When Rita Hill (nee Tilman) graduated from Humboldt High in 1970, she never dreamed shed live in Saudi Arabia. Nor did her husband J.R. Hill, a 1969 graduate of Crest High in Colony.
Married in 1973, they had two children, Joshua and Jennifer, before J.R. was hired by Arabian-American Oil Co. (Aramco) in 1980.
The kids really never knew anything else, Rita recalled. Joshua was nearly 2, his sister five months old when the family settled into a compound near a huge Saudi air base that later had a key role in the Gulf War.