Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Dreams (part 1)

I want to be a helicopter pilot.  This is my dream.

I remember watching the movie TOP GUN with my family as a child, and I think that is where the seed got planted for me.  Yes, I know Top Gun is about jets but at the very end of the movie when the good guys get shot down, who rescues them?  The guys in the helicopter.  The guy behind the scenes is more my personality.  I loved being a NCO in the Army for that very reason.  I was the guy that got things done while the officers debated the politics.

In 2004 I went to see an eye doctor on our base in Balad, Iraq for an eye exam (the first part of putting together my request to transfer out of my unit and become a pilot).  After about 10 minutes of testing I asked the doc if my eyes were good enough to qualify for flight training.  He pulled the equipment away from my face, looked me in the eyes and said no.  He said no.

With one word, this man killed my dream.  I felt empty inside.  I had the next several years all planned out and this one word ripped those plans out from inside of me.  His answer was not what I expected.

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