BEGINNINGS

A LIFE OF SERVICE

My Grandfather, Scotty Wilson, lied about his age and joined the RAF in WWI.

He flew DeHaviland’s looking for German submarines in the Irish sea.

After the war, there was no work in Scotland. Grandpa Wilson came to America in

1922. He was a barnstormer and a welder.

Grandpa asked my Grandmother to come to America to marry him. She did. Nana Wilson got married the day she got off the boat in America.

In World War II Grandpa Wilson was a courier pilot for the American Army Air Corps.

My Dad started flying when he was 13 and went into the Air Force after High

School. He was stationed at Walker AFB in Roswell, NM

When my Dad came home from the service, he married my Mom and taught her how to fly.

My Mom was a nurse.

Our family of five lived in a two bedroom house in a small town that had a ski slope.

My Dad built a biplane in the den of our house.

My uncle built us a swing set with a trapeze. I was a pretty adventurous kid.

My Dad died before he finished his airplane. But his best friend and my Mom Finished it.

I grew up around airplanes.

When I was a junior in High School, they opened the Air Force Academy to women.

The Academy was hard, but I thrived there.

I served all of my time in the Air Force in Europe during the Cold War.

When I came back to America, I started dating a man I met in the Air Force. I moved to New Mexico to marry him.

We started a family. I started a business and was eventually elected to Congress.

My grandparents gave up everything to come build a better life in America.

They believed in this country and its promise. So do I.