In 2004, Taylor Roach answered a questionnaire for the Vail Daily upon graduating from Battle Mountain High School at 18. One of the questions asked was, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”

“Flying fighter jets, you know, Mach 2 with your hair on fire,” Roach answered.

Mission accomplished, you could say.

After graduating from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in 2008, Roach graduated from pilot training in 2010. In 2013, he got his assignment that he would be flying an F-16 Fighting Falcon —  a fighter jet capable of reaching speeds of 1,500 mph (Mach 2) at altitude. In 2014, 10 years after graduating from high school, Roach flew the F-16 for the United States Air Force.

After four years at the Air Force Academy and 12 years of active duty from 2008-2020, Roach is now a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina Air National Guard. Now married with three children, Roach misses his days skiing as a kid in Colorado but has seen the world from a perspective few get to experience.

“It’s been amazing,” Roach said of his military career. “I don’t regret doing it at all — I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. The people you meet and the things you get to do are one of a kind. It’s hard, but it provides amazing opportunities and experiences.”

Catching the flying bug

Roach’s passion for flying started at an early age. For his third-grade self-portrait assignment, he said he wanted to be a pilot or a forest ranger. At some point, the Roach family — led by parents Kevin and Cathy — began attending Air Force Academy football games, against Army or Navy.

“I remember they would do a ton of flyovers before the game,” Roach recalls.

While his parents did not serve in the military, Roach’s grandparents were World War II veterans. Growing up, he participated in Cub Scouts, coached with the Special Olympics, was a ski team captain and was named one of the Denver Post’s top high school athletes.

“Great kid,” said Huskies soccer coach David Cope. “He laid a lot of the foundation of what we do now,” adding that Roach was a captain who led by example.

Roach met his wife while he was in Texas for pilot training — she was training on a Teach for America program. They lived together in Phoenix when he was learning to fly F-16s, and then they moved to South Carolina after that.

“I am extremely proud of the fact that my son chose a military career,” his father, Kevin, said. “I’m extremely proud of the fact that he’s balancing a military career and a family with three kids and a dog. Between the training, the deployments and time away from families, you just say ‘Wow,’ the commitment is huge.”

Roach said a career in the military raises his appreciation for Veterans Day, the public holiday held on the anniversary of the end of World War I. He hopes more people understand it’s not just the members of the military themselves who sacrifice, but their families as well. When his daughter Caroline was just 1, he spent a year in South Korea while his family stayed stateside. There are times when weeks and months away become the norm.

“You want people to have an understanding and an appreciation of how it can be hard and challenging on families,” Roach said. “It’s a reward to serve, but it is a sacrifice in its own way.”

In that 2004 questionnaire, Roach said he’d miss “skiing 80 days a year.” But little did he know he’d be flying an F-16 for the United States Air Force as a career. And with the call sign “Smokin'” — Roach is serving his country by “flying fighter jets, you know, Mach 2 with your hair on fire.”

This story is from VailDaily.com.