Kigali born Karl Mutangana has become Senior Airman in the US Air Force, three years after he left Rwanda to the United States of America.<\/p>\n
He was recently selected to help lead the new F-35 MICAP (mission capable section) at the Eglin Air Force Base in the State of Florida.<\/p>\n
The Eglin AFB\u2019s website published Mutangana\u2019s story on Monday, lauding his leadership qualities which blossomed quickly as an Airman and got him promoted to Senior Airman six months earlier than it is usually done.<\/p>\n
His job as a liaison between suppliers ensures F-35 aircraft parts are prioritised according to mission needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMutangana was handpicked to help lead the new F-35 MICAP, (mission capable section) here and he\u2019s become a key player,\u201d said Staff Sgt. Stephany Birkos, Mutangana\u2019s supervisor. \u201cHe makes me proud. His motivation and passion are what our Air Force needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now deployed, Mutangana is in a leadership role as an escort for non-military connected base workers.<\/p>\n
The 22-year eldest of five siblings said he dreamed of becoming a leader since his childhood.<\/p>\n
Only two years after enlisting, Senior Airman Karl Mutangana, 96th Logistics Readiness Squadron, got deployed for his new country as an Airman in the United States Air Force.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful. Being in the United States Air Force is an enlightening experience,\u201d said the five-level journeyman. \u201cIt\u2019s rewarding to see what I do supports the test aircraft and a larger mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mutangana was 11-years-old when his mother moved to America under refugee status. He remained in Rwanda with his grandmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in Rwanda had its ups and downs. Sometimes we didn\u2019t have anything to eat. The entire community would be without food, so it didn\u2019t bother us as much. We didn\u2019t dwell on it. We just lived,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He was born after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi but grew up in a conflicted society with lingering ideological differences. Mutangana said that the prejudice he witnessed from conflicts ignited his passion for leadership.<\/p>\n
Determined to keep those differences from affecting another generation, Mutangana became the president of the Never Again Club in his high school.<\/p>\n
The club was promoting unity and reconciliation among students.<\/p>\n
\u201cBringing Hutus and Tutsis students together to talk through real issues broke the bondage. We became friends. We realised we had a better future,\u201d said the multi-lingual Airman who speaks four African languages. <\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this experience, I realised I had a passion for leadership. There was something better in my future too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mutangana was granted a permanent residence card and joined his mother and his America-born siblings in Connecticut in 2015.<\/p>\n
Long before Mutangana arrived, he searched for leadership opportunities. He found himself drawn to the Air Force\u2019s culture of integrity and leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt the Air Force would be a good platform to develop my leadership skills and further my education. It would be living my dream.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite some uncertainty about the requirements for joining the Air Force, Mutangana placed his hopes and dreams in what his mother always told him, \u2018anything you think of, dream of, you can achieve it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the recruiter told me I was eligible. I knew it was the beginning of my success story,\u201d said Mutangana. \u201cI was glad for the opportunity to join the world’s greatest Air force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mutangana first donned his \u2018Blues\u2019 for basic training graduation. That momentous day was when he also became an American citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, I was sworn-in as a U.S citizen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was memorable. I became an American after 10 months in the country. It was a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Air Force, also called air army or aerospace force, is the set of attack and fighter aircrafts, helicopters, transport aircrafts, and bombers.<\/p>\n
ListoGraphic reports that US Air Force is the world\u2019s most powerful in 2018 with more aircrafts than China, Russia, India, UK, Germany, and France combined. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHe makes me proud. His motivation and passion are what our Air Force needs,\u201d says the Rwandan\u2019s supervisor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[195],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-jean-damour-mugabo"],"bylines":[{"id":195,"name":"Jean d'Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":21}],"contributors":[{"id":195,"name":"Jean d'Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":21}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38104"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38104"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}