At 37 years old, Joyce Ingle, a wife and mother of two, decided to join the U.S. Navy Reserves simply, she said, to "try a new career."
"It was December 1982," said Ingle, who is now 71. "My kids were teenagers and their dad had already been in the Navy for several years. He traveled overseas a lot with the squadron and I wanted to do the same thing."
The Poplar Bluff native and her family lived in Florida, which she still considers home, and according to Ingle, she has never been one to turn down a challenge. Her tenacity, along with a desire to see the world, made her a perfect fit for the Navy Reserves.
"I wanted another career. I had fulfilled my dream of getting married and having my children and enjoying them, so when they got older I was ready to try something new," she said.
Ingle said her then-husband encouraged her to pursue her goal of becoming an aircrewman. She said the flexibility of the reserves allowed her to work full-time, flying out of her home port in Jacksonville, Fla., on a daily basis, while still enjoying a "normal" family life.
"I'd go on orders every month for 21 years," Ingle said. "If I wanted to take a week off and go on vacation or something, I would. If I wasn't flying I was at home, but I'd go to work every day and I mainly stayed up in the air."
Ingle began her Navy career as a flight attendant after earning her wings. Two years later, she was promoted to flight attendant instructor and worked in that position for another two years before asking to train for the job of loadmaster. Ingle cited the need for a new challenge and a love of mathematics as her primary reasoning for the request.
"When I started, there weren't a lot of women as loadmasters, but I loved it," Ingle said. "It was my niche. I loved math and, of course, sometimes you had to tell a pilot he couldn't take off because the cargo wasn't safe so you also had to be diplomatic, too."
Ingle successfully performed her loadmaster duties and was soon asked to become a loadmaster instructor and, of course, she welcomed the challenge.
"I enjoyed it very much and I've never regretted that 21 years of my life," she said.
Ingle said joining the service afforded her the opportunity to travel the world; an opportunity she otherwise would not have had.
"I've been all over the world and met some very interesting people," she said. "I enjoyed that I traveled, even though it wasn't vacation and was on a time schedule, but we did get a day off so we could go out and explore the towns."
Ingle said she never felt out of place even though she was nearly 40 years old when she joined the Navy Reserves. In fact, Ingle said, she liked that she was more established than her younger coworkers and on holidays would often volunteer to work so the parents with young children could stay home with their families.
"Family is so important," she said. "Mine understood why I did that. Other parents needed to be home with their young children during the holidays."
Ingle retired in 2005 prior to taking a job with British Airways, from which she also retired. Her primary residence currently is in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., but she has spent the last three years in Poplar Bluff caring for her now 93-year-old mother, Mary K. Rimer.
Ingle said she promised to care for her mother years ago in the event of a health decline and vowed to do everything in her power to fulfill the promise. Ingle recently made the decision to return to her Ponte Vedra Beach home on June 18 and said Rimer is going with her. She said her mom isn't thrilled about the adventure, but by the look in Ingle's eyes, home is where the heart is.
"My children live there," she said. "They're grown, of course, but I only live 15 minutes from my son and 20 minutes from my daughter and granddaughter. My home is there, I have a condo. I've been home twice now for a couple weeks at a time but that's all."
Upon returning to Florida, Ingle said her goal is to accomplish everything on her bucket list. She loves to travel and said one of her more lofty goals is to spend a year abroad.
"I know now, thanks to the Navy, where I want to go on my own and not have a set schedule of being on the plane," Ingle said. "I want to go back and see some of the friends I met. Being retired from the military, I can fly anywhere in the world for free on a military hop."
Ingle said prior to caring for her mom, she spent many weeks exploring Spain and Sicily. She said flying on a military hop can be risky but that she has had positive experiences so far.
When asked what advice she would give to young women looking ahead to the future, Ingle was quick to answer with advice she herself knows to be tried and true.
"What I try to always tell young people is to set a goal that's very high," she said, "and to reach for the stars."