Cosby Washingtion\u2019s life-long dream to become a pilot started in the third-grade with a science fair project on paper airplanes that advanced to the city wide science fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At thirty-two years old Washington recalls the fateful city wide science fair event that set in motion his career in the aviation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the city wide science fair I ran into a man that was part of the Tuskegee Airmen program. He was so impressed that I was intrigued with aviation at a young age that he told my mom once I get to about eleven or twelve to give him a call if I\u2019m still interested in aviation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington\u2019s mother kept the man\u2019s number and called him when Washington reached the age of thirteen. The man, Richard Jones, enrolled Washington, a young African-American male from Washington D.C., into a camp called \u201cLet\u2019s Fly Up to the 21st<\/sup> Century.\u201d Richard Jones founded the program to expose at-risk youth to aviation-related career fields at an early age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After completing the camp, Washington was introduced to the Tuskegee Airmen program where he went through ground school, completed the written examination, and then they paid for his first 15 hours of flying. \u201cEver since I went up for the first time I knew that I wanted to be a pilot and from there I just started to fly whenever I could, \u201d said Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington then completed college with a bachelor\u2019s degree in aviation administration. However, for two years his dreams where halted while he worked in the civilian world at a medical staffing company and as an accountant for children\u2019s hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI knew this wasn\u2019t what I wanted to do\u2026I just felt like I wasn\u2019t fulfilled in life so I started pursuing an opportunity to join the military so that I could get into aviation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt took me two years because no recruiter would really take my application serious because they didn\u2019t think my GPA was competitive to be a pilot but fortunately I was able to talk to someone who made a few phone calls and a recruiter took my application.\u201d At twenty-five years old Washington\u2019s application into the military was finally accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington has served for almost six years as a Navy pilot, flying MH-60 Romeo helicopters. Currently, he is doing his short tour and working in Commander, Task Force (CTF) 84, which specializes in homeland security and protection in undersea warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington continues to stay in contact with his mentor Richard Jones, the man who propelled his aviation career. \u201cI know that mentorship played a huge role in my success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was lucky to run into individuals who wanted to help out kids. I just didn\u2019t know any pilots or know that that was a career that I could actually pursue, so I had those individuals to show me the way.\u201d He attributes his success to the opportunities he was afforded and his families support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington advises aspiring pilots to not give up on their dreams despite the difficulties that they might face. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be times where you might not think that you\u2019re smart enough or have the proper skills to achieve the task but the only thing that\u2019s keeping you from achieving your goals is your own self regardless of whatever obstacles are in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cosby Washingtion\u2019s life-long dream to become a pilot started in the third-grade with a science fair project on paper airplanes that advanced to the city wide science fair. At thirty-two years old Washington recalls the fateful city wide science fair event that set in motion his career in the aviation industry. \u201cAt the city wide…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[27,6,28],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy.jpg",1024,682,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy.jpg",1024,682,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy.jpg",1024,682,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cosby_washington-copy.jpg",1024,682,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Alex Isom","author_link":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/author\/alex\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Cosby Washingtion\u2019s life-long dream to become a pilot started in the third-grade with a science fair project on paper airplanes that advanced to the city wide science fair. At thirty-two years old Washington recalls the fateful city wide science fair event that set in motion his career in the aviation industry. \u201cAt the city wide...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}