Fiona Lauer
Administrative Assistant
My name is Fiona Lauer. I joined in 2020 and have served for 6 years in the Air Force. I was a Signals Analyst, in Intelligence, with an AFSC of 1N2C. I joined the Air Force almost out of high school. I attempted to go to college first but only made it a few months before ultimately deciding to join the Air Force. I don’t have a lot of civilian work experience outside of the regular high school jobs. I worked at Safeway as a bagger and then got moved into the in-house Starbucks as a barista. Once I decided I was joining the military I preemptively quit, and then couldn’t leave right away, but I still needed money. So then for a few months I worked as a receptionist at a nonprofit for adults with disabilities.
My recruiter was surprised at my high ASVAP score and I was offered plenty of Intel positions which is what I went into the office wanting. I thought I would end up like James Bond, however I was mistaken. I joined at the height of COVID, so bootcamp was less strenuous than the regular. I still worked out and was in high pressure situations like everyone else, there was just lots more social distancing, and masks. Tech School was in San Angelo, Texas. My overall training was only 6 months; it was a very fast pipeline. Being Intelligence, all of my classes were inside a SCIF. Once I completed my initial trainings, I went to my first base! I was stationed at Fort Gordan, GA, in Augusta. It’s now called Fort Eisenhower. I was a Collector, a PGO, and a Mission Manager, before leaving in 2023. I worked in a joint environment on a watch floor for the time I was there. It was 24hr ops, high stakes, lots of upper management facetime, briefs, and then the regular analysis we did. Overall, I learned a lot by working in that position, and I’m very glad it was the first place I started. I was awarded a joint service achievement medal for my time there. My next base was Hawaii, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. I worked mostly at NCTAMs, which was an annex from JBPHH. The environment was a complete 180. Everyone was chill, when they say island time/life, they mean it. I went from a fast-paced high-profile environment to a lax office. I needed it after my high stress job in Georgia. I loved the shop I worked for in Hawaii. We all got along really well and did things together outside of work. The moral was higher and the command cared more about the people than the mission. The shop I worked for was P2 which means that, it was an Air Force mission, so we used different systems and did different work than I was used to. Everywhere I went I had to learn something completely new. That is the beauty of the Air Force, or just military in general. It’s a face-paced environment where you are expected to adapt and learn quickly. I can't say too much about my career unfortunately, because I was Intelligence. But I did a lot of cool jobs and gained a lot of valuable experience. I built many strong relationships at all of the places I’ve been. I am very thankful to have experienced the things I did, and to meet the different people as well. I am now transitioning out of the military and took advantage of the Skill Bridge program that the military offers to separating service members. I will be working with Lake County, working in the courts for a few months, and then the VAC.
