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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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In Charge Of Spokane Air Safety

Michelle Skomars has been in charge of air traffic at Spokane International Airport for five years.  (Dan Pelle / Spokesman-Review)
Michelle Skomars has been in charge of air traffic at Spokane International Airport for five years. (Dan Pelle / Spokesman-Review)

Dirty shorts and cleats aren’t typical attire when applying for a job. But Michelle Skomars is anything but typical. And the job application was an impulse. “I’d just finished playing in a softball tournament and was going to meet the rest of the gals to celebrate our win,” Skomars recalled, “when I happened to walk by the federal building in Savannah, Georgia, and noticed a sign that said, ‘Come take the air traffic controller test.’ “That was not on my radar – no pun intended. But I had my ID on me and the test was in 15 minutes, so I called ahead and told my friends I’d be a little late. “I went in. Took the test. Maxed it. They had an extra-credit section for pilots, so I walked out of a 100-point test with a score of 110. “When they asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ I said Alaska, and that’s where I spent the next 13 years.” Today, Skomars is air traffic manager at Spokane International Airport, and provides radar service for Fairchild Air Force Base/Michael Gilfoil, SR correspondent. More here.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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