Photo By Staff Sgt. Lauren Cobin | U.S. Air Force Capt. Nick “Laz” Le Tourneau, pilot and commander of the F-22...... read more read more
“Flight School Opening Soon!”
The sign, tied to a chain-link fence outside a rural Minnesota airport, stopped 17-year-old Nick Le Tourneau in his tracks.
He was just driving to another shift at his dishwashing job.
“I’ll always remember that day,” he said. “It felt like something in me woke up.”
“I thought back to the air shows I had gone to, watching the F-22 Raptor tear across the sky, and I just knew, I had to find a way to fly.”
While that sign gave him direction, his heart had already taken flight years earlier.
At just 12 years old, Nick took his first ever flight in a Beech Bonanza A36 thanks to Shawn Jennings, a family friend who had built the aircraft himself.
“It was the first time I’d ever been in a plane,” he recalled. “It was freeing, exhilarating – it was addicting! After that flight, I was hooked.”
His mom, Cassie, said the passion was impossible to miss.
“He’d read books, watch documentaries, go to every air show he could,” she explained. “We weren’t a flying family, but he made aviation part of our story.”
That spark grew stronger after he got his driver’s license and drove himself to his first air show in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
“That was where I first saw the F-22,” he said. “It just looked like a spacecraft. I remember it being on the cover of all the air show ads, posters, and even video games.”
“At the time, I had no idea how to become a Raptor pilot, or if it was even possible. I just knew I wanted to go after it.”
Le Tourneau didn’t know it at the time, but the pilot in the cockpit that day was Maj. David “Zeke” Skalicky, the same man he would one day replace on the F-22 Raptor Aerial Demonstration Team, 15 years later.
Col. Skalicky, now commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, said, “You never know who’s watching when you’re up there flying or who you might inspire when you’re speaking with the crowd. To learn one of those faces below the fence line ended up in the seat 15 years later? It’s why we do it.”
His dream solidified even more at the Fargo Air Show, where he started talking to an Air Force recruiter about the Air Force Academy Flying Team. But the path forward was anything but easy.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii to two Marine Corps parents, Le Tourneau eventually settled in New York Mills, Minnesota, at age 12.
“My parents always taught me that whatever you do, you give it 100%,” he said. “To me, that’s what the Raptor represented. The look, the sound, and the way it defied the laws of physics just blew my mind.”
But dreams have a cost.
“No one in my local community had ever flown airplanes,” he said. “There wasn’t a legacy path. We didn’t have money. But when I saw that flight school sign, I knew I had to try.”
He called the number again and again for months with no answer. When flight school owner, Rich McCrateuy, finally returned his call, things started to take off.
Rich, who had just opened the flight school, saw his potential.
Despite having no other students, he took Nick under his wing, offering guidance, encouragement, and eventually, the gift of flight.
From there, Nick did whatever it took. “I picked up a second job driving lumber trucks in the morning, went to school during the day, then worked nights as a barback – all just to afford lessons.”
Despite the long hours and constant hustle, his passion never faded.
“Nicholas doesn’t do anything halfway,” his mother, Cassie, said. “He told me, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ There wasn’t a question. It was just part of who he was.”
At 17, earning a pilot’s license was no easy feat. “I actually failed my first check ride,” Nick recalled. “It was with Luke Stromme, my instructor from the local flight school. He took me back up that same day and gave me the ‘you got this’ speech. That meant everything.”
Nick credits Luke with helping him believe he could fly, even when he doubted himself.
His teachers supported him, letting him leave school early to train and counting it as an elective course through high school. But as college approached, the reality of cost caught up to him.
Around that time, he met a local businessman named Kenny Nelson. “I told him I wanted to bring aviation back to my community and become a military pilot,” said Le Tourneau. “He handed me $600 out of his own pocket and said, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing.’”
Despite all of his efforts, Nick eventually ran out of money.
“I told Rich, ‘I’ve paid you all I can, but I can’t keep going,’ and he said, ‘You can pay me later. I just want you to finish and not lose that spark.’”
Nick kept sending what money he could, until Rich finally told him, “You’ve done enough. You don’t owe me anything else.”
With his pilot's license secured, Nick was ready to pursue his next challenge at the Air Force Academy.
“I was denied admission twice – in 2012 and 2013,” Nick recalled. “I kept getting told ‘no,’ but I didn’t accept that. I kept trying.”
He even kept the first denial letter folded up in his pocket throughout college and pilot training, a constant reminder to stay focused and never give up.
Once accepted, the challenges didn’t stop.
At the Academy, the flying program pushed him to his limits, testing his resolve and skill at every stage. But he kept pushing, thanks in part to mentors like Lt. Col. Austin “Magnum” Skelley.
Skelley, who wasn’t even assigned to his unit, hosted weekly mentoring sessions for cadets interested in becoming fighter pilots.
“He didn’t just talk about flying,” Nick recalled. “He showed us what it meant to carry yourself like a fighter pilot. It wasn’t about ego, it was about the mission, discipline and leading by example.”
Today, U.S. Air Force Capt. Nick “Laz” Le Tourneau is the pilot and commander of the F-22 Raptor Aerial Demonstration Team. This July, he’ll return to Minnesota to headline the Duluth Air Show, not far from where it all began.
“I imagine it’s going to be nostalgic,” he said. “Looking back on where I came from, my hometown, my community, and flying the very machine that inspired me all those years ago. There’s zero chance I could’ve done this alone. I’m proud of my state, my family, and everyone who helped me get here.”
Now as the Demonstration Team pilot, Le Tourneau sees his role as far more than flying fast jets.
“There are two sides to representing Raptor Nation,” he said. “There’s representing the team and community of people who still inspire me. But the bigger part is finding a way to light that spark in the people across the fence, the same place I once stood.”
“I just hope to inspire those kids out there to find something that excites them, whether it’s aviation or something else, and pursue it relentlessly. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.”
His dedication resonates with those who know the team’s legacy.
“Laz gets what this team is about,” said Skalicky. “It’s not just about putting on a great show. It’s about the Air Force, the legacy of honor and passing it on.”
As the commander of a team that travels the world showcasing the F-22 Raptor’s unmatched capabilities, Le Tourneau reflects on what his journey has meant.
“No other place in the military gives you the chance to operate at this high of a level with such a small, tight-knit group,” he emphasizes. “Every weekend, everything is on the line. But I get to lead a team that shares the same mission. That’s what excites me. It’s not just the jet, it’s the people.”
For a kid from a small town with no clear path into aviation, Capt. Le Tourneau’s story is a testament to what persistence, mentorship, and community support can achieve.
“If I could talk to my younger self, I’d say: keep the spark alive. Stay humble, work hard, and care about the people around you. This is within your grasp!”
Sometimes, all it takes is a simple sign, and a community willing to lift you high enough to see your dream take flight.
| Date Taken: | 07.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.01.2025 21:03 |
| Story ID: | 502090 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 753 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, From Small-Town Minnesota to F-22 Pilot: An Air Force Captain’s Journey, by SSgt Lauren Cobin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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