Whether a steppingstone for future career goals or a life-long career, the Department of the Air Force offers science, technology, engineering and math professionals opportunities to grow and thrive in diverse environments. The Air and Space Forces employ enlisted, officer and civilian scientists who develop technology and innovation to support a wide variety of missions.

  Project ARC is one of the opportunities the Air Force offers for Airmen, both officers and enlisted, to make a difference. The project screens scientists and engineers and places them in units across the Air Force to experience missions firsthand, developing tailored solutions to local challenges.

  "Project ARC is designed to embed technically-minded military members into different units across our force, where they work alongside operators to come up with innovative solutions,” said 1st Lt. Kevin Tran, a National Space Intelligence Center space launch engineer working on Project ARC. 

  Tran said Project ARC is different from the typical acquisitions development approach because the acquisitions professional is engrained into the mission itself, working side by side with the operators.

  “This means you’re understanding not only their mission set but also their pain points and problems they currently experience,” he said. “Being able to contextualize that allows you to come up with a tailored solution to address their specific pain point.” 

  Space Force Master Sgt. Vince Olshove, an AFRL Center for Rapid Innovation engineer, said Project ARC differs from the innovation cells at many bases by screening individuals for their backgrounds and skillsets, and matching them with organizations that need those skills. 

  Project ARC requires each participant to be an open thinker, communicate well with others and enjoy working innovatively, according to Olshove. Most participants also have a STEM degree. Joining the program requires an application process that differs from other Air Force programs.

  Olshove said he applied to the program when he saw an announcement that started with “give me your tinkerers, your thinkers… .” The application led to an atypical interview process, with free-form conversational questions that screened applicants for technical skills as well as the personality traits required for team members. After he was selected, Olshove was assigned to the 621st Contingency Response Wing at Travis Air Force Base, California.

  One of the early projects he worked on was for survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists. The SERE team mentioned their technical medical dummy was failing, with long waits for rare and expensive parts delaying repairs. 

  Olshove took one of the pieces to Phoenix Spark, the Travis AFB Spark Cell, where they 3D-scanned and created a mold to make replacement parts. Olshove ordered silicone and cast new parts for the dummies. The whole process took about a week. 

  The Project Arc team was able to deliver a mold the SERE specialists could take to the field and use to create new gaskets as needed. That opened their eyes to other possibilities. 

  “That was the first domino that led to us talking about a lot more projects—some very large and many super-small and easy to achieve like that,” he said. 

  Tran joined the Space Force via ROTC while he was earning his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering. He wanted to make a broader impact than he may have had in a civilian career, and he saw military service as the way to step out of his comfort zone. 

  Though many people in the engineering field follow the typical route of getting the degree and pursuing contracting positions in the aerospace industry, Tran said he’s found that military service offers more opportunities for growth through meeting a wider variety of people and being ingrained in different mission sets, and these opportunities support his goals for the future.

  Tran plans to pursue a master’s degree and eventually move into commercial space exploration, using the experiences he’s gained in the military. He says experience as a flight-test engineer in the Space Force would feed into his overall goal.

  “Many people aren’t aware the military has a variety of different jobs,” he said. “[Serving in the military] is not just out in the field shooting guns—we have engineering-related career fields, we have software-related career fields. There are all kinds of diverse career fields that you can be involved in.”