HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — More than 30 years ago, a young man looked up at the stars through his telescope in his parents’ backyard in Moses Lake, not knowing just how close to them he’d end up coming. Doug Aguilar hasn’t taken his eye off the sky since.

Lt. Col. Eduardo Douglas Aguilar will retire from the U.S. Air Force on June 1, capping a 21-year career that has taken him across the country and the globe. Now, for the first time since leaving Moses Lake at 18, he has a place to come to rest; he and his family will settle in Huntsville, Alabama.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Aguilar's retirement was delayed until Oct.1, 2022 due to the pandemic.

“Closing out that part of our life, it’s hard to fathom the change that’s about to hit us,” Aguilar said. “We’ve loved our military life. I loved the work, I loved the people, just the different experiences we had. Every time we move, new people, new city, new job, new mission, and now that’s basically done, and it’s really hard to fathom the change.”

His father, Ed Aguilar, immigrated to the United States from Mexico before Doug was born, beginning a life and family with Doug’s mother, Cheryl, in Washington. His father worked his way up to a plant manager position to support his family, instilling the value of hard work at an early age in his son, Aguilar said.

His father always encouraged him to get good grades, Aguilar said, and even sparked his initial interest in the stars above him. Around age 10 or 12, Aguilar said he received his first model rocket kit from his father.

“I fell in love with that,” Aguilar said. “I think that’s where my love with space kind of started. He bought me a telescope. Every night, I’d be walking out back, looking up at the stars.”

By eighth grade, Aguilar said he knew he wanted to go into engineering, specifically, aerospace engineering. The thought of working with space programs, aircraft, anything like that, intrigued him.

Aguilar looked at a few different programs before deciding on Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, Florida. A chance encounter with an Air Force ROTC recruiter on his first visit to the college launched him on his current trajectory.

Aguilar said he’d never considered joining the Air Force before.

“After talking to them and showing them my academics from Moses Lake High School and things like that, the Air Force ROTC program at Embry-Riddle offered me a full scholarship,” he said. “And I wasn’t going to say no to a full scholarship.”

Aguilar felt, with his engineering experience, he’d have the opportunity to work with some of the latest and greatest technology the United States was developing.

“And that’s what I’ve done,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar met his wife, Erika, while in college and she’s been with him every step of the way since. After obtaining her master’s degree in accounting, Aguilar said his wife gave it all up to follow him around the world, something he feels is pretty amazing.

“Having someone you can trust that’s always being there and knowing someone’s got your back, someone to come home to and lean on, it’s not always so easy to find someone that dedicated to supporting you,” he said.

Aguilar completed his boot camp training in Texas during the summer before his senior year, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in December of 1998.

“I got New Year’s off, and Jan. 9 is when I started my Air Force career as second lieutenant,” he said.

His first stop was Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where he worked as a structural test engineer for the Air Vehicles Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory on the base for three years. From Ohio, Aguilar headed back to the west coast to work on the Titan II and Titan IV launch programs, then transferred to the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Office Program.

Working with the launch programs, Aguilar was able to be in the control room at Cape Canaveral with his engineering team, monitoring electrical systems for the launch. Being part of that experience, giving the “all systems go for launch” to the mission director, seeing those launches, he said, was an awesome experience to be a part of.

“We were about two miles away from the rocket, about as close as you can get,” he said. “Seeing that rocket go up in the sky, there’s nothing like it, nothing like it.”

Aguilar was able to be in the control room for five different launches. On his last launch, he got the opportunity to see the rocket up close the day before it left the earth, staring up into the vastness of the engine, climbing the elevator to the payload at the top.

“I could see the whole coast of Florida up there. It was beautiful,” Aguilar said. “The next day, I saw it lit up and go up in space, and it was probably one of the most exhilarating times in my career.”

His next stop would be across the Atlantic in Warsaw, Poland. Aguilar worked in the Space Research Center there for three years. Living in Europe provided a new experience, he said, in how the U.S. interacts with other countries to promote democracy.

“It gives you a different perspective on how different cultures, especially Poland, how they perceive the U.S. political system, or the culture of the Americans,” he said. “It was a very positive one, the Polish really love the Americans. They were very open-handed.”

From Poland, Aguilar returned to Dayton, where his first two children, Lillian and Julian, were born, two years apart.

Four years later, Aguilar moved to Georgia to teach Spanish to senior military officials from around the globe. In 2014, he returned to Warsaw, where his third child, Daniel, was born.

In 2017, Aguilar moved to his current home in Huntsville, Alabama, a home he hopes won’t change for a while. He currently works with the Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, serving as deputy director of warfighter support for the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications office.

“It’s the lead agency for all things missile defense across the United States and across the globe, not only for the United States, but also for our allies,” he said.

Through all of the moves and different positions, Aguilar said it was great having his wife Erika with him to support him, and help him get grounded in each new community.

“She was always there to back me up, support with whatever needed to get done, whether it was the house or finding some friends while I’m out working, trying to complete the mission,” he said.

His wife is always there when he has complaints or gets stressed out to tell him “it’s OK,” Aguilar said. He spent six months in Poland last year, and said he couldn’t have done that without his wife taking over to manage everything while he was away.

After 20-plus years, Aguilar said he’s at a point in his life where he just feels like he needs to slow down and have a home. As you rise through the ranks in the Air Force, he said, there’s additional stress and pressure that comes with that, in addition to a lot of time away from family.

“Right now, I have a 3-, 7-, and 10-year-old, I kind of want to be a part of the family, be at home, be able to go to the soccer games, the birthdays,” he said. “Part of me is looking forward to being able to stay in one spot, not having to move every two to four years.”

Already living in “the mecca of engineering opportunity” in Huntsville, Aguilar said he’s looking forward to taking the next step in the same place where the first manned-trips to the moon began.

“It’s still taking off here, and I want to be a part of those programs that are here,” he said.

Aguilar said he’s currently looking into positions with companies working on space launches or future manned missions returning to the moon. He’s also excited, not just for himself, he said, but for his family to have the opportunity to really get involved in their community.

Growing up in Moses Lake, Aguilar never really knew what was out there, he said. He went from launching toy rockets in his back yard in Moses Lake to ones more than 20 stories high into space. While he might still be studying space and stars above the earth, his home on the surface is finally set.