David Lafferty:  

What happened to me? Well, after the thrills, laughter and assorted hoopla of Vaca High, I found myself without anything resembling a plan for what to do next. I didn't see how I could afford college, and my folks sure as hell couldn't afford to send me, so when my pal Rick Hovey mentioned he was joining the Air Force Reserve to be a loadmaster on C-5s, it took me all of about five minutes to decide to tag along. Twenty-four years later and I'm still in, which I imagine sounds a lot like dedication...although a lack of imagination is probably a lot closer to the truth. It's been interesting (the repetitive operations in the Great Kitty-Box of the World notwithstanding), and I eventually worked my way into a full-time civil service position with the Reserves in 1996. I'm now the C-17 Standardization and Evaluation Loadmaster for the 349th Operations Group at Travis (translation: a big frog in a small pond), doing my best to share what experience I've gained from close to 8,000 hours in the air. On the personal side, I no longer play the clarinet or sax ex...Expand for more