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AN EDITION OF THE IDAHO PRESS-TRIBUNE // MYMERIDIANPRESS.COM // 01.22.16
Flying the Apache around Idaho is exhilarating. I’m in awe of the aircraft — the most sophisticated and powerful attack helicopter on earth — and flying around the state that I love is surreal. I’m literally living a dream.” LT. MICHAEL HILL Apache helicopter pilot
Lt. Mike Hill stands in front of the heavily armed Apache attack helicopter at Gowen Field in Boise. Courtesy of Mike Hill
An Improbable Dream
Meridian builder puts career on hold to fly Apache helicopters
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magine giving up a thriving home design and remodeling business and moving your family out of your dream house to join the Army at the age of 34 to pursue an improbable dream of flying helicopters. Michael Hill had been totally absorbed with airplanes while growing up in Meridian, not unlike many boys his age, but with the onset of college, jobs, marriage by Larry Gardner and family responsibiliFor the Meridian Press © 2016 MERIDIAN PRESS ties, boyhood dreams fade. Hill’s desire to raise his family in a small Idaho town trumped his dream to fly for a few years. But as he matured into his early 30s, Hill began to panic as he realized he still desperately wanted to fly, not just a small private plane, but a military helicopter. He just couldn’t let go of the dream, which had become a full-fledged obsession. In 2008, during the annual air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Hill
stood admiring an Apache attack helicopter flown to the show by an Idaho National Guard pilot. He initiated a serious conversation with a soldier guarding the heavily-armed aircraft, and Hill lamented the fact he had never pursued his desire to fly. The soldier was a recruiter who looked at Hill with a somewhat jaundiced eye, handed him a coworker’s business card and said hesitantly, “Maybe you should call this guy.” Hill didn’t let the soldier’s obvious doubt deter him, so after a few days, the determined dreamer found himself in the office of the Idaho National Guard State Aviation Officer, who offered Hill advice on how to achieve his dream. “And by the way, at age 34, I was already too old to go to flight school without being granted a waiver, which is tough to obtain,” but Hill was granted the waiver and continued his quest to fly. “My wife and kids were settled in a comfortable lifestyle, living in our dream home in the country,” Hill said. This comfortable lifestyle was made possible by the home construction and
remodeling business he had built. But in a dramatic turn of events, and “with the support and encouragement of my wife, I enlisted in the Army, shuttered my business, rented out our house, moved into a rental property I owned, and headed to basic training in South Carolina,” Hill said. “There were many times when I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I
missed my family desperately,” the new34-year-old recruit said as he recalled memories of boot camp. “I had disrupted their lives to chase a childish dream, and the odds of actually being selected were slim to none. In fact, no one had done it at such an advanced age with no prior aviation or military experience.”
Please see Dream, page 9
Builder and Idaho Army National Guard Lieutenant Mike Hill, right, discusses details of remodel job with Eagle homeowner, Donald Hilton, left, and painter Gary Bell. Larry Gardner/For the MP
inside
HOUSING Meridian’s multifamily housing market is growing into its own. For the past three years, multifamily permits have made up about one-third of new residential permits.
C M Y K
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COMMUNITY Family, friends and even strangers are pitching in to help a Meridian family who lost their home to a fire.
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ON THE TOWN
SCHOOLS
The Homestead Bar and Grill, a local Meridian restaurant with 40 beers on tap, opens soon on the corner of East Chinden Boulevard and North Linder Road.
West Ada School District patrons are worried about the proposed school boundary changes. One redistricting committee member resigned, saying members don’t have enough information to make a good plan.
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