Kyle Fields was born and raised in San Angelo, Texas, and received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. After college, he pursued his lifelong dream of becoming an Air Force pilot and instructed in the T-37 and C-17. After the Air Force, he became an airline pilot for a major US airline in 1999 and became an unemployed airline pilot shortly after September 2001. Having no small business experience but liking boats almost as much as he likes airplanes, he and his wife moved across the country to the Big Island of Hawaii, where they bought and operated an ocean rafting and snorkeling tour business together. With better economic times, he returned to flying. He still lives on the Big Island with his wife, Pat, and their chocolate lab, Ozzy.