• Local resident named to high list

Maria Gardner Cox has been named to the high list for the fall semester at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. The high list is the school’s academic honor roll. Cox, a freshman is the daughter of Ray M. Cox and Isabell A. Gardner of Peachtree City, Ga. Episcopal High School is a coeducational boarding school that prepares students in grades 9-12 for college.

• Castlen graduates from pilot training

Air Force 1st Lt. Stephen M. Castlen has graduated from Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. The student earned silver wings with an aeronautical rating of pilot in the Air Force.

Student pilots start the 52-week SUPT program by attending a three-week preflight phase consisting of academics and physiology training for flight preparation. Followed by phase two primary training conducted in T-37 Tweet aircraft to learn flight characteristics, emergency procedures, takeoff and landing procedures, aerobatics, and formation flying. Students also practice night, instrument and cross-country navigation.

Each training phase includes extensive hours of ground events, flight simulator, day and night flying, and flight related instruction. Additional instruction is received on flight formation, navigation, low-level navigation flying, visual and instrument transition, radar cell formation, and simulated refueling and airdrop missions.

After primary training, students move on to advanced training in one of several tracks. Students selected for fighter-bomber assignments fly the T-38A aircraft; airlift-tanker students fly the T-1A aircraft; multi-engine turboprop students fly the C-130 aircraft, and helicopter students fly the UH-1 Huey at their assigned bases or stations.

He is the son of Stephen E. and Susan D. Castlen of Fayetteville, Ga.

His wife, Rachel, is the daughter of Bill and Mary Springston of Colorado Springs, Colo.

The lieutenant graduated in 2001 from Harker Heights High School, Texas, and received a bachelor's degree in 2005 from the U. S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.

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