Medina Woman, Senior Master Sgt. Terri Santoro, At Home in The Sky

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Senior Master Sgt. Terri Santoro, a loadmaster of Medina, N.Y., poses in the crew door of a C-130 at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Ray Lloyd, 107th Airlift Wing.

LATHAM, NY (03/25/2011)(readMedia)-- One of the women who keeps the New York Air National Guard flying found her inspiration in the skies and on the ground.

Senior Master Sgt. Terri Santoro, of Medina, N.Y., is one of the nearly 950 women in the New York Air National Guard, and she routinely takes to the skies, logging flying time as a loadmaster in C-130 Hercules transport planes for the Niagara Falls-based 107th Airlift Wing.

Santoro's flying jobs have taken her across the world, America and New York State. She was inspired by her father, who was a gunner on a B-52 bomber, and Amelia Earhart.

"She was a go-getter, a female in a man's world," Santoro said of Earhart. "She made it in a man's world." Santoro said she also wanted to follow in her father's footsteps, so she joined the Air Force in 1985. Navigator and pilot positions are held by officers, and she was too short to qualify, Santoro recalled with a laugh.

"I wanted to fly, so I elected to stay enlisted," she said. She served as a boom operator on KC-135 Stratotankers in Plattsburgh and with 107th Air Refueling Wing until 2008. As a boom operator, she was responsible for controlling the KC-135 and refueling other aircraft, she said.

"When I started in 1985, there wasn't that many female boom operators," Santoro recalled.

When the 107th was converted into an airlift wing, Santoro changed too, and trained to become a loadmaster aboard C-130s. As a loadmaster, she's responsible for any cargo loaded on the C-130, including multiple tons of equipment and military personnel, like airborne troops, Santoro said. The unit has 20 loadmasters, seven of whom are female, she added.

"We have a lot of females, very sharp individuals," Santoro said.

For her, flying is a stress-reliever, she said.

"You could be having a bad day on the ground, but in the sky, you can clear your mind and relax," Santoro said.