IT TAKES A LIFETIME: Air Force career entailed adventure, advancement

Jack Meadows left school in the eighth grade, more in need of a job than an education at the time.

"I picked cotton and delivered newspapers and washed dishes at a restaurant and had no training," Meadows says.

His future was uncertain before he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at 17, and before he retired 25 years later as a chief master sergeant he had completed bachelor's and master's degrees, and that's to say nothing of his countless adventures.

"I feel like I've lived several lifetimes," Meadows says. "How can you do all of that in one lifetime? And in two years, I'll be 90 years old."

Soon after basic training, Meadows started working as an engine mechanic on a KC-97 Stratotanker. That afforded him the chance to fly in a mission over England to refuel B-52 bombers and support deployments to Greenland, Newfoundland, Saudi Arabia, the Azores and Bermuda.

Then