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My name is John Pretto, TRA#573. My TRA# is a great story in itself. I certified level 1 in 1999 and received a TRA# of 7553. Upon receiving my Tripoli handbook, I read that if you have joined prior that they would reinstate your old TRA#. Whoopee, I had originally joined Tripoli in 1989. I sent Bruce Kelly an email and 30 sec. later the phone rang! "Hi is this John.?" "Yes." "This is Bruce Kelly with Tripoli." "I just received your email"... He then verified my demographic info, and a few details later, bang. Your old number was 573! It's a good thing I'm level III. I wouldn't feel right being level 1 or 2 with that low of a number.

A little History: My father, the radiologist, would take us out behind Vo-tech High school which today is known as “Green Valley” to shoot our Estes™ Rockets off. Ironically, Les Derkovitz (Las Vegas based rocketeer) retired from Vo-Tech High School in the video broadcast department. He probably was there as we launched our Estes a few miles away.

I remember thinking we were in the middle of nowhere. My father and other Physicians built VW-based Dune buggies that we used as “Recovery Vehicles.”
I remember, very clearly, the night my father took my “Honest-John” Estes rocket and covered it with gasoline and shot it off in our back yard on the fourth of July! I was mad for a long time, and now I think I would do the same thing! My father the Doctor is very cool. He is a certified welder, has his Commercial Drivers License (CDL), is instrument rated pilot, built his own dune buggy, and had two dozen automobiles and five vintage tractors. He’s done everything I like to do. I was very proud to have him out to witness all of my certifcations flights.

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