Neal’s first exposure to the USAF Academy was in his family room in Dallas when he was 12 years old. He and his Dad (an 8th AF, 44th Bomb Group, 67th Squadron – B-24 pilot in WWII) watched the Falcon football team battle TCU to a 0-0 tie in the 1959 Cotton Bowl. In those days, very few football teams across the country had any kind of mascot or decal on their helmet… maybe some stripes or numerals on the side, but nothing noteworthy. But the Falcons…Wow!... they had lightning bolts on their helmets, and Neal decided then and there he wanted to play football for the AFA and become a pilot in the USAF.

Neal always says that he had absolutely the best cadet experience at the Academy that anybody could ever hope for… great Squadrons (24th and 12th)… great squadron mates… challenging academics (proud to be right in the middle of the Class, thank you)… rewarding command experience (both during the academic year and during the summers)… and meeting Sharon, his soul mate for the past 48 years, on a double blind date to the All Class Formal in Arnold Hall at the end of our Doolie year. Neal distinctly remembers Sharon saying, “… and the only thing I dislike more than Cadets is Texans!” Absolutely true… ask her!

Neal won the opportunity to wear his lightning bolts… and is proud of his four seasons with the Falcons, serving as Team Captain for the ’67 Falcons, one of the “least successful” teams in AFA football history (mostly due to losing so many of our best players in two different cheating scandals). Neal says the motto for the ’67 Falcons was, “We showed up every Saturday!” In the Spring of '68, Neal was the Commander of Cadet Squadron 12, the first “Dirty Dozen”.

Upon graduation, Neal waited five days to marry Sharon, and accepted an invitation to stay at USAFA as a TDY 2nd Lt. coaching freshman football, along with classmates Gerry Wyngaard and Dick Ellis, pushing his pilot training start date at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX to mid-March, 1969. Everything was working out just like he planned…

…until mid-September of 1968, when Neal started losing feeling in his left foot, then up to his calf, then past his knee and up his thigh, all in the space of about two weeks. A seven week stay in Wilford Hall down in San Antonio revealed a blood clot in Neal’s spine (Brown-Sequard Syndrome) which had to be closely monitored through return trips to San Antonio every six months, while remaining in his current job in Colorado Springs. After nearly four years “on hold”, Neal’s Doctors determined that he probably would not die from the clot moving up into his brain, but it did disqualify him from pilot training.

Neal explains that he and Sharon enjoyed their four year “tour” at the Academy, but his plan was always to become a pilot, have a successful tour somewhere in SEA, and move on to ever more challenging responsibilities and commands in the USAF. But without those wings and bonafides, Neal felt he could no longer compete for key jobs in the USAF. Neal resigned his commission and left the USAF on May 31, 1972… a mere 3 years, 11 months, and 26 days after we all threw our hats into the air in Falcon stadium. That’s less time than we were at the Academy! It was time to move on to Plan B, which did not include being a civilian football coach.

Other than a year in Denver and 6 months in Cleveland, Ohio, Sharon and Neal have lived in Colorado Springs. Neal, for nearly 40 years, had a successful career mixing entrepreneurship (Neal Starkey’s ALL-AMERICAN Sports Center, Inc., StarJes Data Systems, Inc. and Starkey and Associates, LLC) with the Computer/Defense/Aerospace industries (Digital Equipment Corporation/GSG, Sun Microsystems Federal, and EADS North America Defense). Sharon has retired after "only" 42 years as an educator in Colorado Springs School District #11, primarily due to the chronic Hepatitis-C she contracted from tainted blood transfusions after the birth of their second child, son Mitch, in 1976.

Speaking of Mitch (36), he’s a Sr. Acct Mgr. with a Xerox-subsidiary in C-Springs, married to Laura Henley, with two children: Anna (6) and Katie (2.5). His older sister, Tracie (41) is the Assistant Principal at Rampart HS in C-Springs, married to Travis Cormaney, with two children; Cale (10) and Carsyn (7).

Like many of you, Sharon and Neal invest an extraordinary amount of time and resources in their two children and four grandchildren and their many escapades, which should pay off big time when it comes time for them to select our retirement home for us!

In their “free” time, Neal and Sharon work as Pet Therapy volunteers, taking their succession of Labs and Retrievers into the local hospitals to cheer up both the patients and the staff, and into several elementary schools, where Sharon uses the dogs to help countless 1st and 2nd graders improve their reading skills, a truly unique experience for everybody involved.

Click on thumbnails above and below for larger images

Neal and Sharon: "Looking forward to seeing everybody at our 45th! Beat Army!!!"

February 2013