SOARING TO SUCCESS: Los Chavez native helps save lives through Alaska Air National Guard

Life can take us down unexpected paths, but keeping an open mind and embracing change can lead to wonderful things, as Jasmine Massingill can attest.

Massingill grew up in Los Chavez, attending Belen Family School and later Early College Academy in Albuquerque. Little did she know after exiting high school that she would soon be soaring through skies above Alaska as part of a search and rescue team with the Alaska Air National Guard.

“At the Belen airport, they would offer free flights for kids. My dad took me there before and I got to fly with them. That was so cool, but I still would have never thought I could be a pilot or even an air crew member,” said Massingill of the Young Eagles flights.

Throughout high school, Massingill — the daughter of Anthony Chavez and Diane Chavez-Sedillo — was interested in pursuing a career in the medical field.

Having two siblings in the National Guard — sister, Danae Chavez (a medic), and brother, Josiah Chavez (who is no longer in the guard) — she recognized the many opportunities the guard could offer, so right out of high school, she enlisted with the New Mexico National Guard with the goal of securing a job in the medical field.

“All they had available for medical — if I didn’t want to wait very long —was public health, which is like building inspections and paperwork, not really doing the hands-on stuff that I wanted,” Massingill recalled. “My recruiter said, ‘Well, you scored decently on the ASVAB, and we have a flying job that is opening up.’”

As a self-described adrenaline junkie, Massingill was intrigued at the idea. The recruiter went on to explain that it was a loadmaster job.

A loadmaster, Massingill explained, is an air crew member who manages the cargo on board the aircraft. They load and unload cargo and ensure it is safe. Loadmasters also do all the hands-on work in the back of the plane and carry out airdrops.

“If there’s any airdrops we will throw the stuff out of the plane, and we also do helicopter refueling,” she said. “I was like, that sounds awesome — forget being a doctor!”

Following recruitment with NMANG in 2013, she was sent to Pennsylvania for training and to get flight experience. Massingill was out there for about a year and a half when she met her future husband, who was also a loadmaster.

Knowing they wanted to stick together, they began looking for locations that would accept them both and have HC-130 planes, as that is the type of plane they trained for which is part of the guard’s search and rescue triad.

“I had a friend who I went through basic training with who lived in Alaska. She invited me out there, and I loved it. I thought, ‘Well, Alaska has HC-130s, and they have a guard unit.’”

After spending four years as a loadmaster with NMANG, Massingill and her husband made the big move to Wasilla, Alaska, in 2019, which Massingill described as a good fit that paired well with her love for the outdoors developed from her time growing up in Los Chavez.

“I really love Alaska; it’s everything that I’ve ever loved,” she said.

Alaska is also a perfect place for aviators, Massingill noted.

“A lot of people fly in Alaska,” she said. “There’s a lot of general aviation aircraft up there because there’s not a lot of roads throughout the state.”

Being in search and rescue, Massingill said when you are assigned to be on alert, which essentially means on-call, you need to be able to report to duty within an hour.

One of her favorite alert missions was a civilian emergency call in 2022 for a woman nine months into her pregnancy experiencing life-threatening blood pressure complications. They were the first to reach the woman who was in desperate need of medication.

“They said if she doesn’t get this medicine, she and the baby could be lost,” Massingill recollected. “When we’re alerted, we fly with pararescue jumpers who are medically qualified personnel, but the weather was too bad for the PJs to jump, but as load masters, we could throw rescue bundles out.”

A helicopter was on its way, but it was still an hour out and the woman needed the medicine as soon as possible, so Massingill said the team got to work rigging up a rescue bundle to parachute down to her.

“They calculated the drop, and then we came in and dropped the bundle to the medical people on the ground, and she was able to lower her blood pressure. Then the helicopters came in, took her to hospital and the next morning the baby was born,” said Massingill. “They said if she hadn’t gotten that medicine, it probably would have been too late if we had delayed any longer.”

Massingill said a lot of people’s first impressions about the military include associations of violence, but being in search and rescue is all about preserving life, which is what she finds most rewarding about her career.

“It can be a lot and be exhausting, but the reward definitely outweighs that,” said Massingill.

While the Alaska National Guard is dedicated to combat search and rescue, Massingill said they also do civilian search and rescue. Being a land known as “The Last Frontier,” wilderness is plentiful and there are many places that can’t be reached by road leading to many calls for service.

“We do a lot of village and adventure rescues when people get lost, and we’ve also gotten a couple bear maulings,” she said.

While in Alaska, Massingill also earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation technology, and after nine adventurous years of being a loadmaster, Massingill recently set her sights on a new challenge.

“It was a bittersweet moment, but, yeah, I’m not a loadmaster anymore,” said Massingill. “I’m a second lieutenant and am in (search and rescue) pilot training. It’s a two-year training, so I’ll be in Mississippi for a year, and then I train in New Mexico for a year. God willing I get through the training, I will be a pilot in the Alaska National Guard.”

Massingill said she hopes her story inspires more minority women to set their sights high and consider careers that women may not initially see themselves in, like the National Guard.

“There’s a whole world out there, and with a little bit of hard work, we could do whatever we want,” said Massingill.