Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services

The mission sounded simple enough. Take out an ISIS enemy target in the Middle East desert, 23,000 feet below the B-52’s belly.

But this was the 31-year-old’s first combat flight.

“There was definitely a level of fear. Not for myself or the crew, but you always want to make sure you’re not going to hurt somebody you aren’t supposed to . . . . You didn’t want to screw up.”

As the flight’s weapons system operator, she – that’s right, she – was “downstairs” in the darkness of the bomber – no window – for as many as 16 hours.

“As large as the B-52 is, it was made to carry gas and bombs. We were an afterthought . . . . You’re strapped in. You have your parachute strapped on. You have your survival vest. You have an M-9 strapped to you. You are as uncomfortable as all get-out.”

Through scattered clouds, she and the plane got closer to the target.

“The first time you go out, and you’re talking to a guy who’s screaming, ‘I NEED WEAPONS AND I NEED THEM NOW!’, that is a level of adrenaline you can’t really describe.”

It was time. She “pickled the button”. The GPS-guided weapon dropped from the bomber.

“For 20 seconds, I am just praying that weapon is going to land exactly where I said it was going to land. There are definitely a few moments of holding your breath and waiting to make sure that weapon landed where it was supposed to.”

To her relief, the night vision screen filled with smoke. Poof. The target was gone. The mission was a success.

“I was ecstatic that I put (the weapon) where it was supposed to be. I didn’t screw it up. The fact that we supported the guys on the ground, there was a sense of relief that they were safe, that we helped them out, and we were able to do our job.”

Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Goncalves, stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, told me that story, and her story, during lunch at a place she chose, Chiangmai Thai Kitchen.  Amanda had Chicken Yellow Curry (#3 on the spice level), and water to drink. The 11am lunch time was a bit early for me, so I passed on eating, but ate up Amanda’s stories both in and out of the military.

“I was one of those people who knew at a very young age what I wanted to do.”

So much so that at an elementary school career fair, Amanda wasn’t interested in the teacher, veterinarian, or hairdresser booths.

“I was the little girl who was at the stands for the Marine Corps, for the Air Force, for the Police Department. My mom would come over and say, ‘Look, they have animals over here. Do you want to be a veterinarian?’ ‘No, no. I’m good. I will stand right here.’”

The military was in Amanda’s genes. Her father, who with his brother migrated to the United States from Bolivia, is a retired Colonel.

“The culture at the time was that you wanted to be as American as possible. They loved America. That’s why they came here. My dad and his brother went into the military. They had a lot of pride and love for everything American.”

Amanda’s uncle was a Marine. Her great uncle fought in World War II with the Air Force.

“My entire education and childhood were always aimed at one goal – how to become an officer, and how do I become a flyer.”

Unlike a lot of military kids, Amanda didn’t bounce around much. Her dad was a B-52 navigator, and there aren’t many B-52 bases. She was born at what was then Carswell Air Force Base in Ft. Worth, Texas, but spent most of her childhood in Virginia. Amanda graduated from Virginia Tech with a major in political science and a minor in sociology, and was a part of the school’s Corps of Cadets.

Amanda’s first assignment was with a fighter wing at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. Then, Amanda went to undergraduate navigator training in San Antonio. That’s where she met Alan, three years her senior and taking pilot instructor training. They dated. They got married. And for 10 years, they lived apart.

You read that right. It was a decade before Amanda and her husband lived in the same house.

“There were quite a few years when I saw him maybe two months, because of back-to-back deployments. Sometimes, I would deploy out the door and come back just in time to drive out to his location to spend a little time and put him on an aircraft and he would deploy.”

Alan eventually retired from the Air Force (he now flies for FedEx), allowing him and Amanda to live like a normal married couple. At least, as normal as a married couple can live when one is in the military.

“This is a lifestyle. It’s beyond a career. It’s a calling. It is something that means so much to me. It is 24/7/365. When I leave the office, my office comes with me. I don’t get to say, ‘Nope. Can’t come in. Sorry.’ I always answer that call. I will always come in and do the mission.”

Amanda says women make up about 21% of the Air Force. But when she joined, the number was much lower.

“When I came in, there absolutely was resistance. There was absolutely a sense of, ‘You know what? I just need to shut up. I just need to be quiet. I need to prove myself and not make waves.’”

Amanda also says times have changed.

“Now, you go into a squadron of a group of 80 or 90 individuals, and I’m seeing seven, nine, 10 ladies. They are kicking ass and taking names. I am so proud of them.”

Amanda is now the commander of the Second Operations Support Squadron. She’s also a mother to Aiden, who is just more than a year old. Amanda loves her son, but . . . .

“I really wanted a little girl, primarily because I had knocked down many of my own barriers, and have done so much, I wanted to share that with her.”

Considering Amanda plays a role in the incredible responsibility of keeping America safe, I thought it best I do not keep her long. So, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about her story that can be meaningful to others?

“I want to be an example of See me, Be me for little girls. I want a little girl from a Podunk town who may not have grown up anywhere near the military, never grew up near an airfield of any kind, but may have a love of aviation but doesn’t know what to do with it or where to go, I want her to be able to look at someone like me and say, ‘You know what? I could be her. I could do that.’”

Mission accomplished.

Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.

The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers

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