15 things about Heather Wilson
1. Wilson was born Dec. 30, 1960, in New Hampshire.
2. She is part of a military family. Her father was an Air Force pilot, and her grandfather was a Royal Flying Corps barnstormer pilot.
3. Her father died in a car crash when she was young.
4. She was a member of the third class of female cadets at the Air Force Academy. During her time there, she made five jumps from an airplane and graduated in 1982 with a degree in international politics.
5. She intended to be a fighter pilot after graduation but received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where she continued her studies in international relations and graduated with a master's degree in 1984 and doctorate the following year.
6. After graduation, she worked with the Air Force in England, Belgium, and Austria and reached the rank of captain.
7. Wilson worked at nato headquarters in Belgium from 1989 to 1991.
8. She returned to the United States and joined the staff of the National Security Council, where she was director of European defense policy and arms control.
9. In 1991, she married attorney Jay Hone, her former Air Force Academy professor, and moved to Albuquerque.
10. She was a Democrat during college because the man who nominated her to the Air Force Academy was.
11. Wilson became a Republican after she was attracted to the gop's philosophy of small government and strong defense.
12. After moving to Albuquerque, she worked as a consultant to defense corporations and was a finalist for superintendent of Albuquerque public schools.
13. From 1995 to 1998, she was secretary of New Mexico's Children, Youth, and Families Department.
14. In 1998, when she was 37, she was recruited to run in a special election to fill the remaining six months of the late Rep. Steve Schiff's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She won with 45 percent of the vote in a field of five candidates.
15. She and her husband have two children and an adult son that her husband took in as a foster child before they were married and whom they eventually adopted.