By Kristin Davis

Retired Navy Cmdr. Jack Gillett first trained his eyes on the sky as a boy growing up on the California coast. He’d join his mother, a volunteer with the Aircraft Warning Service during World War II, at observation posts and watch for aircraft all night. He never forgot the thrill of phoning in their sightings.

Gillett spent his spare money on model airplanes. There were plastic ones and wooden ones and then flying models.

“Even in high school, dating took a backseat to model airplanes,” he recalled. “My dad told me he was not surprised when I went into aviation.”

Gillett was enrolled in junior college when Navy recruiters showed up and offered to take students to an airport for a ride in trainer planes. He learned that if he had 60 credit hours and could pass a series of tests, he could begin flight training. It was February 1964.

“I didn’t know a Vietnam War was coming,” he said. “But the Navy did.”

Previously aimless, Gillett had found his passion. And he excelled, pinning on his wings at 21. After 15 months as a flight instructor, he reported to his first A-7 squadron. A year and a half later, he was in Vietnam. He would return twice more.

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After 20 years of service that included stints as a housekeeper for the vice president, a personal aid to the Navy’s budget director, among others, he retired and returned home to Bakersfield, Calif., and took over the family’s sand and gravel business. After the business shut down, he learned about a position at a high school as a Navy Junior ROTC (JROTC) program and applied. By then, Gillett had been retired for 20 years and required a special waiver for the job. He stood up the program and ran it for six years.

“I really enjoy working with youth,” he said. “I had a really good rapport with them.”

Four years ago, after moving from California to Colorado, Gillett joined the Pikes Peak Chapter just as it was gearing back up after the pandemic. The role of ROTC coordinator was among several unfilled chapter positions.

“I volunteered right away,” he said.

Gillett has been instrumental in growing the chapter’s support of ROTC and JROTC in the area, expanding the number of sponsored units from five to 18, including adding six in just the past year. They include schools in Colorado Springs, Canyon City, and Pueblo, Colo. The latter hadn’t had an official MOAA sponsor in several years.

Additionally, by working with the chapter scholarship committee, Gillett has arranged the award of 18 $1,000 scholarships to one ROTC unit and each of the 17 JROTC units. He also coordinates the chapter’s annual ROTC/JROTC Recognition Luncheon, during which each JROTC unit receives a $300 stipend to support their operations. The work keeps him busy, he said, and he enjoys it.

When Gillett thinks about his volunteer work, he thinks of his mother watching the sky, teaching him by example the value of service.

Kristin Davis is a writer in Virginia.