TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Becoming an astronaut is a childhood dream for many. A dream shared by a 13-year-old girl from Rhode Island. A dream that brought that young girl into a military career she fell in love with.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col., and die-hard New England Patriots fan, Joanna Rentes grew up in the small town of Cumberland, Rhode Island, with her parents and older sister, the most important things in her life.
Being in the military wasn’t something new for Rentes, as her father, grandfather and many uncles joined before her. But she is the only female in her family to join the military and only the second to commission as an officer.
“I decided I wanted to be in the Air Force when I was around thirteen years old,” Rentes said. “I wanted to join because I wanted to keep the tradition going, but at that time, like a lot of kids, I wanted to go to space and be an astronaut. So I thought the Air Force was the way to get there.”
After graduating high school, Rentes received a scholarship to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, focusing her degree in environmental engineering. There she joined the ROTC program and dedicated herself to joining the Air Force. A decision her former enlisted Army father completely supported.
“From what he recalled from being in the Army, he didn’t want me to go through the same things,” Rentes said. “He was really happy and supportive of my decision on joining, in his eyes, the right branch.”
While in ROTC, Rentes was on the path to become an Air Force civil engineer. After doing some digging of her own, she decided that another career was the right one for her.
“I was supposed to be a civil engineer. I was looking for a job that I wanted to do, and didn’t think that civil engineering was going to be a good fit for me,” Rentes said.
“I had a professor who had a grad student who was a bioenvironmental engineer, and it sounded like something I wanted to do,” she added. “I got connected with some [company grade officers] in the career field, spent some time talking to them, and I decided it was the right career path for me.”
That career path has landed her at her first command at the 325th Medical Support Squadron at Tyndall, where she oversees seven flights managed by highly trained Airmen and Team Tyndall members.
Through her 19-year career, she has had 10 assignments from Alaska to Alabama. Looking back to all of them, her favorite was her assignment at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
There her passion for hiking and nature emerged. It is also where she centers and reminds herself in what she believes.
Her philosophy is to do your best and help others. This is something she takes wherever she goes and shares with everyone she can, she said.
Rentes looks forward to meeting her new Airmen and has some words of advice.
“Remember what your values are and think about them all of the time,” she said. “They are easy to forget unless you truly believe them. They’re in your heart and they’re who you are.”
As far as her future after the Air Force, Rentes has other aspirations, she wants to share her knowledge with future generations and become a middle school math teacher.
For more information about the 325th Medical Support Squadron click HERE