Dear Garrett..

Chapter 1

Dear Garrett

My story of becoming an Aviator is incredible. It happened fast and miraculously. I am amazed when I look back on how it all happened.

Do you remember how often I mentioned that dreams come in big packages so that you can grow into them? Becoming an Aviator is a very big dream. And it was one that I unexpectedly grew into very quickly! This story will tell you and other readers too, how it all happened.

My decision to become an Aviator was made when I was age 17. I began flying at age 18, and acquired my first airport job when I was age 19. At age 20, I began working as a Company and Prisoner Transportation Pilot. At age 21, I became a FAA Certificated Flight Instructor. Later that year I entered the military to become an Army Aviator in Vietnam.

The amazing part is how it was done – – without a dad – – in a bankrupt family – – and having spent my High School years in a place that felt like hell to me, East (not West) Palo Alto, California. The neighborhood where I lived and attended High School eventually became known as The Murder Capitol of the United States.

I first sensed the inspiration to become an Aviator at the San Francisco, California Airport (SFO). It was 1964, I was age 17 in my senior year of high school. I was standing in a concourse, it was night. I saw lots of lights around – – blue, white, yellow, green and white lights. I didn’t know what all the different light colors meant then. There were people all around when an airplane pulled up to a gate to disembark its passengers.

It was a United Airlines Boeing 727. It was beautiful. Looking into the cockpit from the concourse, I could see the pilots moving switches and levers taking care of business at the end of their flight. Passengers were leaving the aircraft and entering the concourse. There was a pretty girl. I noticed her only briefly as my playboy pharmacist roommate Larry greeted her and introduced us. Though cute with dark hair cut smartly above her shoulders and brown eyes, she was more of a distraction to me at that moment. She was one of Larry’s girlfriends and was the reason we were at the airport. Had it not been for the airplane and airport I found so captivating, I would have paid more attention to her.

They say that what gets your attention gets you. At the moment, it was the airplane, the pilots and the airport that were getting my attention. In an instant I was filled with the awareness that I could become an Aviator. The awareness came as a welcome relief to me and as a sense of accomplishment although I hadn’t done anything except go to the airport, stand in front of an airplane and watch in awe the aircraft and the pilots.

As we left the airplane and began walking through the airport on our way back to the car, I felt a sense of comfort and excitement I’d never felt before. An important matter calmly settled in my mind. What was I going to do with my life for a career?

Departing the terminal, I could feel that a decision had been made in a powerful place within me – – my heart. And it was rapidly spreading throughout my body. Some of it was conscious, more of it probably unconscious. Immediately, I could feel my body changing. Chemicals were flowing that had never flowed before. I felt an unfamiliar feeling – – it was HOPE. There was another new feeling – – CONFIDENCE – – and PRIDE too. I wasn’t even a pilot yet but I already felt a sense of pride that I was going to be one. Inspiration told me that I could and would become an Aviator though I didn’t know how or even considered how I would accomplish it. I only knew.