Francis Crotty:  

I grew up in Hyde Park and attended FDR HS until the 11th grade. My mother remarried and we moved to Poughkeepsie. I wanted to get my degree from Roosevelt but the commute was longer than going to DCC so I finished my senior year at Roosevelt by starting my college experience. I ended up transferring to Tri-State University in Angola, IN and completed my BS in Aerospace Engineering in 84. I wandered the US for three years before I entered the US Air Force in 1987 as a navigator trainee. I ended up getting headaches from flying, so the USAF in its wisdom sent me to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM to work at what was then called the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. I spent three and a half years there, got married to someone who had two children from a previous marriage, and then was assigned to a program called Education With Industry. My EWI experience was with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Engines located in East Hartford, CT. I was at P&W for ten months before I was assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. I spent four years there working in two different aircraft program offices before I was assigned to teach at the Officer's Training School at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL. I had a few different jobs while at Maxwell AFB and then transferred back to WP AFB to teach at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Teaching was great and I did some interesting and unique things while there. I spent three years at AFIT and then transferred down to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA. My final assignment in the USAF was back at Kirtland AFB where I worked at the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center as a test director. I retired from the USAF in 2007 with 20 years of service as a Major and went to work for B/E Aerospace in Marysville, WA. This was an eye opener in may ways, especially in how beautiful the Seattle area is. I'm sure you've heard it rains up there all the time but that isn't true. The rainy season is from October through May and then it's dry from May through September. Most of the rain that did occur was at night and there are very few thunderstorms in the Seattle area. The view of the mountains is spectacular and Mt Rain...Expand for more