Fixed to fly

Teen cadet also sets sights on developing her leadership skills

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Fast, faster, fastest -- words Civil Air Patrol cadet Lt. Col. Tiffani Heinreich of North Las Vegas knows by heart. Words that are ingrained in her being, with the accent on "fastest."

If the high-performance SR-71 Blackbird were still in operation, Heinreich would want to be at the controls.

The Mach 3 reconnaissance plane is no longer in service, so the Clark High School senior has set her sights on a different goal -- she wants to go to the Air Force Academy, become a fighter pilot and then become the second female member of the Thunderbirds, the United States Air Force's aerial demonstration squadron based at Nellis Air Force Base.

Recently, during the Civil Air Patrol's Civic Leadership Academy in Washington, D.C., Heinreich was one of four cadets to speak at the Legislative Day celebration inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

CAP's 57,000 members amount to the Air Force's own auxiliary, and cadet members may undergo search and rescue training, courses in radio communications, photography, flight training and instruction in survival, disaster relief and public speaking. It conducts 95 percent of the inland search and rescue in the United States, performs aerial reconnaissance for the Department of Homeland Security, and saves about 100 lives a year, according to CAP's own figures.

Heinreich is a cadet member of the local Clark County Composite Squadron, based at North Las Vegas Airport.

"I've focused on the leadership portion more -- how to become a better leader," Heinreich said. "At first I was very quiet. I just did what I was told. I just followed orders."

Now, said Lt. Col. Charles McCarty, the squadron's public affairs officer, she is quite the opposite. "It's interesting to see this," he said of the cadets in the local squadron. "At the end of high school, they're just out there leading everybody."

Heinreich said she and her colleagues have discussed whether leaders are born or made. "I've proven that they're made, because I wasn't born to be a leader," she said. "Now, I go do stuff no matter if they tell me to do it or not."

The six-year CAP veteran told how she attended the service's National Blue Beret gathering in Oshkosh, Wis., last summer and learned what flying could be like.

"While there, I had the chance to fly in a Navy T-28 trainer jet," she recalled. "Although we stayed within 200-250 mph, we were able to do several tricks, and I was even able to take control of the jet."

Over the nearby Fond du Lac Airport, the pilot guided the plane on a low-level pass just 75 feet above the tarmac.

Heinreich was both thrilled and let down.

"The first words out of my mouth when I got out of the plane were, 'It didn't go fast enough,' " she said during an interview at the Ranch House, the Clark County Composite Squadron's headquarters.

She had learned something -- she wanted to be a fighter jockey. "I like going fast," she said.

A few months later, she saw the Thunderbirds perform over Nellis Air Force Base and was awestruck. And barely a month after that, she was privileged to have dinner with Capt. Nicole Malachowski, the first woman Thunderbird pilot, and also a former Clark County Composite Squadron CAP cadet.

"The stories she told," Heinreich said in her CAP Civic Leadership Academy speech, "were stories that I wanted to experience myself."

Heinreich was one of only 24 cadets invited to the Washington event, which included CAP's winter national board meeting and visits to a number of the capital's attractions.

As James Tynan, public affairs manager at the CAP's national headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., put it, "Heinreich has held almost every staff position a cadet can hold, including cadet commander. Currently, she is the squadron cadet leadership officer."

Heinreich's twin sister Tatiana is equally involved. "She's a cadet captain," Tiffani Heinreich said. "She's been in as long as I have."

"One day I was sitting in high school during 10th grade," Heinreich said, "and it just popped into my head: I wanted to be a bomber pilot. Then I thought, that's not fast enough. I want to be a fighter pilot and fly an F-22 or the new joint strike fighter."

Heinreich said she had little idea what CAP was all about when she was a youngster. Her brother Joshua was a member, however, and he took the two twins to an event one day.

"We were in what they call Project X, and we had to pretend we were in a minefield," the daughter of Kimberly Heinreich and John Buckner remembered.

Joshua Heinreich went on to become an United States Army ranger based at Fort Benning, Ga. His siblings joined CAP as soon as they were 12 years old.

As enjoyable as she has found CAP, Tiffani Heinreich admits to having considered several career choices as she went through middle and then high school.

"Second thoughts about CAP, no," she said. "Second thoughts about the career I want to do, yes. When I first joined, I didn't even plan on going into the military. I wanted to be a marine biologist; I like dolphins. Then I thought about going to ROTC to be a pilot, and then I decided I want to go to the Air Force Academy and be a fighter pilot."

Her CAP experience may be a worthwhile springboard. About 10 percent of each year's new classes at the nation's service academies come from CAP backgrounds.

"We've had one graduate from the Air Force Academy this year," McCarty said of the squadron, "and we have another starting. One of our members is at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and one is in the Merchant Marine Academy."

During her six years with the squadron, Heinreich has put in her share of travel: Cadet Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base, the National Emergency Service Academy in Indiana, a visit with the squadron to San Diego, Calif., a tour of the March Field Air Museum at Riverside, Calif.

The squadron comprises 56 cadets and 82 senior members, who are older than the cadets. Heinreich credited them for helping her with her speech in D.C.

"I was totally freaked out," she said. "I'm a good leader, but I'm not the best public speaker. Even up until the day I did it, I still didn't want to do it. Some of the senior members helped me practice the speech and gave me some tips, and I practiced in front of the national commander. Everyone said I did a good job."

"After the speech," Heinreich remembered, "I was told that one of the congressmen there said, 'That future Thunderbird pilot is fearless,' and I said, 'Yeah!' "

What will she do in the event she does not become a fighter pilot?

"I'd want to be a drill instructor. In CAP, you don't get to yell at anyone," she said, laughing, "but you can do that in the military."