When Riley Snowden was little he knew the Air Force was for him.
"My dad was in the military, the Army, for 22 years. And ever since I was a kid I've wanted to fly so the Air Force was always for me," Snowden said.
Snowden is now an ROTC member and a leader at the 910th Airlift Wing's Civil Air Patrol Encampment for young people.
"I like the discipline the responsibility, everything that comes with being a good military officer. That's something that I've learned from Civil Air Patrol, is that there are all different kinds of leadership styles and all different times to use them," he said.
Saturday the base graduated 130 cadets, ages 12-21, from the encampment over the last week. According to military leadership on the base, it teaches the cadets valuable life skills.
"They learn how to work as a team. Basically it's a lot of the same concept as we learn in basic training as members of the military," Encampment Commander Ted Pifer said.
"You're first year, you're a basic. So you don't get, maybe, treated as well as you'd like. It's all about breaking the indivdual down and building them up as a team," 14-year-old Encampment First Sargent Justin Traister said.
Saturday Traister and his teammates were evaluated on drill and marching skills and underwent a bunk inspection. Snowden says, because of the youth training program, he felt more prepared than others.
"For example, I'm in ROTC right now. I just finished up my freshman year. And I think it was relatively easy because I knew many of the things they were teaching us because I was in Civil Air Patrol,"
Both Snowden and Traister are both hoping to become officers in the Air Force.
