By ELLEN MORTENSENChief Assistant Editor
What little boy hasn’t dreamed of one day growing up and either being an astronaut or working with them? Anthony Kulhanek did - and now he is.
On Aug. 17, Kulhanek will start his new job at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. His journey to NASA has been an interesting one.
The 1997 Broken Bow High School graduate left his hometown after high school to attend Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan., on a track scholarship. However, in his first year, he pulled both calf muscles which ended his track career.
Unsure what to do next, he left school and went to Colorado for awhile where he went to work with his uncle doing custom interior woodworking. In 2001, he returned to Broken Bow and worked for a short time at Sargent Irrigation, before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 2002.
“When I went to school for the Navy, I learned there was only one overseas job available and I really wanted it,” says Kulhanek. “I was told that the only way I would have a shot at it was to be the top of my class. So that’s what I set my goal at - and I was.”
As top in his class, Kulhanek was able to select his orders, and he chose Atsugi, Japan. There he worked as a parachute rigger. His duties were to maintain and inspect all jet fighter pilot’s gear before they took off.
He was in Japan for four years, and while there met his wife, Heather, who was in one of the other squadrons. The couple was married in Japan, before returning to her home state of Virginia.
He took orders to NAS Oceania, Virginia Beach, Va., upon returning to the states in 2006. Heather got out of the service at that time, and the young couple decided to start their family. They have two children; daughter, Jordan, 2, and son, Dylan, 1.
Kulhanek was ready to re-enlist, and in fact already had his orders for his next destination. However, he was holding off on signing papers in hopes of receiving a sign-on bonus.
In the meantime, NASA administration had placed a call to Kulhanek’s shop in Oceania, looking for someone who was about to get out of the Navy and may be interested in a job with NASA.
When word got to Kulhanek of the phone call, he immediately telephoned NASA and expressed his interest in the job.
He sent his resume to Houston, and very quickly received a call back requesting an interview. While in the Navy, Kulhanek had been named sailor of the quarter five times, and was also sailor of the year - accomplishments he is very proud of, and that certainly look good on a resume.
NASA made arrangements to fly him to Houston for a series of interviews and tests, all of which he passed with flying colors. His test consisted of designing and constructing an elbow for a space suit, and he was given 30 minutes to do it.
“They told me not to worry about finishing it, because no one ever did,” says Kulhanek. “When they came back in the room they asked me, ‘Are you done?’ I told them I was and they were shocked. They told me I was the only applicant who ever finished it.”
Kulhanek was offered the job, and says it was a good enough offer to leave the Navy for. Just last week, he packed up his young family and made the move from Virginia Beach to Houston.
When we spoke, the family was still waiting for the moving truck to arrive with all of their furniture. Kulhanek says they were sleeping on blow-up mattresses, but he was fine with that for now.
“It will just make us appreciate our stuff more when it gets here,” he laughed.
Kulhanek will start his new job Aug. 17, and will be manufacturing, testing and designing space suits. The excitement and pride in what he has accomplished exudes in his voice.
“I was going to do 20 years in the military, because I enjoyed it,” Kulhanek explains. “There was only one job I was willing to leave the military for - and it was NASA.”