Jeff joined the Air Force after graduating from high school at age seventeen. He spent five years on active duty serving in Illinois and Korea. After a ten-year lapse in service, he joined the North Carolina Air Guard. Since then he held several different positions but found his niche as a Loadmaster. He has flown on the C-130 and C-17 and has 1,800 hours of flight time of which 111 are in the skies of Afghanistan. He is originally from Cerro Gordo, North Carolina and his family has its roots in both Carolinas since migrating from Virginia before the Revolutionary War.