For ConVal Regional High School senior Gavin Niemela, March 18 was an important day. He’d taken off from school to take the test that would officially make him a pilot.
And he didn’t know it yet, but that same day, he would get the news on another goal he’d been working toward for more than a year — his acceptance into the Air Force Academy. He was one of only four candidates accepted for the coming year for the state of New Hampshire, and one out of 1,100 total students from across the country.
“What a day,” Niemela recalled. “Two things that I’d really been working toward and hoping for, for the past year, happening at the same time. It was a rush, for sure. I can’t really explain how it felt. It didn’t feel real, for a while.”
Niemala, 17, is a lifelong resident of Dublin, and will be walking the graduation stage on June 13. A week and a half later, on June 24, he will be reporting to basic training in Colorado Springs, Colo.
After graduating the Air Force Academy, Niemela will be committed to five years in the Air Force, where he hopes to be a transport pilot.
Niemela said he has always had an interest in airplanes, and as a middle schooler and a freshman, he joined the Civil Air Patrol, a branch of the Air Force that educates young people about the branch and airplanes. That was when he started giving the military real thought as a possible career, he said.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a career path. Kids say they want to be an astronaut or a doctor, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Civil Air Patrol was hard, but a lot of fun, and pushed me at looking at the Air Force in a different light.”
It was also what made him interested in learning to fly. After his experience with the Civil Air Patrol, his parents agreed to allow him to take lessons with Monadnock Aviation in Keene, and shortly after his 15th birthday, he took his introductory flight.
“The first time I was up there, the nerves got to me — in an excitement kind of way. It was a different feeling than anything else I’d ever experienced,” Niemela said.
Niemela learned to fly in a Piper Warrior, a small, single-engine plane rented from Monadnock Aviation, working his way from the first time he touched controls in a steady flight, to learning how to handle a mid-air stall.
By the end of his sophomore year, Niemela said he knew he wanted to keep on flying, and started to consider what that might mean for a career.
“I knew I wanted to fly, and I knew I wanted to do something that’s meaningful, and can help people. The more I thought about it, the more the military seemed a meaningful option for me,” Niemela said. “I wanted to serve my country and help people.”
In March of 2025, Niemela started his Air Force Academy application. It’s a rigorous process that includes a fitness and physical exam, as well as requiring at least one congressional nomination, while also maintaining a high GPA and service work.
Niemela isn’t a stranger to hard work. He participates in varsity alpine skiing and varsity baseball at ConVal, and though he only runs as a hobby, last year trained for and completed the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene. He’s been a member of the ConVal National Honor Society, Spanish Club, Envirothon Club, Boys’ State, and founded ConVal’s Interact Club, a service organization modeled after a club of the same name at Conant High School.
Niemela applied for, and received, congressional nominations from U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander. The process included submitting an application, essay or letter, and a board interview for each nomination.
During that year he was working on his application, Niemela also tried to prepare himself for what life at a service academy and in the military might be like, by speaking with locals and friends of the family who knew the experience; He spoke with Dale Gabel, who had attended the Coast Guard Academy, Jim Hradecky, who graduated from West Point Academy, and Al Jones, who also attended the Air Force Academy, along with Peterborough American Legion Post Commander Wayne Thomas and Ron Lamontagne, who was a commercial pilot.
He said often their advice was that when things got tough, to just make it to the next thing — and all the better if the thing you were holding out for was lunch or dinner.
Niemela said he’s nervous about the experience — but only in the same way he was nervous when he took his first flight.
“I don’t really know what to expect. I’ll be 1,000 miles away,” Niemela said. “But I think I’m going to have a blast. Nervous excitement can’t hold me back.”