05/29/2026
For as long as she can remember, US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mary Lea (Miller) Bordelon ’09 has always had to navigate two worlds. She reflected on this as part of a collection of stories by US Air Force Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “The thought of Lola, my aunts, and uncles, and my first cousins and their children, living a life completely different from mine has always been difficult for me to grasp,” she wrote.
Raised in the St. Johns neighborhood, Bordelon made regular treks across the Pacific with her family to visit relatives who lived on Cebu Island in the Philippines, about 350 miles southeast of Manila. After graduating with De La Salle North Catholic's inaugural class, she made her decision to attend UP.
A friend of hers in UP’s ROTC program gave a presentation on the Twilight Brigade, a volunteer organization that provides end-of-life care to veterans, especially those without family. Boredelon was inspired by the care for community and enrolled with Air Force ROTC her sophomore year.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UP and graduating from the ROTC program as a distinguished graduate, she headed to pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Awarded her pilot wings in the summer of 2011, Bordelon and members of her squadron also made an official trip to the Philippines that brought back youthful memories and meet their counterparts in the Philippine Air Force in Cebu.
🔗 Read the full story from Portland Magazine here: https://bit.ly/4v9shpG
✏️ Eileen Bjorkman
