The AMA salutes our veterans, including those who work at the AMA. A special thank you to Jay Smith, John Horner, Kyle Jaracz, Cliff McKee, Rob Kurek and Steve Weaver for your service and the many sacrifices you have made for our country.
-Jay Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of Model Aviation and Park Pilot magazines and will have worked for AMA for 10 years in 2018. He served in the U.S. Army in the 1990s as a Military Police officer and also graduated from the Tampa Police Academy. During his time in the Army, he was stationed in Alabama and Germany and was deployed to Bosnia as part of Operation Joint Endeavor.
He is a graduate of Saint Petersburg College and attended classes at the same campus as Jim Morrison from the Doors.
In addition to having an interest in all things that fly, he is a collector of arcade and pinball machines, plays both guitar and bass, and enjoys watching science fiction when the weather keeps him from flying.
-John Horner is the Shipping/Receiving Clerk at the AMA. He grew up in Modoc, IN and graduated from Union High School in 1966. After, he started working in Richmond, IN.
In 1968 John was drafted by the US Army. He was stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Fort Lee, Virginia. In August 1968, he was deployed to Vietnam. John returned to the US in 1969, and was stationed in Stockton, California. John was honorably discharged from the Army in February 1970.
John received the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Good Conduct Medal.
John has a daughter Carrie, and two son’s, JR (wife Alisha) and Dylan. John enjoys spending his free time with his wife, Carol, family and grandson Beckham. John enjoys all sports but is an avid IU basketball fan.
-Kyle Jaracz was born and raised in Southern Indiana. He spent many hours exploring the farmlands outside of Vincennes, IN. An interest in flight came in middle school when he began building and flying bungee high-start sailplanes. During his junior year of high school at the age of 17, he obtained his parents’ permission to join the Indiana Army National Guard as an Infantryman, spending the following two summers at Fort Benning, GA for training. Kyle was activated to full time status for Operation Enduring Freedom, and subsequently for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He served one tour in the Middle East, serving in Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan in 2003 along with the 1-152. Kyle served just over 6 years as an Infantryman. Kyle obtained his BA from Anderson University (Visual Communication Design, print media focus) where his greatest achievement came in finding his wife, Mary (Notturno) Jaracz. Kyle and Mary have two sons, Caleb (8) and Wyatt (5) and live in a historic Civil War era home which affords him many opportunities to refine his handy-man skillset. Kyle enjoys woodworking, metalworking, gunsmithing, shooting sports (USPSA & IDPA), hunting, and flying everything electric RC. His greatest joys and frustrations revolve around raising his two boys, but couldn’t ask for a better partner. He works at the AMA as the Art Director and Production Manager for both Model Aviation and Park Pilot.
-Cliff McKee served in the Military Service. Cliff has four adult children, six grandchildren, a significant other, a cat and a dog. His hobbies include Bowling, DJ Business, Emergency Management Volunteer, NWS Storm Spotter, High Sports Official & Target practice. Cliff loves working with the awesome staff at the AMA.
-Rob Kurek celebrated his 25th anniversary with AMA in July, moving with the organization from Reston, VA in 1993. It’s amazing to see how far AMA has come in that time.
Prior to AMA, Rob worked in the newspaper business as a reporter and editor in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Rob has a Bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA. He was fortunate to receive a four-year Army ROTC scholarship in 1981, and was commissioned in 1985.
Rob served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1985 to 2000. One of his most interesting assignments was acting as an aide to a two-star general during a training exercise about the time of Desert Storm. It gave him an appreciation for the enormity of running a logistics operation intended to support thousands of troops deployed overseas. Many of the management lessons from Rob’s time in service has helped him in his association career.
Rob and his wife, Gayle, have one son, Connor who interned in Media & Publications this summer at AMA. His son is a sophomore in the Scripps School of Communication at Ohio University. Rob has a passion for traveling with Connor and Gayle.
-Steve Weaver registered for the Selective Service when he turned 18 years old on November 1, 1971. His number was relatively low and since the war in Vietnam was still going on, Steve thought he might get drafted into the Army. The Navy recruiters came to his high school in the spring of Steve’s senior year and he joined the Navy on April 10, 1972 on a 90 day delay program. After high school graduation, Steve reported for active duty and was sent directly to Great Lakes, Illinois for boot camp training on June 19, 1972. After basic training Steve went to Aviation Machinist Mate Class “A” School outside Memphis, Tennessee for 14 weeks and learned the fundamentals of Aviation Jet Mechanics. After Class “A” School graduation, Steve was sent to his first duty station at NAS Albany, Georgia where he went through further training on the RA-5C Vigilante jet aircraft. Steve also worked as a Plane Captain attached to RVAH-3 which was the air wing.
Steve reported to his regular squadron RVAH-6 upon their return from a Western Pacific cruise in March, 1973 and worked out of the Power/Plants Shop. Steve remained in this shop most of the rest of his time in the Navy. He also went TAD to other assignments both ashore and at sea. Steve made a seven month Mediterranean Cruise aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal CVA-59 in 1974 and travelled to Spain, France, Italy and Greece. He worked for Flight Deck and Hangar Deck Control as an aircraft status checker on this ship until he was promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class in April, 1974. Upon return from this cruise Steve’s squadron was relocated to NAS Key West, Florida, as his previous base in Albany, Georgia had been disestablished and closed down.
From January – April, 1975 Steve was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63 and participated in a short RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) cruise from California to Hawaii. During this time the North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, 1975 officially ending the Vietnam War. From May – December, 1975 Steve went on a WESTPAC (Western Pacific) cruise to the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. After Steve’s squadron’s return to Key West, he sent TAD to the base jet shop working strictly intermediate maintenance, tearing down and rebuilding various jet engines.
After Steve was discharged from active duty on June 19, 1976, he went home to Pennsylvania and worked various jobs; turning lathe in a machine shop and as a manager/short order cook at his mom’s Dairy Queen, until he enrolled in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on the G.I. Bill. Steve graduated in December, 1979 and went to work as a Glass Package Designer for Anchor Hocking Glass in Lancaster, Ohio in February, 1980. On September 27, 1980 Steve married his wife Kathy and in 1983 they relocated to Tampa, Florida with his new company, Anchor Glass Container Corporation. They lived in Tampa for 12 years with their three children, Rachel, Rebecca and Randy.
In 1995 his family relocated to Muncie, Indiana when Steve accepted another glass designer position with Ball Glass Container Corp. This job ended 5 years later when the company was acquired by the French glass manufacturer Saint Gobain. That setback offered a new opportunity to go in a different direction and Steve was hired as a graphic designer/production assistant with the Academy of Model Aeronautics on June 19, 2000. Steve was part of the start-up of AMA Custom Products which had its roots three years before in the AMA Merchandising Department. Steve’s job has expanded from T-Shirt art preparation and Vinyl Banners and Signs to printed graphic design materials and Trophy and Award Engraving, which is his main discipline of expertise.
Steve enjoys riding his motorcycle and going to car shows and cruise-ins. He likes to read and watch old movies. Steve is also interested in genealogy and family history, model railroading and spending time with his four grandchildren, which according to his wife, should be first on his list.
AMA Hall of Fame member, Dave Gierke, is offering special promotional pricing for AMA members on his new novel. After three decades of research, followed by eight years of writing, Gierke finished his two-volume, lightly dramatized biographical novel based on the American aviation pioneer, Augustus Moore Herring. To Caress the Air: Augustus Herring and the Dawn of Flight – Book 1, takes place in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and chronicles the engineer’s aeronautical achievements, his ordeals, and his triumphs over severe adversity. The book’s setting is the New York State Supreme Court. Herring’s account is conveyed through his testimony during the 1921 civil action trial, Herring-Curtiss Company v. Glenn H. Curtiss, et al., which provides a venue for flashbacks that document his role in solving the age-old problem of manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight. Working with other luminaries of aerial navigation, including Lilienthal, Langley, Chanute and Glenn Curtiss, Herring moved his family from New York City, to Washington DC, to Chicago, to St. Joseph MI, and back to Long Island NY (with brief stops at Hammondsport NY, and Marblehead MA), all in the pursuit of solving the mysteries of dynamic flight. Gierke states that unlike the Wright brothers, Herring believed that flying models were useful for developing full-size, man-carrying aeroplanes. During the 1890s he designed, built and flew many gravity-powered gliders and twisted rubber-powered craft. In 1902, he engineered and fabricated the world’s first practical internal combustion model airplane engine, which he used to power a successful free-flight model in January of 1903; this served as the basis for Ray Arden’s first engine in 1907. Gierke is a lifelong control-line and radio control modeler. He is also a columnist for Model Airplane News magazine. For a limited time, he is offering AMA members an exclusive pre-order deal for the ebook. To Caress the Air: Augustus Herring and the Dawn of Flight – Book 1 can be pre-ordered for only $1.99. In return for this price, Gierke requests that the purchaser writes a review of Book 1 and submit it to Amazon and Goodreads. The official launch date of To Caress the Air, Book 1 (ebook, paperback, hardcover) will occur on June 1, 2018, at which time the ebook price will revert to $9.99. For more purchase details, including a free gift and several never-before-published photos of Dave’s models, go to www.davegierkebooks.com.
