Feature story: Decorah High School graduate Grant Schwartz is piloting an F-35A Lightning II

Lieutenant Grant Schwartz, a 2011 Decorah High School graduate currently stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Salt Lake City, Utah, has had hundreds - perhaps thousands - of hours of simulated and actual flight training in the Air Force's newest fighter jet.

The F-35A Lightning II (or "Panther" as the pilots call it) is a single seat, single engine, fifth generation, multi-role fighter jet that can carry out both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.  Schwatrz says, "This creates a fun challenge because unlike many other fighters that only focus on one specific mission set, we have to be experts at all of them. The F-35 is amazing in that it gives the pilot so much information and fuses it all together to provide unmatched situational awareness compared to other fighters."

Schwartz says he learned to fly the F-35A Lightning at the Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona.  His training included six weeks of academic and simulated flight training featuring a 360 degree projection with a complete cockpit replica of the actual jet.  "Since there are no two-seat variants of the jet, the first time I flew it was--no kidding--all by myself,  which was awesome!" exclaimed Schwartz.  After five months of learning how to fight air and ground threats, handle airborne emergencies, and conduct airborne refueling during both day and night, Schwartz moved to Salt Lake City and started flying in an operational fighter squadron.

After graduating from Decorah High School in 2011, Schwartz graduated from the University of Minnesota--Duluth, where he majored in biology.  He was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force through ROTC, then moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where he completed pilot training, Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals, and combat survival training.  After 10 months of training in Phoenix, Arizona,  Schwartz moved to Salt Lake City and became qualified as "combat mission ready."