Michelle Ruehl

When Michelle arrived at USAFA Basic Training in 1999, she hit the “Stand Here” painted footsteps and never made it past the large dudes with tight blue shirts – the dreaded upperclassmen cadre. She showed up an artsy girl from Detroit with slightly purple hair, a nose ring, and ripped jean shorts (that part was an accident). The cadre bellowed in her face and told her to go home, but she couldn’t wipe the smirk off her face. One upperclassman whispered in her ear, “You’ll never make it to Christmas.” When she marched into the Sijan Hall dormitory, the cadre threw her a boxed lunch and tossed her into a room. As the other girls looked up with quizzical stares, she opened with, “Hey, I’m Michelle, I got a little held up. You want any peanut butter?”

She ended up making it past Christmas. And playing rugby, performing with the Bluebards theater troupe, and getting a pilot slot, but only because the women she met at USAFA gave her strength to push through to the end. Now, over twenty years later, these women of 2003 (“Bong”) are still close. They have helped each other through weddings, births, deaths, suicides, reunions, and now retirements.

Michelle joined the USAFA Women Writers team in part to tell their stories – and the stories of so many women who have gone before them. She also joined because although she spent several years as a C-130, MC-12W, and T-53 instructor pilot, she always found her way back to pen and paper. She did three tours as an English professor at USAFA, served as speech writer to the Vice President of the United States, a White House Fellow, and a smattering of other jobs (like teaching in Africa). But her heart has always been in storytelling.

She has a Ph.D. in English, an M.A. in psychology, and she works as an equine specialist in mental health and a therapeutic (horse) riding instructor for trauma survivors. Michelle sees writing and sharing stories as another way to find healing, create purpose, and connect humanity. Ask her about her dissertation in using theater as an intervention for communities surviving trauma!

After 15 years of serving on active duty, Michelle took the plunge into the AF Reserves. She works at NORAD and lives in Colorado with her airline pilot husband, her two rambunctious children, two cuddly dogs, a one-eyed cat, and a disinterested fish. They are anxiously waiting to add their adopted little girl to the mix. The more the merrier!