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Darren Ellisor formed Service Academy Consulting with the goal of helping high school students achieve their dreams of attending one of the service academies. Darren, originally from Houston, Texas, set his sights on attending the Air Force Academy during his eighth grade school year. During his junior and senior years he completed the entire application process and earned a congressional nomination, but failed to gain an appointment to the Academy. He was, however, offered a Falcon Foundation scholarship to attend a military prep school for a year. While completing a year at Valley Forge Military College in Wayne, Pennsylvania as an Army ROTC cadet, Darren went through the entire application and nomination process again. |  |
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Darren was then accepted and entered the Air Force Academy with the class of 1997. After four challenging years at the Academy he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science and a pilot training slot.
Graduating from pilot training led Darren to Tinker AFB, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to fly the E-3 AWACS. The E-3 is a Boeing 707 with a mission of Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and has a crew capacity of 36. He piloted the E-3 for more than 8 years during two separate assignments at Tinker and one in Geilenkirchen, Germany flying the E-3 for NATO. In Germany he lead multi- |
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national crews built with aircrew from 13 NATO countries. Darren flew as an instructor pilot and an evaluator pilot. He held many leadership positions ranging from Flight Commander to Assistant Director of Operations of the 552nd Training Squadron where he helped lead the training of more than 300 young aircrew members. Over the years Darren lead air crews as an Aircraft Commander in multiple operations in the Middle East and |
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flew in countless exercises with the Army, Navy, and multi-national forces. He earned several decorations and awards—including the Lance P. Sijan Leadership award and the Base Pilot of the Year award in 2004.
After serving 10 great years in the Air Force, Darren and his family chose to make a change. In September 2007 he left the military with the rank of Major to become an airline pilot at Southwest Airlines. Darren, his wife Jennifer and their four children currently reside in Edmond, Oklahoma. |  |
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