Los Alamos High School alumnus Michael ‘Mikey’ Bane, now attending the U.S.A.F. Academy in Colorado Springs, during a recent visit to home. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Mikey Bane was one of 9 Cadets selected for the very competitive and prestigious USAFA flying team! Courtesy photo
Michael Bane in his USAF Academy parade dress uniform. Courtesy photo
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
For as long as he can remember, USAF Cadet Fourth Class Michael “Mikey” Bane wanted to be a pilot.
“It kind of built up slowly for me. My mom’s cousin who we called ‘Uncle Dave’ is a pilot for Southwest Airlines so he was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think he started directing me on that path as someone I looked up to. I was probably in second or third grade when I realized what I wanted to do, and from there I started putting myself on a path. I slowly found out what I needed to do and kept plugging away at it,” Bane said.
Bane was home for a few days to visit family and agreed to do an interview over a cup of coffee with the Los Alamos Reporter, who happens to be one of his biggest fans.
“I moved here in 2016. Around that time my family did a camping road trip that went up through Colorado Springs and through Wyoming and toured Yellowstone and came back down. I toured the Air Force Academy on that trip and that was probably when I started leaning towards the Air Force Academy,” he said.
Bane believes that the most important thing he did for myself, looking back on his time at Los Alamos High School, was running cross country.
“Being involved in a sport like that prepares you physically for what you have to do at the Air Force Academy and also prepares you to be on a team, because everything you do there, you’re working with a team. Also with challenging myself, I think I was able to do it right. I was able to take classes with AP credits that the Air Force Academy accepted so I was able to get a little bit ahead to start with,” he said.
Bane showed up at the Academy June 25 for In-Processing Day, and the rest of the summer all the way through was basic training. The first piece was about three weeks there at the Academy.
“The next piece was when we marched out to Jack’s Valley carrying our drill rifles and they had us field condition in Conexes, which are shipping containers developed by the army, where the sides pop out and they have about 16 people sleeping in one of them,” he said.
In Jack’s Valley, during a three-week period Bane trained on obstacle course, assault course, and returned to the Academy where he was accepted into the Cadet Wing. In August, the school part started.
“It’s a total change from Basic Training. You’re attending classes and there’s all kinds of clubs that people are joining. I got into academic classes. I really enjoyed my first semester. I had Chemistry, which was a really easy class for me based on the Chemistry I had taken at Los Alamos High School. It was all essentially review and I had a Computer Science class where I understood the computer science from all the programming I had done during my internship at LANL. I was kind of coasting through my first semester,” Bane recalled.
He currently holds the rank of Cadet Airman Fourth Class and will eventually move up to Cadet Staff Sergeant before graduation while supervising the Fourth Class Cadets.
“Each year you’re assuming responsibility for people. By the time you’re a junior, Second Class Cadet you’re sort of a senior non-commissioned officer rank. Seniors could be in charge of a whole squadron or a whole team,” Bane said.
Bane’s flying experience started all the way back during summer 2022.
“I had my first glider solo that summer and the next summer I went to Oklahoma with the Civil Air Patrol and soloed in a powered airplane. After that I was the first New Mexico Civil Air Patrol cadet to receive the Cadet Wing Scholarship and that paid for six months of flight hours so that I earned my Pilot License in May 2024,” he said. “That was my junior year of high school. The next summer, I went back to glider training. I went through all the training to the point that I only needed to fly with an FAA examiner to sign off so that I could receive my license.”
Each of the flying academies (glider and powered) are merit based selections to be able to attend/ participate. Then they each do training: ground school and flight training with an instructor and have to “pass” all of that to get the chance to solo.
Bane recently made it onto the Precision Flying Team so that means this summer he’ll be starting his flight training all over again to learn the Air Force way.
“It’s mostly the procedures that are different. The checklists are very important and you have to have them memorized. The Air Force has developed points that you fly over and report, whereas in the civilian world you’re basically free to fly wherever you want to. In the military you have to be very predictable about where you’re flying and what you’re doing and how you say it on the radio,” he said.
Making it onto the Precision Flying team took nine months of tryouts, application, interviews and flight observations as well as an essay. Bane is one of nine cadets selected out of 150 qualified candidates for the the competitive and prestigious U.S. Air Force Flying Team.
“I’m excited for graduation in May because the flying team is always given the opportunity to be with the Thunderbirds, essentially the whole time. They fly in and train a little before the ceremony so we run whatever errands they need us to do and we get to watch them run their practices,” he said.
During his week at home, Bane was of course happy to spend time with his parents, brother Noah, who is a junior at LAHS, and his “dog brother” John Deere! He also enjoyed running with friends back on his home turf and seeing the familiar scenery.
Bane spoke about his time in the local Civil Air Patrol squadron, noting that when involved in a USAF activity that requires him to think of a good leader, he thinks of Col. Annette Peters. Col. Peters was the first female commander of the over 650 Civil Air Patrol (CAP) volunteers across New Mexico from 2019 to 2023. A native of Pojoaque, she lives in White Rock and has been deeply involved in the local squadron for many years and has been a great supporter for Bane.
And Bane continues to move forward. On March 16, he declared his major at the Air Force Academy – Aeronautical Engineering with a Spanish minor. After commissioning, he will receive extra pay to maintain language proficiency. He aspires to be assigned as a Foreign Area Officer abroad through the Olmstead Foundation.
A4C Michael Bane during a 7.5 mile training hike. Courtesy photo
Mom, Michelle Bane, reports that Bane is busy working towards German Air Force Proficiency Badge; completed a ruck carrying 33 lbs in his backpack for 7.5 miles.
“The time for gold is under 2 hours. Mikey did it in 1:26 hours,” Michelle said. “He then earned gold in swimming, which included swimming a 400m in under 4 minutes wearing OCPs (very heavy when wet). He had to then take off and throw his uniform out of the water without holding the wall! Last event is marksmanship.”
Michael is the son of Michelle and Scott Bane of Los Alamos.
Michelle, Mikey and Scott Bane pictured at one of many promotion ceremonies for Civil Air Patrol. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com