Captain Adrian “Heist” Herrera is a United States Air Force Officer, and an F15E Instructor Weapon Systems Officer. He has over 900 flight hours in the F15E, with over 400 combat hours flying over Syria and Iraq in support of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. As an F15E aviator, Captain Herrera executes a full array of higher level directed missions against high value targets across the world. He is currently on the Department of Defense Career Intermission Program (CIP), and is a candidate for the Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. His talk emphasizes the role of support in life, using anecdotes from his military flight training and his coming out story during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Captain Adrian “Heist” Herrera is a United States Air Force Officer, and an F15E Instructor Weapon Systems Officer. He has over 900 flight hours in the F15E, with over 400 combat hours flying over Syria and Iraq in support of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. As an F15E aviator, Captain Herrera executes a full array of higher level directed missions against high value targets across the world. He is currently on the Department of Defense Career Intermission Program (CIP), and is a candidate for the Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. His talk emphasizes the role of support in life, using anecdotes from his military flight training and his coming out story during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx