When Bonnie Bello was a young girl in suburban Chicago, an uncle with a private plane introduced her to flying. “I want to be a pilot when I grow up,” she thought.

Bello says school, boys and other interests pushed her dream aside, temporarily. At 22, she worked as a secretary at the local Veterans Affairs hospital, when she watched a friend taking helicopter flying lessons practice maneuvers.

“I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Bello said. “A month or so later, I quit my job, went to flight school and started working on my helicopter pilot’s license.”

Today, Bello is a manager at Southern California Edison’s Air Operations unit, responsible for scheduling the company’s growing network of helicopters and drones. Her journey to that position is a story of perseverance, pride and passion.

Just three months after obtaining her pilot’s license, she was hired as a helicopter co-pilot by a company that lifted massive air-conditioning units onto the rooftops of office buildings and big box retail stores.

“I was 23, just out of flight school and I couldn’t even rent a car at the airports we were flying into, but there I was helping fly this big helicopter.”

As a young woman in the cockpit of a giant Sikorsky S-61 helicopter, she endured her fair share of negative comments.

“That was some of the best flying that I have ever done,” Bello said. “It was exciting. The crews were all really tight and it’s where I met my husband.”

Soon married and with a child on the way, Bello took two years off from flying. When she was ready to return, jobs were scarce. Her best offer was from a military contractor flying troops and equipment into forward operating bases in Afghanistan. It meant she would be away from her young son for two months at a time, but it fulfilled a dream. She would be the captain of a Sikorsky S-61.

“I felt like flying in a war zone was less risky than flying in a power line environment,” Bello said. She survived a close call with a rocket-propelled grenade, the blast erupting just outside her aircraft.

When Bello learned she was expecting her second child, it was time for another break from flying, this one permanent. The pilot who had proved herself as tough as anyone broke down in tears during a tour of a day care center.

“The heartbreak of being away from my son for two months at a time … I needed to find a job where I would be home every night,” Bello said. In 2016, she applied for a helicopter dispatcher job at SCE.

“I was reading about what they were looking for, and thinking I have all that experience, I can fly a desk now!”

She does so much more. Bello’s department makes sure the company’s growing fleet of aircraft, drones and contractors stay safe while crisscrossing SCE’s 50,000-square-mile service area to make repairs, installations and inspections. Still, she misses flying.

“You've got to have a passion for it,” Bello said. "I think things have improved for women, but you definitely need a thick skin.

“Flying was my dream job, but priorities change and now being able to provide for my family, it's a different kind of reward.”