Learn to Fly: The Story of Trey Meeks
"My guess is I'd probably be playing lead guitar in some famous band. So I could have been in the Foo Fighters, but instead, I went to the Academy."
(Meeks, Trey interview)
If there is one thing that connects my family more than anything, it’s Rock music. My dad’s senior yearbook quote was from a Grateful Dead song and my mom and dad got to know each other by going to every Rock concert they could. Even currently, my entire family flew over eight hours to see the Foo Fighters, my favorite band, in concert. So, when I asked my dad what he would have done if not for the opportunities given to him by the Air Force, it was no shock when he said he had no clue, and that he probably would have been a guitarist in a rock band, chasing after fame. Even though the only instrument he ever played was the trombone in middle school, my dad emulates the values of Rock more than many bands do today. My dad defies the odds every day by being successful even though he came from virtually nothing. Add a guitar solo, a snare cymbal, and a bass line and you got yourself the story of a true rock album. However, my dad’s hard work wasn’t the only reason for his success. If not for a Missouri senator, a love of Toomer’s Lemonade and the color orange, and a job opportunity so perfect that it seemed as if it was a match made in heaven, my dad would still be where he started: a small town in Missouri, dreaming of learning how to fly. (Meeks, Trey interview)
It was an average January day in Caruthersville Missouri when Trey Meeks was dragged to the principal's office to take a call. It had been two days since he got the news that he wasn’t chosen for the Air Force Academy, and instead was an alternate. All of his effort to achieve his dream of flying had been fruitless. Caruthersville was a small, rural town in the ‘boothill of Missouri’, where a majority of kids didn’t finish high school, let alone get into a school with a 10% acceptance rate. However, Trey knew since he was a kid that he wanted to fly, and the best way to do that was to get into the Academy, so he was determined. Trey worked extremely hard in the limited amount of classes he was offered in his school and by senior year was the president of the Letterman’s Club, NHS, and Student Council, got a 31 on the ACT, and had almost all A’s. After many applications, panels, and interviews, Trey figured out that it wouldn’t be enough. In fact, no matter how many AP’s or leadership opportunities came his way, Trey wouldn’t have been the first pick, as he needed to be chosen by his representative from the House of Representatives, who ended up picking someone else due solely to the fact that they were from that person´s hometown. The only thing that Trey knew was that “[he] was the runner up so [he] probably wasn’t gonna go.”
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Learning to Fly:
The Story of Trey Meeks
Trey (in pink) with this two brothers and father (“The Meeks Boys”)
All of his hard work had been for nothing, and he had no backup plan. “I didn’t have a lot of options,” Trey recalled. “I had zero idea how I was going to pay for college. I didn’t have much of a college fund saved up, maybe a few thousand dollars.” So when Trey headed into the principal’s office and the principal handed him the phone, he went into a state of pure shock when he heard on the other end “this is senator John Danforth.” The shock quickly turned into ebullience when he learned that the senator chose him as his representative for the Air Force Academy. Although he may have been the alternate for his representative of the house, Trey didn’t realize that the senators can choose from the representative’s alternate pools, meaning Senator Danforth decided to not only choose his own representative, but choose based on merit instead of his relationship with the person applying, which, as Trey found out the hard way, was a very popular thing to do at the time. If not for this lucky chance from Senator Danforth, he would have been stuck in this small farming town for life.
(Meeks, Trey interview)
Caruthersville Missouri is a rural and small town on the banks of the Mississippi river with, at the time of my dad’s childhood, just above 7,300 residents. The town is located in the Pemiscot County, which comes from a Native American word for “liquid mud,” and as the name suggests, the land is quite fertile making it a perfect place for a farming community. Even though the land may be a farmers haven, the median income for a person even today is quite low at only 23,500, with 28.1% of families and 35.7% of the population falling below the poverty line.
("Regions and Divisions - U.S. Census Bureau.", "History and Facts of the City of Caruthersville.")
Trey holding up his high school graduation cap and gown
(“Trey Cap and Gown”)
The Meeks kids in front of a tractor (“The Boys on the Farm”)
Nevertheless, my dad was on his way to the Air Force Academy, not sure of what other challenges he would have to face in the future. Trey, however, wasn’t the only one unsure of the future. His mother, Karen Meeks recounts the trepidation of the day saying, “I took him to Memphis to catch a plane. My heart hurt. I cried! We could not communicate for over three weeks. I prayed for his safety. Four years later, I remember when he left the Academy. He, along with friends, started a two-month trek to see the country and follow Grateful Dead concerts.” On the way, my dad would not only meet my mom but also have his first child, my brother Rob. Trey’s next obstacle, however, would force him to find out that although it took skill and a lot of luck to get into the Academy, it takes even more to be successful in the military. He needed a person to teach him how the military worked and really get him on his feet. That person was Colonel Artega.
(Meeks, Karen Interview)
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My mom and dad in Germany (My dad in a Grateful Dead shirt of course)
(“Neuschwanstein Castle”)
Something From Nothing
Breakout
“My first real mentor in the United States Air Force was Colonel Kenneth Artega,” Trey told me. Although they may be very close now, their first impressions of each other weren’t exactly the greatest. During hiss first days at Fort Rucker Alabama, Trey, a low ranking Captain, walked into his new workplace ready for a meeting when he first met Artega, a Lieutenant Colonel at the time. “He talked a lot,” Trey thought, and taking notice of this fact, he decided to start the meeting with a bit of a joke. “Don’t give Artega any coffee, this meeting will take 2 hours instead of one,” he said with a smile. "That was a bad bad bad bad move,” he remembers. Dead silence fell across the room as Trey realized the mistake he had made. It suddenly became painstakingly clear how much left he had to learn.
The entrance gate of Fort Rucker
(Powers, Rod. "Fort Rucker, AL.")
Fort Rucker, located in Dale County Alabama, is the primary flight training base for the US Army. All Army pilot training has been at Fort Rucker since 1973, as well as training of some US Air Force helicopter pilots. The primary Air Force squadron is the 23rd flying training squadron and is the Air Force’s main source of helicopter pilots for search and rescue, special operations, and airlift missions.
("23rd Flying Training Squadron.")
A few hours later, Trey sloped into Artega’s office, ready to apologize before this job became a living nightmare. However, when he entered the office, Trey noticed on his new bosses wall was an MBA from Auburn, where he too had gone to college! Trey soon realized that Artega wasn’t spewing words just for the fun of it, but that he was just out of his master’s degree and brimming with new ideas. After connecting over their similar education, Artega soon found my dad to be not only a friend but a "right-hand man for a lot of things he did as a squadron commander." If not for their shared Auburn Tiger pride, Artega would have always imagined my dad as a young and arrogant boy. But in the end, due to this first connection between my dad and Colonel Artega, he got to experience first-hand how to run a huge squadron like the 23rd, something that a person of his rank could only dream of. "The reason I knew what to do in other jobs was that I had seen him do it… and certainly, I mirrored a lot of the things that he did.” (Meeks, Trey interview)
My family when my dad pinned major in Alabama (“Major Trey")
My great grandma and dad after his graduation from the Academy​ (“Trey and Grandmother”)
My dad and Colonel Artega when he pinned Colonel in Hawaii (“Trey and Artega”)
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This information was crucial to the success of my dad as he slowly climbed up the ranks of the Air Force. In Alabama, he pinned as a major under Artega's leadership. After a second kid, two moves across the country, and around 3 years of hard work, my dad got pinned to a Lieutenant Colonel when I was in Kindergarten. But before my dad would pin Colonel, the rank before General, he would have to face one more challenge, where Colonel Artega's advice would be indispensable.
This is a Call
Unlike all the rest of the major events, I was old enough to vividly remember the day my dad’s life would change forever. The air was rushing past my face as the helicopter descended from the night sky, ready to land on the concrete below. The metal canister I clutched in my hands was strangely cold in the Virginia heat. As the helicopter braced for landing, I could see my dad in the window, smiling like a madman. Then a countdown. “3-2-1- GO!” the crowd roared behind me as my dad opened the helicopter door. My mom, my brother, and I surged forward as my dad attempted to avoid the spray of foam that exploded from my hands, the two men helping my brother and I carry the military-grade fire extinguishers struggling to keep up with us. After about two minutes of my brother and I trying to spray my dad and my mom pouring champagne on his head, my dad took a different approach and grabbed my brother off the ground to use as a human shield. The crowd behind us was laughing and cheering until my dad was completely soaked in champagne and foam. We headed back inside the aircraft hanger ready to celebrate, as my dad was now the commander of the First Air Force Squadron of the United States.
My dad talking at his change of command ceremony
(“Trey Speech”)
Rob and I messing around in front of the capitol building.
(“Brooke and Rob Capitol Building”)
The 1st Helicopter squadron was established in 1944 and was soon deployed overseas for combat in several different parts of India until being sent back to the US, being stationed in Camp Kilmer New Jersey. After disbanding for 24 years, the squadron was re-commissioned in Andrews Air Force base Maryland in 1969 where it currently resides. The helicopter squadron now transports high ranking officials in the DC area as well as search and rescue missions.
(1st Helicopter Squadron [1st HS])
My dad's name on one of the squadron's helicopters
(“Trey’s Helicopter”)
Although Trey had been stationed at around 15 different bases since the Air Force Academy, this position was different to the others that he has held before. He was the head of one of the most important Squadrons for the Air Force, something that no normal person can do without a lot of tribulation. “It was very much my squadron, and there were a lot of things that needed fixing,” Trey recounted. This was his opportunity to show his skills. Although this was a daunting job, Trey “knew what to do and how to do it,” due to his previous specific training to handle a job like this, something most people don’t have. It was a match made in heaven, which is something that doesn't happen to everyone. So he took this perfect opportunity and used it to display his skills and learn new ones so he could handle any other projects the Air Force threw his way. (Meeks, Trey interview)
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Now that my dad had unquestionably proved his skills, we packed up and headed to Hawaii, when my dad would inevitably pin Colonel. Finally, we got the opportunity of a lifetime, when my dad was stationed in Singapore working an Air Force job for the American Embassy.
Family photo at my dad's change of command.
(“Change of Command Family Photo”)
Back in Caruthersville, my dad never could have imagined himself living overseas, as he lived in a place where people rarely moved out of the town, let alone the country. The rest of my family was also extremely surprised, even though we had moved around eight times each across the country. “I was expecting to go back to the US mainland... everybody that I knew, none of them had moved to other countries. That wasn’t really a normal thing,” my brother said. Both of us had only been to Canada once, and other than that had never left the US before, nor did we expect to. However, due to not only my dad’s hard work, but also his luck, we now live overseas in a place we could only name on a map earlier. With my dad’s close call with the academy, having to pack up and move every three years, and my dad’s impending retirement from the military into a normal job, military life isn’t easy. But, it has made our family go from a family in the rural Midwest with no plans for college to one that gets to travel the world. Not only that, but my brother and I get to do whatever we want with our lives, and can both go to college, something that almost didn’t happen for all three of the Meeks brothers. I think my mom sums military life up nicely when she described that it may be hard, but she “wouldn’t trade it for the world.” (Meeks, Rob. Meeks, Dawn. Meeks, Trey Interview)
My Hero
