As Siaosi Soto approached his final day in the Air Force, he wanted to get one last use out of his military uniform.
So in full ‘dress blues’ — the Air Force’s formal coat-and-tie duty uniform — Soto headed to the beach and got barreled.
“I had it planned right before I started my terminal leave,” Soto told Task & Purpose. “I’ve been bodyboarding for about 16 years so I wanted to do something different for me getting out.”
Captured on a video posted to his personal Instagram, Soto put in a multi-wave bodyboard session in full uniform at Sandy Beach, a renowned bodyboard spot on the south side of O’ahu, about an hour from Soto’s hometown of Ewa Beach. Soto’s freedom ride — complete with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” as the soundtrack — was first posted by the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page.
Soto joined the Air Force in 2019 and served a six-year active duty enlistment in Security Forces, most near his hometown, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Though he kept his military career mostly off social media during his time in, he made at least one video on duty that made clear he’d be out soon. The video captures Soto in the rear of a military pick-up truck, with a simple caption: “Can’t wait to get out.”
When his DD 214 day arrived on July 25, he said, his plan hit a problem: no uniform.
“The cleaners threw my blues coat away or gave them to someone else,” he said.
Top Stories This Week
So he borrowed a friend’s jacket for the surf session. That meant that Soto, who left the Air Force as a Senior Airman, was technically out of uniform twice in one video — once, in his blues shirt with A1C stripes, and second in his friend’s jacket, wearing Staff Sgt. rank.
“He just put on E-5,” Soto said. “My boys were all for it. The coat was fine. Took it to the dry cleaners and looks brand new. He has two of them so he wasn’t worried.”
Check out Soto’s “final act of service” here.
