The most important thing to know, when meeting Brianne Barron for the first time, isn’t the fact that she rose above a lean childhood to complete multiple degrees or overcame a debilitating shyness to attain the rank of captain in the United States Air Force or that she sees a little bit of herself in the classes she teaches her students at University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.
No, the first, and most important thing, to understand about Cap. Brianne Barron is that she is a pilot, the pilot of an RPA or Remotely Piloted Aircraft. Get the term wrong (for example, using the “d” word), and her sunny tone takes on a warrior’s edge. “You could also call it a UAV, an unmanned aerial vehicle,” she says, “but we don’t like the word ‘drone.'”
The difference is more than semantics. RPA/UAVs are serious business, built to do serious work under the most critical circumstances. The aircraft is used in various hostile environments, primarily to conduct surveillance, but also frequently comes packing.
“We have a very powerful, very capable camera on the aircraft. That’s how we see the ground,” Brianne says. “We also carry munitions; we can carry up to four hellfire missiles and two laser-guided bombs. We can loiter in the air for…twenty-four hours.
“That’s why the aircraft is so handy, especially in the Middle East and environments that require close air support. We could hang out for a long time and provide armed overwatch. That’s probably our most vital role.”
The RPA performs maneuvers deemed too dangerous for manned aircraft, thereby saving American lives, as well as delivering its ordnance with extreme prejudice. Perhaps even more remarkable is that the soft-spoken woman at the controls raining fire and brimstone on the enemy is doing so from a control panel half a planet away, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
“I can fly them via satellite from here to places across the world,” she says. “My plane is overseas in a deployed environment, and it can do many things that manned aircraft can’t do. It also reduces the safety risk because if our plane gets shot down, there’s nobody in it.”
Spend a little time learning about her background and one quickly discovers Brianne didn’t get issued a fighting spirit with her uniform. From early in life, the Oklahoma-born daughter of modest means had to overcome things thrown in her path with a mix of grit and perseverance.
“My parents divorced when I was three, and my mom and I moved around quite a bit after that,” she says. “She moved us to Fayetteville when I was in middle school, and we spent the rest of my childhood there. Being raised by a single mom on a teacher’s income, I knew college would be pretty much all on me.”
During senior year of high school, she applied to multiple colleges, ultimately landing at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith because they offered her the most generous financial aid package.
“I started to really find myself and my ambition in college; that’s when I started realizing I could thrive on my own,” she says. “I became obsessed with getting straight As, and I worked two jobs in college to pay for my bills. I was very adamant about being self-sufficient.”
One day, pursuing a degree in early childhood education, she accompanied a friend to the recruiter’s office to fill out her pal’s enlistment paperwork.
“A lady was sitting in the office, and she said [to me], ‘Have you ever considered joining?’” Brianne says. “I was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m in college. I don’t need the military; that is not on my path. I don’t think I could do it anyway. I’m not that tough.’
“She said, ‘Well if I can do it, you can do it.’ And it was one of those things where, I don’t know, I aspire to be challenged. I started looking into it, and after I graduated in December 2016, I immediately enlisted and became an intelligence analyst with the Arkansas Air National Guard.”
Having her degree, Brianne could have entered the service as an officer straightaway but went in as enlisted, feeling that it established more credibility. She landed with the 188th Wing after completing basic training and intel school, then settled in as part of the flight crew running daily missions. Before long, she’d completed flight school and was at the controls herself, which may have looked like an elaborate simulator, but the severity of which was never lost on her.
“It’s very surreal, your first time in the seat flying the actual aircraft,” she says. “The common misconception, I think, is that we are playing video games because we are so far removed from the actual combat zone. Maybe we perceive it with less humility than we should, but I can say that I have never been on a strike or a kinetic event that I haven’t taken home with me in some way. It’s tough to compartmentalize that when you go home.”
In addition to her decorated military career, Brianne has kept her life in balance. She met her husband in the service, and the couple just welcomed a baby boy. In addition to her bachelor’s degree, she’s also earned a master’s degree and is working on her doctorate. Along the way, she completed a research project that showed the effect of deployment on the children of military personnel.
“I was able to interview a couple of parents from the 188th Wing, who were being deployed,” she says. “I interviewed them before their deployment, during, and after. While they were deployed, I got permission to observe their children, a first and a fourth grader, in a classroom setting.
“My findings were all pretty consistent, which was there are extremely limited resources in the schools. The majority of teachers and counselors, through no fault of their own, just aren’t aware of how the military operates, what the children need, or what the parent at home is struggling with.”
Brianne delivered her findings to lawmakers at the state capitol, hoping that educators could be better equipped to handle such situations in the future. It isn’t the only program she’s been involved with to help improve educational opportunities in the River Valley; another is UAFS’ CDA Academy, which helps high school students get a jump on their childhood development associate credentials.
“It’s a three-year pilot program that allows me to teach online via Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The goal is to reduce costs and make the program available to more students statewide,” Brianne says. “Through this program, they get a certificate of proficiency and apply for their CDA credential if they’re successful. They get free college classes, a stipend for observing preschool centers three days a week, and a free laptop. It’s a unique opportunity.”
Of all the accolades and accomplishments Brianne has amassed in her career, what she’s most proud of is simply growing into the confident, capable woman she was meant to be and, by doing so, inspiring others to follow suit.
“Fifteen-year-old me was extremely shy and had no self-confidence, low self-esteem, just desperate for affirmation,” she says. “My confidence didn’t start improving until I enlisted, went through all those challenging training environments, and was immersed in Air Crew. There’s something about going through pilot training, getting wrecked every day, that you come out on the other side a different person. My fifteen-year-old self wouldn’t recognize the woman I am today.”
CALL OUT
University of Arkansas – Fort Smith: UAFS.edu
U.S. Air Force: airforce.com
Arkansas Air National Guard: 188wg.ang.af.mil
