Earning top honors

SIKESTON -- Like most people entering the Air Force, Luke Choate wanted to fly jets.

But Choate's colorblindness forced him to take a different path.

"Since I couldn't fly the planes, I wanted to be the one doing all the support on the ground to generate the flying mission, whether it be moving the cargo, loading the passengers or fueling the aircraft on the flightline," Choate said in a recent e-mail to the Standard Democrat.

In 2004, Choate was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 440 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

After three months of logistics technical training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, Choate said he realized that being a logistics officer fit him, and he was happy with his decision to go into that field.

Today Choate's career choices have paid off for him -- and the United States.

On May 28, 27-year-old Choate, now an Air Force captain, was flown to Washington, D.C., from his current deployment at Camp Arifjan Kuwait to receive the 2008 Air Force Logistics Readiness Officer of the Year award. He was honored for the award by Lt. Gen. Loren M. Reno, deputy chief of staff for Air Force Logistics, Installations and Mission Support.

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