A trailblazer who was an Air Force pilot for more than seven years and then quit as a T38 instructor to raise her children has returned to the cockpit after a 24-year hiatus, alongside her husband, a commercial jet pilot. Her reentry into the world of flying has left her “grinning ear to ear.”
Mom-of-four Tamaron Nicklas, 58, of Dallas, Texas, graduated Air Force Academy in 1986 as a member of the seventh class ever allowing women to enlist. When she gave up her career to raise a family, she assumed she would never fly again, so stepping into the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines aircraft with her husband, Larry, was a dream come true.
