Taking Wing
Recent graduate of Monache High School
Nicole “Nikki” Taylor Oniu represents the latest generation of Porterville residents who are using their skills and abilities to serve their country. She has accomplished much in only a few short years of service, and if her success thus far in her military career is any indicator of her future accomplishments, then our country is in good hands, and Porterville has good reason to be proud.
Oniu graduated from Monache High School in 2012, but the importance of military service was impressed upon her by her community long before graduation day. From attending the annual Veterans Day Parade to watching her older brother play with Army men and watch war movies, she grew up with frequent reminders of Porterville’s patriotism.
“A lot of the men at the First Congregational Church were part of the Vietnam era, and seeing how proud they were serving our country and giving back to the institution that keeps us safe and free, it made a big impression on me,” said Oniu.
She accepted her appointment into the Air Force Academy, and after high school graduation and a brief summer break, Oniu was off to Colorado for basic training.
Oniu describes her freshman year at the Air Force Academy as “not so fun,” but every passing year as part of Cadet Wing Squadron One brought with it new opportunities and adventures.
While at the academy she flew a glider, earned her parachutist badge by participating in the jump program, and also accumulated 18 flight hours. In the summer of her junior year she participated in an internship at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and during the summer of her sophomore year she participated in deployed operations, a program where cadets spend six weeks abroad to experience the challenges that a real Air Force deployment can present.
“It was very challenging ac-
ademically, but the academy was a really amazing experience for me,” she said.
The Air Force Academy is an engineering school, and all graduates receive a Bachelor of Science degree, regardless of major, because of the technical content of the core requirement classes such as aeronautical engineering and computer engineering. Oniu graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in geospatial science, but her Air Force education was far from over.
After graduation, Oniu went to intel school in Texas and became an intelligence officer. She is currently commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and is stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., where she works as an intel analyst with the 17th Intelligence Squadron.
Specifically, Oniu’s specialty is non-kinetic targeting, a cutting-edge approach to engaging the enemy.
“We are moving toward a modernized version of war where we are seeing contact with our enemy through nontraditional means such as information operations, cyberattacks, and the electromagnetic spectrum,” she said. “We aim to disable our adversaries through ways other than dropping bombs on a target.”
Oniu expects her current assignment to be just one of many stops in her military career, as the Air Force practices “career broadening” to produce officers with a wide breadth of operational knowledge. She hopes to someday become more involved in imagery analysis, a process in which photographs and images are studied to gain operational intelligence and strategic advantage.
Getting through the academy has been the biggest challenge so far in Oniu’s young military career. In addition to academic rigors, military academies require that you give up a lot of freedoms that are taken for granted by students at a traditional college. She describes making a long-term commitment to the Air Force at the age of 17 as “an order of magnitude above what I realized I was getting myself into,” and moving thousands of miles away from friends and family made it even more difficult.
“I really appreciate how much it has challenged me and everything it has given me,” she said. “I’ve learned that in order to thrive you have to be flexible. You don’t always have control over a situation that’s thrown at you, but you have to be resilient to get through it.”
As Oniu has progressed in her career, she has come to appreciate the importance of military service in new ways. She now makes a distinction between what drew her to the Air Force Academy and what has kept her there.
“Going to the academy at such a young age, I saw it as this life-opening opportunity, but I’ve learned by staying that service is really important, and being part of the fight that keeps our nation free is important,” she said.
Based upon all that she has accomplished so far, it is clear that Oniu has the drive and ability to succeed as an Air Force officer, and is limited only by her own ambition. But underneath all her talent and promise is a heart of service, and a willingness to make the safety of her country her personal responsibility.
“I’ve had some unreal opportunities thanks to the Air Force. I’ve been to 15 different countries in the past four years,” she said. “I like being part of something bigger than myself. I love feeling the pride of waking up every morning and seeing both myself and my husband get dressed in uniform and go to work protecting our country.”