Veterans Day is being observed on Friday - it's a day to honor those who have served our country. For Army veteran Chief Warrant Officer 2 Lacey Smith, aviation has always been in the family.
"I grew up with aviation," she said. "My father was a pilot, my uncle, my mother, my sisters, and I love aviation. So I took a flight in Arizona flying helicopters and I fell in love. A year later I got accepted into the Army and I was a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. I spent two tours in Afghanistan and one in Egypt and Israel."
She spent eight years in the service and started a family during that time.
"I met my husband, who also was a pilot, and he did tours as well," she said. "We high fived as I was going over, he was coming home. We'd go over for a year at a time, come back for a year and then go back. So I was ready after eight years to kind of hang my hat in aviation and just fly for fun at that point."
Now she owns a gym in South Reno called Swet Fitness, and has a passion for helping people reach their fitness goals.
"We originally opened Swet because we wanted to give back to our community," Smith said. "We wanted people to experience not only better health but also the camaraderie that we experienced, the community, and we built our business based off of the community here."
She also sits on the board of a nonprofit called Nation's Finest, a group dedicated to helping veterans and their families.
"We help our veterans and their families with transitional homes, getting them off the streets, into houses, and we also help with health benefits," she said. "It's just a very important cause."
More information: https://nationsfinest.org/
