Day One – Killer sinus headache! Every summer it seems I have to learn how to swim all over again. I inevitably take in water through my nose somehow. After the first week of getting back into the pool, I end up with a sinus infection. I’ve never been a great swimmer, but I’ve completed…
As we make our way from St. John’s Newfoundland to Ayr Scotland the drone of the turboprop engines of the 130 lulls me into a relaxed, almost meditative state. The airplane is behaving as it should. The cockpit is in order. There is nothing to look at except the ocean as it passes slowly beneath…
My first one-hundred hours in the Herk were a bit different than most students. I started down the typical path. I went to BFE at the Arkansas Air National Guard. In 2005 the guard and reserves sent FE students to the Arkansas Air Guard unit as opposed to Altus. BFE was an interesting mix of…
I didn’t start out depressed. I didn’t wake up one day and was depressed. It’s a journey, like many I’ve been on. Except that I don’t know when or where the journey really began. I don’t know where depression is going to take me or when the journey will end. There were road markers along…
At one point in my military career I had over 800,000 Marriott points. The crew would walk into the Marriott for that night and there would be a welcome sign with my name on it some where in the lobby. I would usually get a room upgrade to at least a junior suite. My C-130…
I really didn’t know what it meant to be a veteran until I started to suffer the consequences of being one. The dictionary describes the word veteran coming from the Latin word veteranus, which means of long experience. Merriam-Webster describes a veteran as an old soldier of long service or a former member of the…
