Hadder Rendon flies high
Hadder Rendon’s father caught a glimpse of the enormous opportunities in the United States after a month-long visit in 1988. “From that point on my dad had a dream to take the family to the states,” said Rendon, “and in 1991 he came to the states to find the American dream.”
Rendon was nine when he, his five-year-old brother and his mother left Colombia, South America, in 1993 to join his father in Maryland. One of his first memories is living in a two-room house where his family lived in one room and a young couple with a baby lived in the other.
Rendon picked up English in a matter of months and excelled in math. In 2004 he joined the Air Force right out of high school and soon after was off to boot camp. “That was probably one of the hardest things I had done,” said Rendon. “Boot camp was tough, but it was cake compared to leaving my family.”
After boot camp he was stationed in Oklahoma, Iraq, South Korea and Washington, D.C., and earned his associate’s degree in applied sciences.
In May 2007 he spent two months at Ft. Riley, Kansas, before being deployed to Afghanistan. While at Ft. Riley he was active at the base chapel and met the chaplain’s daughter, Sarah. After he left for Afghanistan he and Sarah stayed connected through e-mail and phone calls.
In December Rendon had six months before he would have to decide whether or not to reenlist. He liked the Air Force but wasn’t crazy about his current job there. After considering his options, he made up his mind – he wanted to become an officer in the Air Force and was ready to do whatever it took.
In his search for the right college, he visited the military.com website and found CSU in the Top 10 List of Military Friendly Schools. “I’m not going to lie, I like Charleston and the beach,” Rendon laughed, “and then I found out that Charleston Southern is a Christian university, too.” He contacted the University, and the deal was sealed when he found out that both the AFROTC program and the bachelor of management arts degree were two-year programs.
Rendon left his guaranteed job in the Air Force for an uncertain future. But the one thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to marry Sarah. So on a dinner cruise, he proposed, and she wholeheartedly accepted.
Rendon began the fall semester with “no friends, no money, no job and no scholarships. You know, you make a decision and you do it. Then you look back in retrospect and think, ‘Wow, did I really do that?’ But I had so much peace in my heart that I really didn’t think about it.”
Captain Sincoff approached him with the opportunity to test for pilot training. At one time Rendon had actually considered commercial pilot training but had dropped the idea because of the cost. He jumped at the chance.
Rendon was one of the 580 chosen to test for a pilot slot. Then out of that number, 42 of the most qualified candidates would be selected to go to ENJJPT (Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training) to train as fighter pilots at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.
In 2009 Rendon and Sarah married in Oregon. Then Lt. Colonel Mark Trudeau, detachment commander, congratulated him on placing in a pilot slot, which, unfortunately, meant he was not one of the 42 accepted in fighter pilot training. But despite his disappointment, Rendon held fast. “I said, ‘Okay God, you know what is best for me and what you want for me. You have me here for a purpose, and I believe that 100 percent.’”
About a week later Rendon received word from Trudeau that things had changed – a slot had opened in the ENJJPT fighter pilot training, and he was next on the list; did he want to be the one to fill that slot. With only hours to reply, he and his new bride made a formidable decision: Rendon accepted the offer. “It is really exciting because I am going to get a chance to do something I never thought I would ever do in my life,” said Rendon, “and it all started when my parents took that step of faith to come to the states.”
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