“IT’S AN HONOR’: TU GRAD JOINS THE SPACE FORCE

At the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, near the Tuskegee Airmen Exhibit, a P51 flight simulator is on display.

“This is how you control pitch and roll of the aircraft…we also have the throttle over here,” said Devin Garcia, who helped create it for his senior capstone project at the University of Tulsa. He graduated in May with a degree in electrical engineering.

“We put in our own special code to actually do the simulation,” he said.

He was the team lead for the project, which took about four months.

“I was also the test engineer who developed the test plan…it was about a 52-page test plan; it was quite long,” he said.

Projects like this prepared Devin for his dream: to join the Space Force.

“Our mission is to secure our nation’s interest into and from space,” he said.

He was accepted into Officer Training School and just graduated last Friday.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Devin said.

But his journey is unique.

“They informed me that I’m the first Oklahoman to go through civilian off the street to Officer Training School and graduate for the United States Space Force,” he said.

Now, Devin plans to educate Oklahomans about the Space Force.

“It’s really special. Not a whole lot of people actually know that we exist,” he said.

He says Officer Training School was a transformative experience that gave him confidence for the future.

“To actually be here… it’s an honor,” he said.

Now that Devin’s officially an officer, he’s heading to Peterson Space Force base in Colorado Springs on Thursday to start his duties as a developmental engineer.