Boricua Brat: Coming of age as a military dependent Tapa blanda - 2011

After graduating from Poitiers High School, Nelson Pacheco attended Temple Junior College in Temple, Texas, the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, where he graduated cum laude in 1966 with a B.S. in mathematics and philosophy. He later earned a Master's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Colorado in 1971 and a Ph.D. in mathematical statistics from Colorado State University in 1979, where he was a recipient of an award as the top doctoral student. Dr. Pacheco served for twenty years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force in the United States, Europe, and Southwest Asia, and became chairman of the mathematics department of the U.S. Air Force Academy before completing active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1987. While at the Academy, he was co-founder of a program to assist minority cadets and those coming from economically or educationally disadvantaged communities to enter the mainstream. He is the author of several journal articles in the technical literature. He has also contributed several poems to college anthologies and has authored some spiritual writings. This is his first autobiographical work. Dr. Pacheco currently makes his home with his wife, Betty, in Virginia. They are the proud parents of three children and have two grandchildren.