“… We had to make our own fun…”

“I grew up in Rotorua, New Zealand, and lived there until I was 19 years old. My three brothers and I were always outside playing with our neighbors. On a normal day we would eat breakfast at seven, be out with our friends by eight and not come home until our dad whistled for dinner. We lived in a rural area, with a football field-sized yard. We had to make our own fun. The neighbor kids, my brothers and I made cardboard wrestling belts and competed for them on the trampoline. We took our dirt bikes out to the neighbors' farms and went off the jumps we made or rode along the streams that led to the lake. We also loved to play touch and normal rugby, play Red Rover, which we called Bull Rush in New Zealand, and to walk an hour to town, just to roam around. We did anything to pass the time. It was a lot of crazy stuff, but it was always fun.”

Senior Airman Alecia J. Montgomery, 940th Aerospace Medicine Squadron medical administration

Hometown: Rotorua, New Zealand

(Each month, we will share a story of a reservist through a photo, simple quote or article. The goal of this project, similar to the 9th Public Affairs' Faces of Beale, is to learn more about Citizen Airmen. Whether traditional or full-time, every reservist has a unique story and adds to what makes us part of the world's greatest Air Force.)