Almost 40 years ago, Aaron Finke first met Leland Cowie when they were students at Jonesburg Elementary School.

Since then, the Montgomery County natives have established a long friendship that continued during a retirement ceremony on July 31 at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, just outside Wichita Falls.

The ceremony was held for Finke, honoring his 22 years of service in the Air Force. Cowie, who is a colonel, attended the event and made a 2,074-word speech about Finke’s contributions to the Air Force as well as their long friendship.

“He brought me into the Air Force in the beginning, so him being there to finish it off for me was good,” Finke said. “I’m glad to be done. I’m excited to be done with the military and move on to my next career.”

Cowie, who works as a director of special warfare at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., said he was thrilled to make the trip to Texas to honor Finke.

“I got my wings from that base, so I haven’t been back there since April 2000,” Cowie said. “It’s been 23 years since I’ve been there. The other thing is with my role in special warfare, I haven’t flown a fast jet since 2009. One of the things that is offered to most Air Force pilots is to make a final flight. It’s called the Fini Flight. With him being qualified as an instructor and a 238 trainer and me still being medically qualified as a pilot, he did the paperwork. I was able to fly with him on his last flight in the Air Force.”

The flight happened before the retirement ceremony. In 1993, Cowie took Finke for his first airplane flight in a Cessna 150.

“I’m really proud of Aaron,” Cowie said. “He had a tremendous career, had a lot of impact and influenced a lot of people. It was neat strapping yourself into an ejection seat one more time with one of your best friends and going flying with him.”

In 1984, after his family moved to Jonesburg, Cowie was enrolled as a third-grade student at JBE. Finke, who grew up in High Hill, was in kindergarten.

Cowie graduated from Montgomery County High School in 1994 and went to the Air Force Academy. After graduating from MCHS in 1997, Finke decided to follow in Cowie’s footsteps and headed to the Air Force Academy.

“That got me thinking that maybe the Air Force Academy is the way to go, so I kind of followed him out there,” Finke said. “I got accepted to the Air Force Academy, so it was great to attend the Air Force Academy with him. He was a senior, while I was a freshman.”

Cowie graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1998, while Finke graduated three years later. They were stationed together at Nellis Air Force Base – located outside Las Vegas – from 2014-2015.

“I looked to Leland as a mentor and a wingman all the way throughout our time in the Air Force,” Finke said.

Finke was also stationed at Oklahoma, Louisiana and North Dakota. He was deployed to Iraq and Guam and served as the Chief of Standardization and Evaluation Division in the 80th Operations Group at Sheppard Air Force Base.

“Aaron’s career has been noteworthy,” said Cowie, who has been a colonel since 2019. “He has been an instructor for most of his career and a mentor for most of his career. So when you look at the past 20 years or more when he got his wings, he has mentored a large proportion of pilots the Air Force has produced. The other thing unique when you look at Aaron’s career is he has flown almost the entirety of his career except for two deployments, where he was at a non-flying capacity. He flew for almost 22 years straight, which is significant as well.”

Finke is currently in training to become a pilot with American Airlines. He will be officially retired from the Air Force in January.

“It’s great finally being done with over 22 years of service,” said Finke, who is married with two children. “I was honored to be able to have Leland come out and do my retirement ceremony.”