He was a gun runner for the CIA during the Cuban missile crisis, flew contract planes for a brothel, spent time as a pilot flying for Libya's Muammar Khadafi and shot a charging lion at 10 feet.  By his own account, Kent's Ron Rismon has lived a storied and exceptional life.

But despite a lifetime of adventure, Rismon says the highlight of his career is his Special Forces training, which "gave me confidence that I could never ever acquire anywhere else. We associate with SF guys and you think everyone's like that, but they certainly are not.  It was an incredible confidence builder." Besides, he added, "to jump out of an airplane in the middle of the night in some desert or mountain somewhere, it's a thrill you cannot duplicate anywhere else."

The poor son of a wheat rancher from Montana, who was kicked out of high school just shy of graduation for joyriding a motorcycle through campus, has certainly lived an adventure and adrenaline-filled life.

At 19, Rismon worked for the CIA as a gun runner for Operation Mongoose during the Cuban missile crisis; he later served with 7th Infantry Division in Korea and 5th ID in Colorado, but had always dreamed of becoming an airline pilot, so he got out of the Army and went to college. While a student at the University of Montana in Billings, Rismon saw a recruiting ad for the 17th Special Forces, U.S. Army Reserve, and enlisted.

"Amazingly, I got four years of university done and got SF qualified at the same time, "he said. "It was a dream come true." He graduated in 1967 with a B.S. in Earth Sciences as a Sgt. 1st Class assigned to the 19th Special Forces, Montana National Guard.

Once out of university, Rismon started taking flight lessons, attended flight school and started work as a pilot. He started small, including delivering mail from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands. In 1970, he was hired by Alaska Airlines, and spent the next few years flying 19-passenger Twin Otter planes.

During this time, "Capt. Ron" would pick up occasional contract flights as a "rainmaker" in Africa.  He worked for Khadafi in Libya, Mubuto in Zaire and in South Africa, he said, on humanitarian missions distributing supplies. "It just happened that these ‘humanitarian' operations were with three of the most hostile regimes in the world," he said, adding that the work provided "many opportunities for financial gain.  I took advantage of everything."

In 1976, Rismon returned to Alaska Airlines, where he flew full time until he retired in 2001 at age 60. He finished his career as captain of the McDonnell Douglas 80. He also had a sports fishing charter company in Alaska from 1980-1995, for which he used his yacht, the "Choker Bell" for corporate charters. "I knew how to sell myself and would always go 110 percent," he said. "I had a grand career."

In addition to flying, another of Rismon's passions is hunting - in particular big-game hunting in Africa. He went on a 30-day safari in Botswana in 1973 while working as contract pilot - the first of 27 African safaris over 37 years. He still hunts five or six times a year and plans to take his 16-year-old son, Trevor, on his first African hunting safari next year.

Adorning the walls of the trophy room adjacent to his home on the Crest Air Park in Kent are 125 stuffed mounts, which are insured for $1.1 million. "You can start at the top of list and I've got them all," he said, including a Cape Buffalo, bison, several types of deer, alligators, and a huge male lion, which is "bigger than Teddy Roosevelt's," he said," It's number 12 in the world."

Though flying and hunting are high on the list of Rismon's passions, he is just as ardent about Special Forces. For more than 20 years, he has been active with the Chapter 16 William R. Card Special Forces Association on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including 10 years as the organization's president. He's currently serving as the vice president. "I like the camaraderie," he said, "and I want my family to be associated with it."  Rismon's wife of 20 years, Terry, is an Alaska Airlines flight attendant and son Trevor is a sophomore at Kentlake High School.

His trophy room serves as the team house, and members meet there bi-monthly. "It didn't take long for me to realize the SFA needed a place to meet, and my place turned out to be the perfect place ... I have a lot of assets I'm willing to share. "

"He's led an extraordinary life," said SFA President Dave Shell. "He's an adventurer. A doer. One of those guys who's very well accomplished."

Rismon has also been active for more than 30 years with Safari Club International, volunteers at the Tahoma National Cemetery and was instrumental in facilitating the memorial wall at 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) headquarters on JBLM.

Despite an adventure and adrenaline-filled life, Rismon credits his Special Forces training with making him who he is. "I came out thinking I could do anything," he said.

And the boy "not exactly voted to be the most successful" by his high school peers showed them all that he could.

Rismon has an autobiography coming out soon entitled "Capt. Ron Flying the Longitudes and Latitudes of Life."