From Guam to Alaska, this FAAer’s Life Comes Full Circle
Bobbie Kahklen uses her Alaskan Native heritage to help other indigenous people seek out learning and opportunities.
By Jim Tise, FAA
As her grandmother lay on her death bed, Bobbie Kahklen held her hand and recalled the personal and professional journey she’s taken since her childhood growing up in Alaska. It was a full-circle moment for them both, merging their traditional Native Alaskan upbringing with the modern world.
Kahklen, a support specialist with the Guam Center Radar Approach Control, is a member of the Eagle/Wolf clan of the Native Alaskan Tlingit (pronounced ‘clink-it’), a tribe that predominates in southeastern Alaska and that is believed to have emigrated there roughly 11,000 years ago.
As she celebrates Native American/Alaskan Native Heritage Month, Kahklen looks back at her upbringing and heritage and how working for the FAA helped fulfill her family’s dreams for her.
Raised by her grandparents in Juneau, she was surrounded by family — more than five dozen cousins. With little formal education, her grandfather, Dan, worked graveyard shifts as a janitor, while her grandmother, Sue, worked as a housekeeper.
“Family was always very important to my grandparents and they instilled that in me,” Kahlken says. Her parents also instilled in her love of her Alaskan Native heritage. “I got to grow up listening to Tlingit music, the language being spoken, having that family, camaraderie and closeness and connection.”
She recalls reliving stories about the Eagle and the Raven, the two creatures that represent the Tlingit clans, each with their own defining characteristics. Her grandparents passed down stories that Kahlken says resemble western folklore or children’s tales teaching right from wrong or warning about bad behavior.
“Since I’m part of the Wolf Clan, I’ve always had an affinity towards wolves,” she explains. “They’re beautiful animals, very strong and very silent in their intentions. I’m kind of the same way. I’m not like a peacock showing off their feathers and preening and squawking every second to be noticed. I only act when necessary and for a very specific purpose.”
She watched as fellow clan members performed Tlingit rituals and songs for tourists. “They sang traditional songs, with traditional drums and traditional regalia. For me personally, it was very moving and touching to be able to see, hear and feel that. It affects me just as much today as it did back then.”
Yet, as much as her grandparents loved her and immersed her in their heritage, they were gently pushing her toward adapting to western culture, where she stood the best chance to succeed.
“They stressed to me very early on in life about getting good grades and going to college. I did that. My older cousins and aunts did not like that because I broke the mold.”
Kahklen’s cousins were snared in a constricted life, in which women were expected to marry and start a family while their husbands followed a path of subsistence and commercial fishing. Poverty, alcoholism and drug addiction were unfortunate aspects of their existence. There were no such things as family vacations in the “Lower 48” for the Kahklen clan. On holidays and during summer, they took their boat out for fishing and visiting relatives in nearby villages.
Encouraged by her grandparents, Kahklen became the first grandchild to graduate high school. From there she went to college to originally become a child psychiatrist. However, during this time, she took a job as an administrative assistant at the Juneau Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), and, with the backing of her AFSS manager, applied for and won a developmental controller bid.
She trained as a tower controller at Juneau International Airport and San Diego’s Gillespie Field, advancing steadily to a position at the San Francisco International Airport tower. It was there the first part of her FAA career came to an end. A seizure permanently disqualified her as a controller.
“I have been fortunate to have a few very supportive air traffic managers in my career during these rough times,” she says. Kahklen volunteered to take facility instructor training so she could update and conduct all classroom training when she was at San Diego, helping her achieve a support specialist role at San Francisco.
“My air traffic manager offered to put me in any and all training courses I was eligible to attend in order to learn how to run a facility administratively. Because of him I became an on-the-job training cadre instructor and was regularly invited to teach that course all over the country.” Kahklen also learned about quality assurance, quality control and training administration.
After several positions at FAA headquarters in Washington D.C., Kahklen returned to the field in her current position on Guam. The cultural heritage and the steep challenges locals on Guam face have brought her full circle in a sense.
“It’s a small community,” she noted on the similarities between Alaskan and Chamorro cultures. “Everybody knows each other. They have large families and have children young and are all there supporting each other through life. It does take a village.”
On the flip side, because of its remote location, the FAA struggles to retain those controllers who work on Guam on three-year agreements. Kahklen sees her membership in FAA Employee Associations — the Native American Alaska Native Coalition (NAAN) and the National Hispanic Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees, among others — as “avenues to reach out to talk about FAA career opportunities” to Chamorros. Her experience as a controller could prove especially useful to the agency as it bolsters its air traffic controller ranks.
“It’s hard to get people to get out to Gaum,” she explains. “I think the least I can do to give back at this stage of my career is to be some kind of resource and to reach out to locals here to show them the possibilities of careers in aviation for them and their children.”
Kahklen has participated in student outreach events throughout her career. She has volunteered for many high school career fairs, mentored students at Aviation High School in Renton, Washington, and was a regular presenter at NASA Ames’ annual Sally Ride Science Camp. Her recent decision to become an outreach representative for the FAA’s STEM education program on Guam should come as no surprise.
Kahklen’s grandmother pushed her to graduate high school, and at 57, her grandmother earned her high school GED in order to be promoted to a management position. It proved to Kahklen that age doesn’t matter. Kahklen pushed herself throughout her career and now can be someone who encourages people to push themselves into new and unfamiliar roles.
“You have the opportunity to evolve into something more than what you are today. What my grandparents taught me made me the person I am today and continues to make me a better person. You are never too old to learn.”
