Interviewed by:

Tristan Matherly and Hayden Trudel

"It's like anything in life, what you do now

is going to get you to the next step and to the next step."

-Jeff Kobold (29:57)

Jeff Kobold's Story:

Jeff Kobold grew up in California and by thirty he was flying the F-14 Tomcat for the U.S. Navy. He got a college education at Pepperdine University in Malibu California. He studied computer science and math. He sold computer systems for a few years but then decided he wanted to do something he loved...fly airplanes. It had been something he wanted to do his entire life, and when he met a girl from a military family, he was inspired to go into the Navy. He enlisted as an officer and finished officer candidate school second in his class. From there, he decided to fly jets. He went through primary flight training which took roughly six months. Jeff finished in the top ten for flyers landing on the ship. He was deployed on the Kitty Hawk and flew Tomcats throughout the Persian Gulf War protecting the "no-fly zone" from Saddam Hussein. The "no-fly zone" is where the Iraq planes were not allowed to fly and attack the American troops.

He explained that he got the better side of military service. He never really had the experience of being shot at, but he did have to face the hardship of losing a comrade in a landing accident.

Jeff Kobold left the Navy after seven years of service, thinking he had fulfilled his duty and wanted to be with his family, including his newborn daughter. After his service he moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and started to explore new fields of work. His time in the military is a constant reminder to always do what you love, in his case flying.