FLORIDA: Melbourne Central Catholic grad living his boyhood dream as aviator

Rick Boswell has been in top form in flight training from the beginning.

He graduated third in his Navy officer candidate school and first in his class in primary and intermediate flight training. He then was selected for advanced jet training. He received his wings in Oct. 2009.

“I’m very proud of him,” said his mother, Barbara Matthews, a Cocoa police officer. “He’s really doing well.”

Matthews said that since he saw the movie “Top Gun” as a child, he said he wanted to become a pilot.

“He focused early on,” Matthews said. “He knew what he wanted to do.”

Boswell, a 2003 graduate of Melbourne Central Catholic High, deployed in 2011 with his unit on the USS Ronald Reagan for a western Pacific combat tour. During the 225-day deployment, the unit flew strikes into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Boswell, 27, graduated from Jacksonville University with a degree in history before being accepted into the U.S. Navy’s officer candidate school.

He is an aviator who flies as the flight systems officer on the EA-18G Growler, a derivative of the F/A-18 Hornet.

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