Major Workman is a face that everyone at Utah Military Academy knows. He was one of the original founders of UMA, and has stayed loyal to the school and cadets throughout its existence.
That’s not the entire story, though. Maj. Workman has lived a fulfilling life, even years before the school had opened. So the question is, who is he really?
Major Kit Workman was born January 27th, 1957 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, but was raised mostly in Phoenix, Arizona. His father was a veteran from WWII, but for most of Maj. Workman’s childhood, he was an insurance salesman. His mother was mostly a stay-at-home mom, but she would occasionally work at the bank as a teller.
Maj. Workman is the 2nd out of 6 children. Their life growing up was decently average, with a solid family base. As he says, it was an “average American life”. He had lived on a farm for a few years until he went to college, where he was able to enjoy horseback riding.
Maj. Workman attended a small high school, called Peoria High, where he graduated with the class of ‘75. It was–at the time–the largest class from that school. He played football, wrestling, track, and baseball. He was also involved in Student Government, Boy Scouts, and Eagle Scouts.
In his junior year of high school, the principal had approached the students he had known from church and had introduced the AFJROTC program into the school, and was looking for volunteers to join.
Living near Luke Air Force base, Maj. Workman was already interested in the jets that would take-off, so when he was told to volunteer for the program, he had no complaints.
Maj. Workman would end up excelling in the AFJROTC program, and in his senior year, was the Cadet Commander for the cadet squadron. His mentor had nudged him in the right direction for choosing a career choice.
Maj. Workman at first wanted to be a professional baseball player, but had quit after freshman year to instead focus on track and football. He was in between careers and didn’t have a clear path.
His mentor had approached him later on and had suggested going into the Air Force, since Maj. Workman had checked off all the requirements. He had never considered the military before, but figured it would be worth a try.
Maj. Workman received a pilot scholarship, took it to Brigham Young University (BYU) where he attended for 4 years. He was hoping to pass his physical and courses to get into flight school. It wasn’t easy though, since it was 1977, and the Armed Forces were narrowing down their troops.
Many of Maj. Workman’s friends had lost their scholarships due to this, but Maj. Workman himself had barely managed to squeeze into the ranks. He was brought in with a major in Broadcast Journalism.
In December of his junior year in college, he was a part of an organization called Arnold Air Society. Within this organization was a flight called the Angel flight, which was a group of non-ROTC supporters. It was mostly women-based, as Maj. Workman claimed it was for women looking for husbands.
The Angel Flight had held a dance in December, where the flight and the ROTC members could attend. Maj. Workman hasn’t been asked yet, and until there was a few more days until the dance, until there was a young lady that had approached him and asked who he was attending with.
The lady had ended up asking Maj. Workman to the dance, which is ironic due to the fact that she had tried to ask someone over the phone earlier, but was unable to. Maj. Workman called it a “divine intervention”, for 6 months later, he married that woman, named Jill Ransom.
They lived their married, senior year life together, with Jill working while Maj. Workman finished his schooling. In the year 1979, he graduated with a degree in Communications and Commission.
Back in his junior year, the Air Force had come into the school saying they needed helicopter pilots. Maj. Workman discussed this with Jill, and together they were able to move to the flight school only a month after graduation–compared to the 1 year time lapse the other pilots would have to wait.
Thus, Maj. Workman and his wife, Jill, moved cross-country for the first time. They had always been in the Western United States beforehand, so it was a new experience for them to move into the East. They first stopped at Mississippi to finish registration, then off to Alabama. In Fort Rucker, Alabama, the Army and Air Force were joined together to train recruits in helicopter training.
He would then continue his military career, before retiring at Hill Air force Base and going into JROTC programs for High Schools. He taught at Clearfield High where his children attended as a JROTC instructor. After over 20 years of attending, he then quit to move on to his biggest dream–the creation of UMA.
