If anyone should ever tell you that the ‘sky is the limit,’ ignore them. To most people the sky is that expanse of blue dotted with clouds, where rainbows appear. But science tells us the sky ends at roughly 62 miles above sea level.
On the other hand, if you do want to know your way around the sky, this vast and endless expanse, spend a little time with Colorado native Graciela Tiscareño Sato. As a navigator on the Air Force’s KC-135, Tiscareño Sato crisscrossed skies above every continent as deftly as a chess master. Today, this Air Force veteran is crisscrossing the country, often appearing at air shows, telling both young and old, about her life above the clouds.
Tiscareño Sato, today an author-businesswoman, is busy promoting her trilogy “Captain Mama,” children’s books. While the books tell a story about her decade as a navigator, she also hopes they inspire young people to dream in the way she dreamed and how she made her dreams come true.
Tiscareño Sato, the child of Mexican immigrants, grew up in Evans, Colorado, just outside of Greeley. Her father was a tailor and her mother a homemaker. The family, including two siblings, lived modestly. But she wanted something different.
A counsellor at Greeley West thought she also had the right stuff to achieve and live her dreams when she invited the precocious high school junior to join her for dinner and to meet her Air Force officer husband.
At dinner, she learned about the Air Force ROTC program, an all-expenses paid scholarship at any of a thousand colleges or universities in exchange for a four-year commitment as a commissioned officer. In no time, she applied and was awarded the scholarship. She took her dream to the University of California-Berkeley where she would graduate and play four years in its marching band. It was also where she met her husband. Both were trombonists.
The agreement between herself and the Air Force worked out almost perfectly. Almost. The top thirty ROTC flight school graduates were rewarded with their aircraft of choice. But since women were not yet allowed to fly fighter jets—her dream—Tiscareño Sato fell back on her second choice, the KC-135. She would become one of the first female navigators. Ironically, the Air Force lifted the ban on women flying jets the following year.
The KC-135 is a modified Boeing 707 that can carry more than 83,000 pounds of fuel. Tiscareño Sato navigated this behemoth on routine as well as classified missions. Her plane refueled everything from stealth aircraft to the now retired super-secret spy plane, SR-71. She also flew above live fire over Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today on the ground, the ‘Captain Mama’ author visits air shows where she shares her stories and her bilingual story books. She also brings the same flight suits she wore on active duty and lets kids try them on as they pose for pictures.
The books, she said, explain “Who’s a veteran? What do we do?” As important, they also show young people that “Women and Latinas are veterans, too.” “I want a different narrative,” said the Air Force aviator. Her story is the melding of Latina potential and perseverance. The “Captain Mama” trilogy conveys the same message she has instilled in each of her three children, including her youngest, Kiyoshi. He’s the inspiration for her books.
That epiphany occurred the night before her son’s preschool ‘honor a Vet’ event. She remembered sitting with him and explaining some of the badges on her flight suit as they prepared for the next day. She also recalled that the teacher wanted the kids to talk about their “Dads or grandfathers,” but made no mention of “Moms or grandmothers” who served.
Almost immediately, she decided “I’m just going to show up in uniform.” She also remembered kissing her little boy and sending him to bed and hearing him whisper, “I love you, Captain Mama.” The words became inspiration for the title of her first book, “Good Night, Captain Mama.” It was followed with “Captain Mama’s Surprise,” and “Take Flight with Captain Mama.”
Things have changed dramatically for Latinas and all women in the Air Force today. Women fly in combat; fly every plane in the Air Force inventory; fly as lead solo pilot for the Air Force Thunderbirds. She and many of them now regularly cross paths at the various air shows where they can share stories, commiserate about their common experiences and talk about the unique paths that catapulted them into the sky. They are, she said, a special and, more importantly, growing sorority.
Making this bond even tighter are the personal experiences they endured as women and ‘firsts,’ groundbreakers who had to prove their worth as flyers.
For Tiscareño Sato, being the first Latina awarded the Combat Air Medal, is one such story. The medal, when she was flying with her all-male crew over Iraq and Afghanistan, was not then awarded to women. She wasn’t even aware that she had met the standards for the commendation until years after her separation from the Air Force. But doing her homework on the oversight and knowing her combat missions qualified her for it, she finally got it. “The official date,” she said, “is two months after the law was changed.” Tiscareño Sato is quick to commend her crewmates for not accepting their medals until she received hers.
Tiscareño Sato’s life as an author has combined challenge with reward. Just as she saw blue sky with her unique book idea, COVID-19 brought things to a sudden stop. Schools, her primary target for promoting ‘Captain Mama,’ just as suddenly closed. Air shows were cancelled, and air travel became both problematic and risky. Compounding matters was the death of her father.
With the darkest days of COVID in the past, things are looking up. Revenue for the “Good Night, Captain Mama,” trilogy is now stabilizing and, to use a military term, things seem to be ‘CAVU,’ ceiling and visibility unlimited.
The contrails that once crossed the Colorado sky for a long-ago young girl, turned out to be far more than billowing lines. More than ephemeral, they turned out to be inspirational and directional markings to follow and lead to a dream come true.
For more information on the ‘Captain Mama’ trilogy, please visit Captian Mama books | Children’s Aviation Book Seriers.
