Adults with them coaxed the children to pay attention to the onstage ceremony, which featured actor Rick Schroder, 37, who talked about his introduction to the Air Force while filming the TV miniseries "Lonesome Dove" in 1988. Much of work adapting Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a western cattle drive was done near Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, whose leaders agreed to adjust flying schedules to not disrupt shooting, he said. The actor also recalled dating the base commander's daughter and flying in a training aircraft.