Photo By Staff Sgt. DaQuan Hurt | A stream of cars approach West Gate outside of Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Feb. 06,...... read more read more
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Born in the Snow
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah. –
Tucked between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Front mountain range, Hill Air Force Base is no stranger to below freezing temperatures and 6-inch snow storms. No matter the weather, every morning nearly 25,000 civilian and military personnel flood three entry gates on the way to their heated work centers or the barren cement tundra that is the morning flightline. However, before the first F-35 Lightning II awakes from its frozen slumber, before the first e-mail is sent , and before the first civil engineer Airmen turn on the whirling amber lights of their army of snowplows, there are a frozen few already hard at work. The Airmen of the 75th Security Forces Squadron are trained and prepared to endure harsh snow storms and subfreezing temperatures in order to protect all members of team Hill. To one Airman, Staff Sgt. Raul Salyer, the wafting 19 degree winter Utah breeze feels like home; mostly, because it is.
Salyer was born in Logan, Utah, a sleepy town an hour or so north of Hill. As a kid he spent most his free time sliding around the powdery Wasatch Front in one fashion or another. “I have been living in the snow since I was a kid. I knew how to ski and snowboard before I really knew how to bike,” said Slayers. In a quote based off a famous line from movie The Dark Knight Salyer said humorously, “most people embrace the cold, I was born in it.”
Call it frozen fate or cold irony that in his short career Salyer has been stationed at some of the coldest bases in the Air Force, Minot in North Dakota and here at Hill and his sole career temporary duty trip was to Elmendorf… in Alaska. It’s no surprise then that Salyer, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the dotingly dubbed “white eagles”, morning shift security forces Airmen. “I think I keep finding myself in cold situations because I’m the only one that doesn’t complain about how cold it is,” he said, “It really doesn’t bother me.”
“He’s the only kid with a smile on his face in 20 degree weather,” said Mike Miller, a 75th Security Forces civilian defender, “We have to make him kit up with cold weather gear so we don’t get don’t get looked at crazy by leadership.” As Miller spoke, Salyers laughed with someone passing through the gate outside, “Listen to him. He’s having a blast,” Miller laughed.
“In all honesty Salyer is a blessing. So many Airmen go out there [to gate duty] and hate it, especially in the winter, and now their whole tour at Hill is about how much it sucks here. In times like these Salyer keeps spirits high, keeps people laughing and joking, and the Airmen forget how long they’re out here,” said MSgt William Brown, 75th Security Forces Squadron NCOIC of security forces operations. “He’s always talking about how he would go to school in 5 inches of snow as a kid. Real Utah stuff.”
Salyer is a testament that not every security forces Airman needs to be wished “stay warm.” In fact, Salyer would opt for a “keep cool.”
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2020 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 364878 |
| Location: | LOGAN, UTAH, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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