EAA members come in all shapes and forms with diverse backgrounds and reasons for falling in love with aviation. For many members, their background is in military aviation. But what happens when you retire from the world of military aviation and find yourself with a void needing to be filled?
Angel Rosa, EAA 1416705, found himself in that exact predicament when he retired from his 24-year military career as a KC-10 boom operator.
A Connecticut native now living in Merritt Island, Florida, Angel has had a love for aviation since he was a young kid. “I lived up in Connecticut and New Jersey, and there were air shows there all the time at McGuire Air Force Base. And as a kid I always used to build model planes,” he said.
When he graduated high school, his path first took him to the Army. “I was a Patriot missile operator for about six years out of Fort Bliss, Texas,” he said. “Then, when my enlistment contract was up, a friend of mine living in Connecticut introduced me to the Air Force and they were looking to get some people enlisted. This was back in the early ‘90s. They had a program called Green to Blue. So, I took the test and passed, and I applied to be a boom operator.”
“I got lucky and fortunate enough to get the KC-10A over the KC-135, the latest airframe for refueling at the time, once I graduated out of Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, which is the basic boom operator training school. I got stationed in McGuire Air Force Base in the New Jersey area. I continued my schooling there to become a mission boom operator for the KC-10 with the 76th Aerial Refueling Squadron, which belonged to the 514th Air Mobility Wing.”
Angel completed his training in 2004 and spent time at both McGuire and McChord Air Force bases before his retirement in 2011.
Serving in the military provided Angel with experiences that he’ll never forget. “It was [an] amazing ride. It brought me all around the world,” he said. “It gave me the opportunity to get my private pilot license and complete my bachelor’s degree. I was able to study while flying around the world, so it was a great experience. It really was.”
After retirement, Angel was hired by General Dynamics Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut, which builds nuclear submarines for the U.S Navy, and he has been part of that program ever since. However, this obviously did not fill that ever-present void of flight.
“After so many years of flying and travelling around the world, and all of a sudden you stop. It’s kind of like, what do I do now? The Air Force used to pick up the tab, and now I’m on my own,” he said. “So, since I already had my private pilot license, I decided to buy my own aircraft and fly around the United States.”
“I had a buddy who had an RV-12 that I had already flown in with him, and I just fell in love with the aircraft, the characteristics, how it flies, how easy it is to land,” he said. “And it just happened that he was selling his RV-12. He didn’t live too far from me, so I asked him for a second flight. I was hooked and just knew this was the aircraft I wanted. A couple of weeks later I purchased the airplane from him, and I flew off from that airport to my hangar here at Titusville Municipal Airport.”
Safe to say, the flight void was successfully filled for Angel through general aviation. “It’s a different world from the military flying of course. It gives me more freedom to fly places for personal reasons versus missions. Now I’m flying by myself or with my wife, [Carlene]. We go and enjoy ourselves, spend a couple days going to different airports, and just really enjoy the time flying.”
Carlene is happy to see the void in Angel’s life filled, even if it means putting on a brave face to enjoy it with him. “Carlene has a little reservation, as most people do about smaller aircraft, but she does it for me more than anything else. Once we take off, she settles in and enjoys the view. I try to keep her involved in the cockpit so she’s not just looking out the window and getting nervous.”
Another important part of Angel’s aviation story is the EAA community. “I’ve been an EAA member now for quite some time, and I’m also a member of the chapter here at Merritt Island. There’s always somebody that will help you if you need help. I’ve just got to make a call, and there’s someone always willing to help,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve called people who don’t even know me, but they have the knowledge and they’re willing to share and help.”
“The EAA experience, camaraderie, talking with other pilots, going to fly-ins, and just experiencing general aviation, it’s great. It fills my void. As you can imagine, when you spend 20-something years flying around with the military, you kind of miss that after leaving,” he said. “Now, I just get to go and feel free and fly, enjoy it with Carlene, and enjoy life as much as I can.”