Sadie Olson Is Fulfilling Her Dream of Flying for the U.S. Coast Guard
By Craig Reed
Sadie Olson was 12 years old when her future career slowly began to take shape.
That’s when she attended a summer camp on the Oregon Coast to study marine biology. She was impressed and inspired during a field trip to the U.S. Coast Guard station at Charleston. Her dream was to attend the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and, specifically, to fly Coast Guard helicopters.
10 years later, that dream is coming true for the Elkton native. She graduated from the academy on May 22 with a Bachelor of Science in marine environmental science. She will be commissioned as an ensign, a junior officer in the Coast Guard, and the equivalent to the rank of second lieutenant in the other armed services.
Elkton High School staff believe Sadie is the first from Elkton to graduate from a U.S. service academy. Her next assignment is a flight school in Pensacola, Florida.
Sadie will receive basic flight training at the same facility where Navy and Marine pilots train. The Coast Guard uses a combination of helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes.
“I’m going to be a helicopter pilot—that’s my goal,” Sadie says. She says she believes she is prepared to reach that next goal. “The Coast Guard Academy has a very comprehensive curriculum,” Sadie says. “It was challenging. I’ve learned a lot. I can’t imagine a better college for me.
“I have no regrets whatsoever. I’m so thankful everybody believed in me. I’m thankful to be accepted to flight school. It’s a dream come true.”
Sadie returned to Elkton in mid-March for spring vacation and was surprised when community residents turned out on the sidewalks with applause, cheers, and signs.
“I was overjoyed,” she says. “I feel really lucky to come from a community where so many people are supportive. I hope to be an inspiration for other kids. If I can do it, they can, too.”
Sadie’s mother, Lisa, remembers her daughter’s early dream. “She was very young, but she made a decision and she stuck to it,” Lisa says. Sadie’s father, Greg, is an Army veteran, so the family was familiar with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but the Coast Guard Academy was unknown. The family has found positives in their daughter’s choice.
“The Coast Guard is different in that it’s meant to save lives, not take lives,” Lisa says. “It’s not to shoot at people, it’s to help people. But I know Sadie flying helicopters will still stress me out.”
Sadie says her No. 1 fan through the past decade has been her grandmother, Mary Lou Mitchell, of Elkton. The 2 spent a lot of time together during Sadie’s school years in Elkton because Mary Lou was retired. “Sadie always tried to finish anything she tried,” Mary Lou says. “This is what she wanted, and she’s getting it.”
Mary Lou had 1 brother die and another brother was a prisoner of war in World War II, so she has reason to be concerned for her granddaughter.
She also has reason to be proud. “You still worry,” Mary Lou says. “Sadie is out there over the ocean, trying to save somebody, but you get to be real proud when she succeeds. She’s a very determined person. When she sets her mind to do something, I have faith she’ll be able to get the job done.”
In addition to search and rescue, Coast Guard members provide marine environmental protection, navigation assistance, and drug-import prevention. Sadie gained experience with this while attending the academy and spending the past 4 summers on Coast Guard assignments.
Those have included search-and-rescue missions out of a New Jersey station; a training mission for seamanship and leadership on the Coast Guard Eagle from Iceland to Bermuda; shooting training; sailing a 44-foot sailboat with 5 other students and an officer; serving as drill leader for an incoming class of freshmen; spending 5 additional weeks on the Eagle with the responsibility of training 6 sophomores and learning about weather forecasting; and spending several weeks on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, studying the impact of climate change, helping build a climate security research station and helping teach science at a summer camp for middle schoolers.
Additionally, Sadie competed as a member of the academy’s track and field team. She competed in the indoor and outdoor seasons in the discus, shot put, javelin, and hammer throw, and added the weight throw during the indoor season. Her best marks in all 5 events have made the academy’s top 10 lists for each event.
Sadie competed in discus, javelin, and shot put for Elkton High. She took second in the state in the discus as a sophomore and first in the event as a junior. COVID-19 canceled the track season during her senior year.
“I think my education here at Elkton and how invested the teachers were in my learning set me up well for learning at the academy,” Sadie says.
She now looks ahead to the challenge of flight school. “I’ve had the fun of my life,” she says of her years at the Coast Guard Academy. “Ultimately, I’d like to be stationed at Air Station North Bend or on the West Coast so I’m close to my family. I miss them a lot.
“Even though the Coast Guard is the smallest branch of the services, it has such a wide mission set. That makes it interesting to me. It’ll be an adventure.”