Senior Airman Sol Rios-Montalvo used it to mold her future.

As a 5-year-old, she used the putty-like stuff to shape a sprawling metropolis in her playhouse.

"I did a whole city with a bank, a school, a shopping center, people and animals," she said. "It took a lot of Play-Doh, believe me."

She worked on her model city until the putty-like material dried out. Soon, she tired of it and her brother took the wooden platform on which she'd built her city and turned it into a surfboard.

Although Airman Rios-Montalvo outgrew Play-Doh, she never outgrew her desire to build. Her father is an architect, and she hopes to eventually follow in his footsteps.

"I love details," she said. "I got that from my dad. Every detail in a house has a story. I learned a lot from him, and maybe that's why I have this passion."

She has big plans and big ideas and becomes so animated when she shares them, few could doubt she'll one day make them reality.

"I would like to build big houses and big buildings like in New York," she said. "I have a pretty good idea of my ultimate house. I don't even know where I'm going to build it, but it's going to be huge."

Her ideas are so big that when she turned in her first design assignment in college, her instructor mistook her drawings of a house for a church. She was disappointed.

"Where do you see a cross?" she asked the instructor. "Nowhere, right?"

Today, Airman Rios-Montalvo still gets to build. She's an engineering technician with the 823rd RED HORSE Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Fla. The job gives her plenty of opportunity to do what she loves--work on big projects.

"I think it's amazing how, on a piece of paper, you can design something like the aircraft parking ramp we did in Oman last year," she said. "That was just huge, and nobody thought we could do it. It was like the size of 54 football fields."

The ramp was one of the largest projects built to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the $30 million project took only six months to complete. Original estimates had it at 18 months.

"I like my job, and I go TDY [temporary duty] a lot because I love it," the Airman said. "I don't mind going to the desert because I look back on what we did and think, 'Wow, I did that.'"

Airman Rios-Montalvo joined the Air Force in 2000, leaving behind in Puerto Rico family, friends and a nearly completed college degree. She was a year away from receiving a bachelor's degree in engineering when she noticed some Airmen leaving a recruiting office near her school.

"The Air Force has a sharp, clean image," she said. "I wanted to be like that. So I went to the recruiter and said, 'Tell me about yourself.'"

Then she made up her mind to join the Air Force. Her family did not initially share her enthusiasm, especially since she was so close to finishing her degree. That didn't deter her.

"I was going to join no matter what," she said. "I wanted the experience. I wanted to wear the uniform and see how it feels to be part of it [Air Force]."

Airman Rios-Montalvo intended to finish her degree during her enlistment. However, temporary duty and deployments limited her ability to do that.

"Sometimes I think I should have finished my degree and come in as an officer," she said. "But I really like my job. The officers get to design, but they don't get to play in the dirt."

When her enlistment is up next year (she extended for an extra year), Airman Rios-Montalvo plans to pursue her childhood dream. She knows what she wants to do after college, but she's not sure where she'll wind up. She does have one place in mind though.

"I'm thinking of moving to Washington, D.C.," she said. "That's a place to put big buildings."

Career Field Facts

3E5X1--Engineering technician

Assigned: 1,005

Duties: Assists engineers in designing new buildings, roads and projects. "The officers design, but we draw them, survey the area and do material testing," Airman Sol Rios-Montalvo said.

Civilian application: In the civilian world, engineering technicians are known as draftsmen and surveyors. Typical duties include civil engineering design, drafting, surveying, preparing manual and computer-aided design drawings. Civilian and military engineers now make extensive use of leading-edge computer and geotechnology to assist in surveying, drawing and design.

Senior Airman Sol Rios-Montalvo

Engineering technician, 823rd RED HORSE Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Fla.

Years in Air Force: Four

Hometown: Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

Reason for joining: "The Air Force has a sharp, clean image. I wanted to be like that."

Assignments: Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Hurlburt Field.

Coming up: When her enlistment is up in 2005, she'll return to college in Puerto Rico to complete her last year and earn her engineering degree.

Best thing about the job: "You laugh a lot. Every day you come here, things happen, and you're like, 'Oh my God, that's just too funny.'"