(xp) Most Interesting Flight

Pesky · October 2010

(I posted this on my local board but so touching for me anyway, I thought I would share) I flew back from a business trip to DC yesterday and it was a very full flight. I ended up sitting next to a guy who was headed back home to SoCal and on his other side a woman who was heading to a vacation in northern CA. He had to be one of the most interesting people. Like me, an USAF brat. But after college he decided to enter the army and declined an officer position, thinking he would be a terrible officer and wanting to be where the action was. Long story short, he ended up totally forgoing his commission and sticking it out with the Army Rangers up to the rank of Sgt. Mjr. (highest NCO rank you can get). During that time he was married twice and divorced (sounds like his ex'es tired of his absences and at least one found other amusements). He was saying his absences were very tough and with the Rangers he was often given 16 hrs notice of departure. He is currently working in the Pentagon for the Joint Services on a special task force assisting with rapid deployment and training of anti-IED stuff. He was going to get out after 24 years in the Army but decided to stick it out with his current job (for which he had to be appointed by the Senate and White House) for another 2 years. The woman on his other side asked him what it was like and that she rarely got answers from soldiers to that question. He looked at her and said that it was about the worst question you could ask a soldier because oftentimes it brought back some bad memories (true from my experience -- my dad still does not want to talk about Vietnam). He said the VA was woefully underprepared for the number of soldiers to come back and reacclimate to society after the psychological trauma they'd been through.He chatted a bit about his future (a consulting business he has on the side and an impending marriage with his GF/fiancee of 10 years, which he has put off because he thinks the military curses his marriages). And part of talking about the difficulty of being in the military is he told us in passing that he missed the death of his son who was 7 and diagnosed suddenly with cancer and lived only another 3-4 mos while he was on assignment in Israel. He quickly moved on in topics.After the other woman left and we were waiting for passengers to deplane, I extended my sympathies on the death of his son. He thanked me and smiled grimly saying "you just never know -- I lost my other child in Iraq. That's a big part of why I took this post." So guessing he lost his other child in an IED explosion. Just broke my heart. He just advised me to go home and hug and love my kids because you just never know (he kept saying that and shaking his head sadly). Then he mentioned that his best friend, who received the first Congressional Medal of Honor from Obama was also killed in Iraq. He said dryly that that is why in the Army they say you don't have friends, you have acquaintances. Just a truly amazing man of incredible strength.