Veterans Week: F-18 Flyovers Influence Lambert to Become Navy Pilot

Throughout the week of Nov. 2-6, UC San Diego Athletics will be honoring UC San Diego Veterans Week by sharing the stories of Triton scholar-athlete alumni who have served in the military. For more information on UC San Diego Veterans Week, click here.

LA JOLLA, Calif. – With UC San Diego located just a couple miles west of the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, most students are familiar with the boisterous sounds of the F-18 aircraft roaring over campus, one jet after another.

For some, it’s nothing but a nuisance, but for others it’s inspiring and influential.  

Former thrower of the UC San Diego track and field team, Geoff Lambert ’98, fell into the latter category. 

Attending high school at University City, just down the street from UC San Diego, Lambert was familiar with the shock and awe of the constant flyovers even before getting to college. He grew up watching airshows at the old Naval Air Station in Miramar. 

Additionally, the movie “Top Gun” was released in 1986 showcasing the Naval Fighter Weapons School at Miramar, further inducing Lambert’s fascination.

“Having that physical proximity, seeing jets fly over every day, I thought that was something that I wanted to do,” said Lambert. 

And so that’s what he did.

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Lambert joined the U.S. Navy on a delayed entry program call the Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program (BDCP). This approach enlisted Lambert as an E-5 and guaranteed him future aviation after receiving his degree.

While at UC San Diego, Lambert filled his resume. On top of being a student-athlete, he drove the campus shuttle bus and worked for TRW Avionics Systems – a company that focused on building cockpit electronics for new fighter jets including the F-22 Raptor, Strike Bomber, and Comanche Helicopter. 

Lambert shined in his sport, becoming a two-time National Championship qualifier for the blue and gold. In 1997, the team captain was named a Division III All-American in the hammer throw, earning eighth place at the Finals.  

In 1999, after fulfilling his academic responsibilities in La Jolla, Lambert would begin his remarkable 10-year journey in the U.S. Navy. He headed to Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Fl. 

Commissioned as a Naval Officer that same year, Lambert went straight into six months of Basic Flight School. He was then selected to fly jets continuing his training in Meridian, Miss. Finally, in 2001, upon graduating from flight school, Lambert was winged as a Naval Aviator.

“Flight school is like being in a fraternity. You hang out with some great guys and fly jets – it’s a ton of fun,” Lambert said. “I was in flight school during 9-11 which was a big wake up call. My roommate was one of the first to be deployed for the initial response into Afghanistan and things started to get a little more serious.”

Soon enough, Lambert found himself in Whidbey Island outside of Seattle, Wash. flying an EA-6B Prowler – a four-seat electronic attack platform designed to jam enemy radar and suppress air defense. 

In 2003, Lambert and Electronic Attack Squadron 134 were deployed as a land-based squadron to assist the Air Force in Operation Northern Watch which quickly shifted to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The piloting journey continued for Lambert as he switched to carrier-based Electronic Attack Squadron 130, performing work off the USS Harry S. Truman. 

“Overall, you get to do some incredibly cool things,” Lambert said. “We would fly low level missions at 500 feet at 420 knots, equivalent to 500mph.”

Night formation flying and in-flight refueling were some other highlights for Lambert as a Navy Pilot, however launching off and landing on a carrier were perhaps the most memorable.

“Flying around the ship is one of the most exciting and most terrifying things that you get to do on a daily basis,” Lambert mentioned.

“The biggest challenge with landing on the ship at night is that it’s completely pitch-black outside. There is only a tiny dot of light which is the ship and you are approaching it at 150mph. At about three-fourths of a mile away, they tell you to ‘call the ball’ which is a visual reference system to make sure you are on glidepath so that when you touch down on the carrier, your tail hook catches the resting wires – it’s a very precise process.”

According to Lambert, the adrenaline rush was exceptional, but as an athlete, he was used to calming the nerves before a big meet, mostly through his listening of Enya as mentioned before.  

“As soon as you start your decent, that’s when the heart rate and blood pressure increase, and they actually peak about five seconds after touchdown. It definitely makes you feel alive,” Lambert added.

The competitiveness from track and field also translated over to flying a plane. Lambert compared the resilient mindset needed to overcome a bad toss in the hammer, to a bad pass at landing the ship and having to bolter. 

“It was a matter of what did I do wrong, what can I do better, and how can I calm myself down, so that I can come back and execute on the next approach. The commanding officer of the training squadron said it best: 'Be aggressively smooth and be both mentally and physically tough’.”

From 2005-06, Lambert was appointed to The Pentagon to work on an integrated software program for all aviation assets, including the U.S. Navy and Air Force, called the Joint Mission Planning System. 

Lambert officially separated from the Navy in September of 2006. A highly accomplished individual, Lambert holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UC San Diego, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and an M.S. in global energy management from University of Colorado Denver.

Of the many chapters Lambert has encountered, joining the U.S. Navy changed his perspective on the military but also life in general.

“Life is hard and everyone is busy and tired, but it’s all relative,” Lambert said. “In the military, you are going where you are going, you don’t have an option. 

“When we saw the sun set in the west, we knew the ship was headed towards shore, but standing on the back of the ship and seeing the sun set on the east coast, it meant you were heading farther east and that’s where the action is.”

Nonetheless, through it all, one thing has remained the same for Lambert.

“Hard work returns results. I learned that no one can ever take away your intellectual capital. If you do the hard work, understand the industry, put in the time, no one can ever take that away from you.”

A native of Reno, Nev., Lambert resides in Denver, Colo. with his wife Patty, also a UC San Diego alum, and their three kids. He is employed by Anschutz Corporation as the Director of Finance. 

The company is currently in the works of the largest wind project in North America with a transmission line running from Wyoming to Las Vegas, Nev. that will deliver renewable energy into California. 

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.