Airman First Class Colin-Michael Ferguson Dunlap has graduated from Air Force Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex., and has been transferred to the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Oh., where he is studying biological-environmental engineering.
While at Lackland, Dunlap participated in an intense eight-week training program that included military discipline, customs and courtesies of the service, Air Force history and core values, the mission of the U.S. Air Force in the 21st century, Air Force operations against Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, and physical fitness.
The recruits were taught basic warfare principals and skills, including weapons training with the M-4 carbine, the bayonet and the M-9 semiautomatic pistol, as well as hand-to-hand combat, small unit maneuvering and tactics, survival, evasion, and escape, and how to plan, establish, and conduct a defensive perimeter around an air force base.
Dunlap was also detailed as his Flight’s academic advisor, responsible for knowing the training schedule, and reporting to his military training instructors on study subjects, homework assignments, and the test and quiz schedule for his Flight.
On Sundays, he was detailed as the chaplain’s assistant, responsible for helping the Protestant chaplain set up and prepare the chapel, assisting with the services and Holy Communion, and conducting new recruits to the services that corresponded to their faith, Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish.
Dunlap graduated at the top of his class, and on graduation day was promoted from Airman Basic to Airman First Class, and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) and the Air Force Basic Training Ribbon.
Due to Dunlap’s excellent performance at basic training, his high standing in his recruit training Flight, and recommendations from his military training instructors, he has been assigned to the USAFSAM at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he will undergo 14 weeks of intense training in the science of biological-environmental engineering.
According to headquarters, United States Air Force, the mission of a bio-environmental engineer is to “provide worldwide operational health expertise to optimize human performance, enhance commander decision making and promote and assist health services support.”
Dunlap will be trained in how to survey and evaluate Air Force facilities for contamination by hazardous materials (HAZMAT), and how to collect samples of water, wastewater, air, and soil for analysis by Air Force labs. He will be able to perform medical readiness surveys designed to identify chemical, biological, and radiological agents, and to take actions or make recommendations to the commanding officer on how to best neutralize these contaminants.
His training will include immediate emergency decontamination and containment procedures of dangerous agents that could disrupt Air Force operations, or put the lives of Air Force personnel in danger.
Dunlap is carrying on a long tradition of military service to the Republic. His brothers, his father, grandfather, and great-grandfathers are all combat veterans of America’s wars. He graduated in the top ten of his class at Patrick County High School, and is a summa cum laude graduate of Hampden-Sydney College where he finished a four year course of study in three years. He is the son of Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Douglas E. Dunlap and Linda Griffith Dunlap of Woolwine.
