Ravi Chaudhary: Former Air Force Pilot
Ravi Chaudhary is the FAA Executive Director for Regions and Property Operations (ARO) in the Office of Finance and Management. Previously, he served as an Air Force pilot, space launch engineer, speechwriter and strategic planner at the Pentagon and a presidential appointee to the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Mr. Chaudhary holds commercial, multi-engine and instrument pilot certificates and has logged over 3,000 hours as a pilot and flight test engineer (760 combat hours) since September 11, 2001.
How has your South Asian identity shaped your career path?
I chose to become a pilot in the United States Air Force for one main reason — I am the son of immigrants. Growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, people regularly commented on how courageous it was to pursue a career considered so “non-traditional” in the Asian American community. Yet, in many ways my choice pales in comparison to the courage of my parents who emigrated to the U.S. from India. They chose to give up everything they knew, loved and was familiar to them, in order to pursue the American dream. Of course, they raised children with the same natural instinct to take the road less traveled. As immigrants, my parents appreciated new ways of thinking, and encouraged us to step outside the box and pursue the unknown.
What made you decide to go into public service?
Public service, including military service, has played a formative role in my family, both in India and as a newly arrived immigrant family in America. My late grandfathers, Major Pratap Singh and Deputy Inspector Pheroo Singh, fought in World War II for the Indian Army and served in the Indian Police Force, respectively. Additionally, my father served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 35 years, and my brother State Senator Satveer Chaudhary served as the first Asian American legislator in Minnesota history. My mother is Chief Operating Officer of an organization that advocates for underrepresented AAPI communities in Minnesota, and my sister is a distinguished professor of biology at Loyola University. Following their example, I had always dreamed of serving as a pilot and aerospace engineer and my parents were very supportive when I told them I wanted to pursue an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy.
What skills are needed for someone pursuing a career in the military ?
One of the most incredible projects I was fortunate to support was a repair program for the International Space Station. During this program, I had the chance to dive with astronauts in Johnson Space Center’s underwater laboratory and help with trial assembly of the International Space Station. It was my first time spending an entire day completely underwater while diving with “Nitrox” air, coming up only briefly to switch air tanks. Admittedly, it was an intimidating environment. I was surrounded by highly-qualified astronauts and Navy divers, all debating complex assembly procedures for the spacecraft. However, during the debrief, one astronaut, Sandy Magnus, put me at ease by simply asking me, “Is there anything you are seeing that I didn’t? What are we missing on this, Ravi?” I thought, “Are you serious? You’re the astronaut!” Yet, the leadership example Sandy set was profound — because regardless of the situation, it is the duty of a leader to empower team members, no matter how inexperienced they are, without fear of being dismissed or rebuked. More importantly, it is the job of the leader to create an atmosphere where young team members feel free to offer expertise and be authentic.
Years later, that leadership lesson would save my life as pilot-in-command of a C-17 while flying into Iraq. As an instructor, I had made it a point to brief my crew members, especially the youngest on the team, that they were empowered to speak up if they saw a problem. On one particular mission, we were flying with night vision goggles and proceeding to a field that had recently come under attack. Since hostile forces were in the area, drones were on station providing support. “Cohabitating” with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in busy Iraqi airspace was a tenuous activity — the psychology of unmanned aircraft sometimes meant that their presence was not always communicated, and updates on their whereabouts were sparse. As we descended our aircraft into the “black abyss,” our thrust reversers were deployed, yielding a descent rate of approximately 10,000 feet per minute, which is more like glorified falling!
What challenges in your career have you faced as a result of your identity?
These days, culture and career seem to run together for me. Have there been challenges? Heck, yeah! Growing up in Minnesota, it wasn’t always easy showing up to basketball practice with the unorthodox smell of curried walleye on your jersey. For some, you’re never quite “Asian” enough, and for others you are never “American” enough. Yet, aviation is a great equalizer; the physics of flight knows no color. Every time a pilot takes to the air, one of the greatest orthodoxies of all time is challenged — gravity. It acts upon us every time we fly, but pilots choose to deliberately push back and defy it. Meeting the challenges as a first generation Indian American was no different.
Is there anything else you’d want to tell us?
As a pilot, the very act of flight is non-traditional and the ultimate expression of human freedom. Flying conveys an intrinsic desire to liberate oneself from the forces of gravity, and the orthodoxies we sometimes get complacent with in our daily lives. Flying serves as a constant reminder that the forces of orthodoxy are always acting upon us and it is our sense of freedom that encourages us to push back in pursuit of new horizons. This was the gift given to me by my parents when they chose to immigrate to America, and further cultivated by the Air Force. We must always remember that this inherent thirst to reach beyond the sky is made possible in part by the courageous attributes of the waves of immigrants that came before us. This fact, as Vice President Biden often remarks, is how America is constantly able to re-invent itself, and remain on the leading edge of innovation.
It is also a bit of a metaphor for the challenges young AAPIs face while growing up. Thriving in two worlds, you’re never Asian enough, and never American enough! With thousands of AAPIs now answering the call to serve our nation, I see the term “non-traditional” becoming less and less useful to our next greatest generation. Yet the act of pursuing what we consider “non-traditional” is essential to our growth as an immigrant community. I believe we’ve now shattered the term “non-traditional,” and more.
