Growing up in the Far North with a father who worked away for long stretches and a formidable mother who home-schooled her four sons, the Wiapo brothers were drawn to the Air Force. Why the Air Force?
What appeals about military life?
Leo: After finishing school I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Mum gave me some military pamphlets and the Air Force appealed the most. My nearly 20 year career has seen deployments with Security Forces, becoming a Physical Training Instructor and leading the PT school, before shifting tack and working in career management in Wellington.
Leo: We both like structure, pathway and development opportunities. When I joined the military, I really started challenging myself and my confidence started to grow due to opportunities to test myself and being surrounded by mentors and leaders.
Joel: I was home-schooled during my primary years, but when I was intermediate-aged I was sent to Dilworth boarding school in Auckland. Leo was at Whenuapai and I’d stay with him at the base, so I got quite a bit of exposure to the organisation. I’d go to Air Force basketball and volleyball training. I thought it was really cool – like boarding school but for an adult.
Your mum sounds like a bit of a force in your lives Leo: When you’re younger your mum is just that voice in the back of your mind, but it turns out all the advice she’s given me over the years has been right. She’s amazing. She did such a good job home schooling me that when I did a trial at Intermediate I was put up a year. Joel: Growing up on a farm, dad in and out of the picture, home-schooling all four of us and just making it work. She gave up her career to teach us in a way that fitted with her principles. When I applied to go to Dilworth, they didn’t think my academics would be good enough, but mum was a hard taskmaster and I found I knew a lot of what they were teaching already.
Joel: The same for me. Also, since I’ve had a family I look at the time I can have with my kids and the support I get to enjoy their milestones is pretty amazing.
Is there any sibling rivalry between you both? Leo: Yeah, more in sport than anything because Joel plays similar sports to me. When Joel joined and I was finding my own value in the team, I had to compete directly with him. We actually had to have some honest conversations around sport. It was a case of putting our egos aside. I’m really proud of what he has achieved and to watch him grow in his career. Joel: We were quite competitive growing up as well, with all four of us. We played against each other a lot and we realised we weren’t working as well together as we could have been and Leo has got all this knowledge that I could have drawn on, but there was this weird competitiveness. But since we had a good chat about it, we’ve been much better.
Air Force News #221 | 17