Soaring: From the stage to the sky

Forest Lake teen finds new heights in aviation career through National Guard

Aubrey Hansen grew up soaring on the stage. As a student at both Lakes International Language Academy and St. Paul Conservatory for the Arts, she had once found her home on the stage, pursuing her talents through competitive dancing with The Dance Factory in Forest Lake and with dance companies in the Twin Cities.

“I love dance. I think it’s such a unique way to express movement and emotion,” she said.

Now her home isn’t on the stage, it’s soaring the skies as an Blackhawk crew chief in the Minnesota Army National Guard. Some may say that seems like a leap of its own, from dance to flying in the National Guard. But Army Specialist Hansen doesn’t see it that way.

“I think aviation and dance are actually kind of similar. Everything stems from shapes and movements. I don’t think they’re too far apart,” she said.

All the learning required for her position is part of who she is, too.

“One thing that’s really important to me is you can express art and do all these great things through dance, or through painting, or through drawing, or whatever art form you choose, but you can still have that academic mindset, too,” she said.

Hansen was that student, and now at 19, she is just a month away from graduating with her Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies in aviation, health sciences, and Spanish from Century College thanks to PSEO classes, an endeavor she’s worked to complete during her two years since joining the Guard on Feb. 9, 2022.

Charting her career flight path came through her experiences growing up. Dance was, in part, a reason for her pursuit of a career in aviation. She traveled to Poland and parts of Europe with the St. Paul area-based tap dance company Keane Sense of Rhythm. She also visited China during her time at Lakes International Language Academy.

“I was really thinking about what I like academic-wise,” she said. She liked the idea of something in the health field, like kinesiology. But recalling all her hours in an airplane for her travels made the choice easy.

“Have you ever been on a plane that’s not pressurized, and you can feel the wind? That’s just such an awesome feeling,” she said, later adding, “Aviation just stole the boat.”

She chose to pursue that dream through the Army National Guard, deciding on a path before even stepping into a recruiting office.

“I knew exactly the job I wanted,” she said, and that was to be a Blackhawk crew chief, an accomplishment she achieved in just 20 months after working her way up through the ranks, from an air mechanic – her current full-time job – to mechanic chief.

She said her first time flying as a crew chief was “exhilarating,” adding “it’s a memory I will never forget. [It] came with a sense of accomplishment and appreciation.”

She is required to perform her duties as a Blackhawk crew chief at least once a month, though it’s often multiple times a week.

“Your job is to support the pilots in the front of the missions,” she said, by assisting passengers, providing takeoff and landing flight paths, and keeping the helicopter clear of other aircrafts or, if they’re transporting something below them, from anything else, as well.

“You’re keeping control of what’s going on in the back of the helicopter,” she said.

In that role, she’s so far helped the Navy with explosive ordnance disposals for training purposes, during which she was tasked with calling out the aircraft clearances and making sure ropes were secure and pulled up.

“I also was the one that cut the rope at the end, so a pretty serious job, but it was probably one of my favorite experiences,” she said. “I’m looking forward to doing it again.”

She recently was a part of NOREX, an exchange training with the Norwegian Army in Norway where she spent a week cross-country skiing, setting up camps along the way, and participating in avalanche and medical training exercises.

“We can use [that training] here in Minnesota. We have lots of snow,” she said, jokingly adding, “Though not this year.”

It’s a job she loves, she said, and she’s particularly bonded with her company, Alpha 2147, saying, “We have lots of amazing people.” It’s just another similarity she recognizes between her life in the National Guard to her former life dancing.

“[They’re both] really a tight-knit community,” she said. “It’s really similar.”

Her performing dreams aren’t over just yet either. She plans to pursue a piloting job with the 148th fighter wing unit out of Duluth, getting to dance in the sky with an F-16. And to her, it’s a dream her family reminds her is well within reach.

“There’s times where, I wouldn’t say you feel like quitting, but there’s times that you know you’re struggling with balance and you’re struggling to get things done, and they’ve been really helpful just reminding me that I can do it, and being there for me to celebrate those accomplishments,” she said, later adding, “It just makes me keep wanting to aspire for even bigger and better things in the future.”