Air Force pilot from Elkridge dies in Texas crash

AnAir Force pilot from Elkridge died Tuesday in a crash in Texas. Capt. John Graziano, 28, with the 87th Flying Training Squadron, was killed about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday when a T-38C Talon jet crashed at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio. Officials are investigating the crash, which injured Capt. Mark S. Palyok, another instructor pilot. The eldest of four, Graziano had attended Our Lady of Perpetual Health for elementary and middle school, graduated from Archbishop Spalding High School in 2008 and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2013, said his father, Tom Graziano. Graziano moved to Laughlin for pilot training in January 2014 and became a first assignment instructor pilot the following year. He had put in more than1,300 hours in the cockpit of a T-38, and was recognized as a top instructor with an award from the Air Training Command, his father said. About a month ago, he received his next assignment: piloting an F-16 at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. “That was his dream,” TomGraziano said,