MONTICELLO TIMES — A decorated Air Force pilot with more than 1,000 hours of flying in combat returned to his alma mater on Monday, Nov. 11 to share a special Veterans Day message with high school students, veterans and members of the community.
Major Joshua Nelson of Otsego, a 2000 graduate of Monticello High School, was the guest speaker at the 2019 Veterans Day Community Celebration, held in the Monticello High School field house.
Nelson, the chief of standards and evaluation for the 934th Operations Group and Airlift Wing of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport-based Air Force Reserve Command, told students that even though he has had a very successful military career, he had no idea what he was going to do with his life prior to graduating from Monticello High School.
Today, he is responsible for the oversight of 250 aircrew personnel and conducts flight evaluations for 40 pilots.
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Nelson enlisted in the Air Force Reserves in March of 2000. He went on to earn a B.A. degree from St. Cloud State University and was then commissioned as a second lieutenant from officer training school in 2006. He took specialized pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas and C-130E training at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Upon graduation in 2008, he spent his career flying the C-130H while stationed at the 934th Airlift Wing.
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