Duty Officer ~ Opportunity to show mercy

"For the one who has shown no mercy will be judged without mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment."
James 2:13

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."
Matthew 5:7

I have been shown more mercy in my life than I probably deserve. I have a tall tale or two I could tell where I probably would have lost my opportunity to go to Army Flight School if I had not been shown mercy. Because of the mercy I have been shown, I am inclined to show others mercy when I am able and when they will allow it.

This is the story of a young black soldier named Henry that served in my unit in Korea. I was the duty officer one night when I was called to the front gate. Korea had and maybe still does a curfew where the streets shut down at midnight. Only Military Police patrols are allowed out after that. Sometimes drunks do not necessarily like complying with a curfew and other inconveniences that may seem unreasonable to those who can't understand or refuse to accept the reason for them whether justified or not.

It was either midnight or very close to it when I was summoned to the camp's front gate because of a ruckus one of the drunks that didn't want to call it quits for the night was causing. When I arrived at the gate I found the source of the ruckus to be the young soldier mentioned above. I made several attempts to reason with him telling him that party time was over and it was time to put a cap on it and go to bed. Every attempt to extend mercy was met with loud, obnoxious, and disrespectful protests about how he was ready to continue partying, and no one was going to stop him. I did my best to show this young soldier mercy that he wanted no part of. I finally just shook my head and wrote him up when it became obvious that all attempts were fruitless. After he was wrote up, the guards were able to escort him to the stockade where he could sober up and cool off. His fate was now out of my hands. I had no idea what else would result from his obstinacy.

Besides getting to sober up in the stockade Henry was placed on restriction. I was surprised by the length of restriction he received. My turn at duty officer rolled around again, and Henry was still on restriction from the previous incident involving me. Basically, he was not allowed to leave the compound. All of the officers in the unit took a turn at duty officer. Since we were an aviation unit there were plenty of officers, so duty officer didn't roll around that much.

Henry approached me. He was very polite. He even told be that he understood why I wrote him up. Others had told him I had done my best to try to give him a break that he wouldn't take. The length of Henry's restriction presented him with another problem. He had a korean girlfriend in the ville that had some of his possessions at her place. He was afraid that he would lose them if she moved on since he had not showed up in such a long time. Henry asked me if I could give him permission to leave the compound and go fetch his stuff.

This request was outside the realm of my authority. I told Henry, "I don't have the authority to allow you to do that, but I can take you to the company commander and let you personally ask him if it is okay." Henry didn't want to do that. He then asked me what would happen if he snuck out in the back of a deuce and a half. A deuce and a half is a standard sized military truck commonly used for a variety of purposes. I told Henry that if he didn't get caught then I guess nothing. He thought about that and said, "Okay" as he left.

I then called the front gate and told John Wayne, this was the nick name for a particularly large korean guard, to make sure he carefully checked every truck that left the compound. After calling John Wayne, I got myself a chair and placed it outside at the corner of one of the officer's BOQ where I had a good view of the front gate so I could comfortably sit back and watch the show.

Well, it wasn't long before a deuce and a half pulled up to the gate. John Wayne bee-bopped around to the back of the truck and lifted the flap and peeked in. There was Henry. I could see the surprised on John Wayne's face as he ordered Henry out of the truck. When I was called up there I told Henry the offer to personally ask the company commander still stood. He was now ready, so I took him to the Major. The Major said, "He can go and get his stuff as long as you escort him Robert".

So, Henry and I had our little ville excursion. It was uneventful.

OUCH! This wasn't uneventful! (This was a link to a helicopter crash of a botched loop where the pilot crashed and burned literally. I removed it because the page had sneaky links to inappropriate videos. Don't ask.)

As a pilot I am sometimes asked to do things I shouldn't. If you looked at the video, I have no personal desire to do any flying like that. Why do it other than just to show off? If I have a genuine operational necessity, then I'm all for doing something I have the ability to do, but I have learned that IF something is going to go wrong, it will most likely go wrong when you are doing something you have no business doing. Yeah I have gotten away with stuff I probably shouldn't have done, but I've learned to ask myself a good question to gauge whether or not I should do something requested. So what's the question?

"If I do this, how would I like to be sitting across the table from someone explaining why I did it?"

If the answer is "I wouldn't", then I don't!

Not everyone is inclined to show mercy in this day and age. As I have gotten older I try hard not to put myself in a position where I might need it because of doing something something I probably shouldn't have done. I know of a couple of stories where the individuals involved deserved to be shown a little more mercy than they received. Both were innocent in their assumptions, but those with authority over them viewed it otherwise fair or not. Neither did those in authority show any mercy. It is getting tough out there.

Be careful!

Ciao...

Marginal Weather Flying ~ Civilian EMS

In previous posts I covered marginal weather flying in the military. Civilian EMS is a whole different ballgame that requires a different mindset.

When I first knew I was going to get a job flying civilian EMS I called a buddy of mine that had flown EMS previously. He gave me the best attitude mindset about the job than any other I've heard. He said, "Dave. That aircraft is not there for just any given patient. It is there for all the patients it may have to serve in the future too. If you make a bad decision and break your aircraft because you pushed weather, or worse hurt or kill yourself and/or your crew because you made a bad weather decision; you just took that aircraft out of service for all the people that will need it down line".

Most of the unknowing public consider civilian EMS as a job for heros, but in reality it is not. Pilots are told to consider their patients as simply a box of rocks they are trying to deliver. There is no sense in risking your life or your crews life for a box of rocks, so if there is any question as to safety; the pilot does what is safe for himself and his/her crew first and foremost. The mindset is similar to what the Red Cross teaches in swimming lifesaving; if you don't have the ability and skill to enter the water and rescue someone, it is better to have one drown instead of two.

All of the above is sometimes easier said than done since we are human. We can find ourselves feeling compassion for our fellow man whether we want to or not. Because of our human condition the company I worked for had a policy that the pilot was not to be told any patient information until after the go/no go weather decision was already made. The idea was that the company wanted their pilots to think with their minds and not with their hearts. When I first heard this policy I thought I would always make an appropriate weather decision regardless of what I knew about the patient. Well, I didn't have any choice because the company, e.g. medical crews and dispatchers were pretty good about sticking to the policy.

Late one night while on shift I personally experienced the wisdom of this policy. The flight phone rang for a flight request to a scene and then on to Little Rock. The weather was really quite lousy, so I turned the request down. After I turned it down the medical crew told me a ground ambulance was beating feet to Little Rock with a pregnant woman and things were going south for the woman and baby fast. At that time a friend's wife was pregnant with what was to be their only child. This friend lived in the area and there was a real possibility that it was his wife needing help. I had the hardest time going back to sleep wondering if it was my friend's wife. Well it wasn't his wife I found out later with a lot of relief, but it was someone's loved one. Since we did not participate I never heard how things turned out for the woman and baby.

A pilot that pushes it too much in civilian EMS and is overly concerned with doing whatever they can to get the job done to help the patient gets tagged as a "Rescue Ranger", which is a bad reputation to have in civilian EMS. A "Rescue Ranger" is considered an accident just waiting for a place to happen.

For the majority of the EMS flights I've flown, I couldn't tell you from one day to the next what the flight involved patient wise. Most of them just all blend together. Then there are some that you never forget; mostly those involving children, and some involving unusual circumstances. For instance one attempted suicide I flew where the bullet took the person's face off of his head without hurting his brain. My medic said, "Man Dave! If you ever find me like that, just finish the job for me." I said, "If I ever find you like that, it's not my job to finish it for you. So, you just better do the job right in the first place." This was the only patient I ever flew that I established a friendship with after the fact. I figured he needed a friend. He had a tough go of it trying to make it through life without a face caused by something he had done.

Anyhow, back to weather. In Korea we knew the area we flew in like the back of our hand. We trained low and flew low much of the time for tactical reasons, plus if the weather forced you lower you were already familiar with the terrain so it felt like home where otherwise a lower altitude could feel like a foreign land over territory that you commonly covered from a high altitude. In aviation, altitude is your friend unless you are in hostile territory where the enemy has the ability to easily shoot you down. Though EMS aircraft have been shot at before by crazies on the ground (I never have that I know of) it is not a significant concern, so we tend to fly at a reasonable altitude. Also in Korea there was quite often a convenient rice paddy always available in most areas if the weather became impossible to deal with. In civilian EMS you most often get to pick what tree you'd like to set it down into if you let it go as far as we could in Korea. The weather can be unpredictable. I have had to make weather precautionary landings. That can be frowned upon, but if the weather is going south fast it is the better option as opposed to crashing. It is always much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground.

In the military we could legally take advantage of the IFR enroute structure if the need arose when there was an IFR enroute structure. Because it takes extra money and equipment to have legal IFR capability, that is often not an option with many civilian EMS flying jobs. There is enough instrumentation to save your bacon if you encounter IIMC and are competent, but you can't intentionally select that option legally unless your aircraft is certified for it and you are IFR current. It is something most pilots would like, but just not available in most cases for various reasons.

On one interesting flight the weather was showing signs of deterioration as we neared our destination of Little Rock. The medic told me, "What ever you do Dave, I don't want to set on the ground with this patient". That was the wrong thing to say... The weather continued to deteriorate. I had established communication with Little Rock approach control about thirty miles out so I could enter their Class C airspace seamlessly with the time approached. I continued to monitor the deteriorating weather situation along with the "extra pressure" from the medic not to do a weather precautionary landing prior to our destination. Well, it soon became obvious that the safe thing to do was the weather precautionary landing regardless of what the medic wanted. I advised Little Rock of my intentions. The controller then offered me several options on different IFR approaches. Though it would have been nice to have been able to accept them, I had to turn him down because even though I had the ability I would not have been legal accepting any of them.

We made our weather precautionary landing and rendezvoused with a ground ambulance that completed the delivery with my med crew. The medical crew often stays with the patient on the ground ambulance in situations like this rather than turn the patient over to a lessor level of care.

There is a lot involved in making a good weather decision. The tools available to help the pilot make a good decision have improved over the years I have flown EMS. There are conditions I've flown through in the early days that I would have never found myself in with the new tools available. For example; I remember one night flight where everything available looked good to go, but I wanted to personally see a weather radar screen before taking off. Just call it a hunch. All we had back then was the weather channel on TV that occasionally cycled a radar screen up. Well, I waited, and waited, and waited for the radar to come up. Finally we just left without seeing the radar. Ceiling and visibility was good that night, but boy did we ever fly through a lot of rain. I probably would have turned that flight down if I had a convenient peek at the radar screen. My medic certainly saved this patient's life having to do an in the field tracheotomy. The receiving physician complemented him on the job he did. So, what do we do when we turn a flight down? Well, if it is night time we go back to bed and go to sleep. They don't call EMS "Earn Money Sleeping" for nothing.

In the company I worked for besides the policy of not telling the pilot what they were requested for prior to making the weather decision, they also have a policy of "three to go, one to say no". If any one of the crew members is uncomfortable with the weather they can call the flight off regardless of whether they are a pilot, nurse, or medic. Some pilots have a tough time with this, thinking it is solely in the pilot's domain to make a weather decision. But, it is simply the way it is and sometimes with good reason; some medical crew have had pilots scare the living hell out of them. Knowing what I know after a little over 6000 hours of total time I'm not very interested in riding in the back with just anyone upfront. Neither am I interested in ever letting my wife be a flight nurse. Now if I were a patient or any of my loved ones were a patient needing air transport, I wouldn't think twice about letting them fly. Both of my sons have had an air medical flight for which I was quite grateful. I can show you the bill on one of them which I have framed. In one good week of flying I can easily make my whole annual salary. C'est la vie!

Sometimes pilots receive pressure to fly when they shouldn't. This can happen in the military too. I remember flying a Colonel once that was a non-aviator and thought pilots had xray vision based on how he acted. The weather was getting worse by the minute and he was practically swearing that it was getting better. I flew to the point where to continue I would have had to make an "educated guess", pull pitch, bust into the clouds and guesstimate when to let pitch out to get by the mountain blocking our way along with the inclement weather. Actually there would not have been anything educated about it; it would have been pure ignorant stupidity and foolishness to try and continue. Another time at the hospital co-located with our corporate headquarters where we were to pickup our patient, I stepped into dispatch to look at the radar. Thunderstorms were popping up all along the route to the receiving hospital. The company president just happened to be in dispatch also. This man was pointing out all the ways I could pick my way through the storms. I personally knew with the changing weather that it would not be prudent to attempt to complete the flight, so I had to call it off in spite of the company president's encouragement to accept and make the flight. I told this gentleman the words of wisdom my buddy had passed on to me years before and also told him that we'd be going back to our base and not making this flight regardless of what he thought I could do. This man prior to becoming our company's president had been a hospital administrator and was a non-pilot, but even if he was a pilot if I felt not to go he would be more than welcome to try it himself as long as none of my loved ones were in the back. And, more power to him if he could have successfully made it. C'est la vie, and some of my friends consider what I did for a job was not real work. That may be debatable, but when they actually do the job we can then have a better debate.

HEMS has been a good job though that I thoroughly enjoyed. Its accident rate has gone through the ceiling recently and has gotten a lot of national attention. I have my own theory on the best means to improve their current lousy safety record that differs from current well meaning attempts. Time will tell whether or not the current attempts will produce viable results.

Till then, if you fly: fly safe. If you drive, don't drink. If you drink, don't drive. Cherish each day you have because life is a precious gift. No one is promised tomorrow. Value the time you have with those you love. Later...



Ciao!

Why I'm No Fan of Microsoft

Once upon a time I was a "BIG" fan of Microsoft and their products. I got burned by them, left and never looked back. I'll spare you the details of why I was once a fan and will tell you why I no longer like Microsoft. This information is somewhat dated and Microsoft "may" have made some improvements, but I'm not looking back and could care less. I'd been and would be better off now if I had "NEVER" been a fan of Microsoft in the first place. I used to listen to the Microsoft detractors and share why I was a fan and maybe even encourage others to give Microsoft a chance. To any others whom I may have encouraged to use Microsoft and subsequently got burned too, please accept my apologies and regrets.

Microsoft was not involved in my initial programming experience, but along the way when I switched to IBM clone products because of their ubiquitousness in the work place I started playing with the Microsoft programming product that came freely with every IBM system because of the convenient access. I could generate code and test on any IBM computer without having to install any software. I also went back to college along the way and was "delighted" with the Microsoft student license pricing and convenience.

But then I returned to the workplace and began doing what I thought was some significant work that had potential to go somewhere. I had a small problem in that I was now doing this work with a Microsoft product that I only had a student license for.

The product worked well for me except I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get a valid commercial license just in case what I was working on got wings and really took off. This was in the very early days of Microsoft's Dot.Net products being advertised and released. What I was using worked fine and even though Bill Gates touted the Dot.Net product as allowing you to get your projects up and running faster and better than ever before, I didn't see a need to fix what was not broken and spend what was a lot of money for me to step up to the Dot.Net products.

I contacted Microsoft first in an attempt to upgrade my "student license" at cost of course. Microsoft would not do this for me since they had an interest in seeing users step up to Dot.Net. I then purchased what I needed over the internet "THREE" or "FOUR" times. Three or four times??? Yes. The product I needed arrived packaged and looking legitimate each time, BUT I scrutinized the EULA and the products "authenticity" with a fine tooth comb each time. All of them proved to be pirated versions that did not provide me with a valid license which was the whole reason for the purchase since I had a working product and only needed a legitimate commercial license so I could commercially offer what I was working on and not have Microsoft come back after the fact and tag me for not having my "i"s dotted and "T"s crossed.

Everyplace I purchased the pirated products from that had the appearance of legitimacy accepted their products back and gave me a full refund when I advised them the license agreement was not valid and did not provide what I needed.

Well, because of an obstinate Microsoft corporation that would not help me upgrade my student license to a commercial license, I finally bit the bullet and did what Microsoft wanted me to do and purchased the commercial version of Microsoft's Studio.Net suite. I think I paid in the neighborhood of $1200.00 for this back then which was a big chunk of money for a poor boy that really was just a "hobbyist" programmer even though he now had a computer science degree.

In only got worse from there. Bill Gates said you'd get your projects up and running faster and easier than ever before. Well Bill, that proved to be a "BIG LIE" from my point of view. Explanation follows...

I referred to myself as a hobbyist programmer even though I have a computer science degree. Well all the intricate details are a long story, but the short of it is I'm more of a commercial helicopter pilot with entrepreneurial interests in computer science than a professional programmer. My real job involved HEMS which provided me the time I needed to work on my hobby which I had high hopes for. For those of you that think helicopter pilots make "BIG MONEY", I started HEMS in 1990 with an annual salary less than 20K. I finished my career due to medical reasons in 2006 with a salary of only 52K. As a father of five with a stay at home mom for a wife the $1200.00 I paid for Dot.Net in 2001 tacked on with my brand new student loans was a big chunk of change.

I found the Dot.Net product to be a nightmare back then. I have no idea what it is like now and no desire to know. Here is my analogy of Dot.Net as it relates to my flying:
As a helicopter pilot and not a mechanic I have "NO" desire to have too assemble an engine just so I can go do a little flying. I don't mind doing my preflight inspection to make sure my aircraft is in an airworthy condition, but then all I want to do is crank and takeoff. If I had to assemble an engine each time I wanted to go fly, I doubt I would ever fly.

Likewise, as a coder that loves programming, I have no desire to assemble a "framework" just so I can do a little coding. Every time I tried to do anything with Dot.Net it was a nightmare trying to get anything to work properly much less my code. Microsoft provided technical support, but the money meter was running every time you utilized it. All of that may have been fine for a large company with the financial resources and support personnel to keep the Dot.Net product up and running and ready for a coder to write a little code. As a one man show I got pretty much burned out trying to get Dot.Net to where I could do a little coding without dealing with all the overhead problems. I experienced Dot.Net as the death of the hobbyist coder. I also put my programming and dreams on the shelf for a long, long time because of my Dot.Net horror story and Bill's false promises.

For all of you coders happy with your "student" licenses you better think twice if you're not planning on working for a larger company that will provide you with all you need to create "their" products.

For Bill Gates who put his word on "Get it done easier and faster than ever before with Dot.Net", you would if you are a man of your word, at a minimum sit down for a meal with this poor boy to discuss the issue. I'd even pickup the meal tab at the restaurant of my choice. At the maximum, you'd step up to the plate and become my venture angel. Yeah, fat chance either one of those two things will happen just like fat chance dot.net would have made my dreams come true.

Once upon a time I was a fan of Microsoft in spite of the plethora of detractors. Now I am no fan of Microsoft and have joined the ranks of their many detractors. If you are a coder that loves programming, do yourself a favor and seek other options besides Microsoft products.

Comments both pro and con Microsoft are welcome.

Ciao...

ps I'm not alone:

Scattering to the harm of others...

"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." Matthew 12:30

WARNING! This story is not pretty and does not have a happy outcome.
It is a tale of scattering
that takes you to the end result
which was very sad for me.

I told the story of the journey that took me to a point of decision where I was born again here. Before I was born again I led a rather wild life where promiscuity and drunkenness were the two major sins I willingly engaged in as often as possible. I also did much scattering giving hearty approval to those that did the same, and even helped some others engage in unrighteousness.

American culture is covered with movies and stories that make light of wrongdoing palliating the potential consequences of unrighteous actions and painting the actions as fun and something to be sought.

Men like looking at women, I do. We are wired that way. God made women into some of the nicest eye candy a man can know. Men also like seducing women when they don't know better. I did. If a woman walks by a construction site she is usually met with "cat calls". Many of the men on the site give hearty approval to their buddies when they score on a date. It can be a game among them of who can score the most. Many may want to find that ultimate soulmate, but as they say, "when you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." Then life may throw curve balls at us. Things may not be as happy on the home front as they could or should be, and opportunity can come a man's way that may cause him to stray if he doesn't know better or have strong moral resolve. Even those that should have known better and should have had strong moral resolve have fallen. We call them hypocrites. It can all be complicated, and they who have disappointed us and not lived up to our expectations can become an excuse to not seek and choose the One that can make a real difference in our lives.

I worked with a flight nurse in the early nineties that was Barbie Doll pretty and is still an attractive woman. Her brother recently told me she has been married 6 or 7 times. He told me they all either cheated on her or beat on her. How sad...

I don't know all the details of her life, but I do know she would have preferred it had not been this way. My spiritual mentor when I was born again told me that I could never expect a relationship to workout unless I got things right with God first. My life's experience have proven the truth of his words to me. I value and love my wife tremendously, but not as much as I value and love my personal relationship with Jesus. He is the giver of all good gifts, and my wife is a very precious gift Jesus has allowed me to know.

One of the best analogies I've heard relating to sex is the comparison of sex to a fire. Fire in a fireplace or a wood stove with a glass door is beautiful, comforting, warm, and serves a useful purpose. Likewise sex in the marriage bed, untainted by the things that can spoil or ruin it, does all the same and more. Take that same fire out of the fireplace or wood stove and put it on the living room couch, and it can become extremely destructive. Likewise, sex out of the marriage bed can also be extremely destructive.

Anyhow... When I was a military instructor pilot at Fort Rucker, Alabama in the late seventies before I was born again I hooked up with an enlisted WAC that worked in a control tower at one of the stage fields I flew at with one of my Army buddies. Visiting my buddy in the tower, I met this WAC. This Army buddy had a real pleasant personality and was a good guy. He was married, but we mutually enjoyed the eye candy that passed us when we were together which is common for many men. I can't remember what brought the WAC and I together for a tryst, but I do remember that she started showing up at my BOQ on a regular basis. I enjoyed playing the field hoping to eventually encounter that ultimate soulmate, and I didn't consider this WAC her. So many times when I had an illicit affair, my heart would flip soon after the initial score and I was soon ready to pursue new conquests. Every now and then one would come along that I liked spending more time with, but something or other would happen to mess it up. I was ready to get this WAC off my back so I could be free to play the field more. My Army buddy was an easy and available mark.

I talked to the WAC about him. He was the tower supervisor she worked in and her superior. She felt he was off limits though he did hold an appeal to her. I knew my buddy liked women even though he was married. I didn't know his wife at that time. I encouraged the WAC to make a move on him telling her she might be surprised. She was fairly aggressive which I knew since she'd show up at my place so many times uninvited. Well she did make a move on my buddy at my encouragement, and he did take advantage of the opportunity that plopped in his lap.

Sometime after that I then ended up being born again and eventually getting out of the Army in 1979. In 1982 I went to work for the government contractor that supplied civilian instructor pilots for the Army. I became an instrument instructor pilot. My old Army buddy had retired from the Army and became a primary instructor pilot for the same company. We reestablished contact. When I got married in November of 83 my wife and I visited my old buddy and even met his wife. His wife loved him. I shared my testimony and how I had changed. Before leaving this job we visited my buddy with my toddler daughter, Joanna. My buddy's daughter who was twelve at that time gave Joanna a toy cow that mooed. I attempted to share Jesus and gather rather than scatter to make up for some of my past scattering.

It is not always easy for people to come to Jesus for one reason or another, and my buddy was comfortable in his lifestyle. I eventually left that job and lost contact with my buddy again.

In the early nineties I worked with a male flight nurse that knew my old Army buddy someway or another. This flight nurse quit my company and went to work for another company in Springfield, Missouri. I think Springfield was his home town. Anyhow I stopped in to visit him once at his new place of work and he told me that my old Army buddy was fixing to take a trip to Springfield for a vacation. Springfield was evidently his hometown too. I gave the nurse my home phone number and told him to tell my old Army buddy to give me a call when he showed up.

I never got that phone call. Several weeks later I was back in Springfield and stopped in to see the nurse I had worked with. I asked him about my old Army buddy. He said, "Before (my buddy's name) made it up here on vacation, his girl friend caught him cheating and shot him in the head killing him dead."

My old Army buddy was still married to a wife that loved him in spite of his faults. He had a daughter that loved him dearly. It wasn't his wife that shot him, but a girl friend because he was cheating with another girl. I don't know for sure, but the girlfriend could quite possibly have been the WAC I caused to hook up with my friend. Though my friend liked looking at the eye candy back when we were in the Army together I don't know that he had ever cheated on his wife before I set the aggressive WAC on him. My shame is incredible. If I could only take back what I had done, I would. This is an extreme case of scattering going wrong, but all scattering has harmful effects. Some of the harmful effects we may never come to know about as we go on with our lives, but for certain our scattering can easily be a link in the chain that causes harm. Even though it may have seemed fun at the time, God wanted me to personally know the harm I helped cause. I now hate scattering with the utmost hatred regardless of the fun and entertainment it may have provided once in my life. Unfortunately I can't take this back. I would trade places with my buddy if it were possible. I deserve to be where he is, not him. All I can do now is my best to never scatter again. I now choose to gather as the opportunities present themselves.

"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters."
Matthew 12:30

If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, please consider inviting Him into your heart to be the Lord of your life. It is a choice I have never regretted and only wish I had made it sooner.

If you do have a personal relationship with Jesus that needs strengthening, ask Him to cause the growth that strengthens. If He can do it for me, He can and will do it for you.



Ciao!

Army Helicopter Pilot Training Film

I was one in one of the first classes to have all of their training done at Fort Rucker, Alabama.



When I enlisted in the Army going to Vietnam was a real possibility. When I graduated from Army Flight School they were no longer sending pilots to Vietnam. I'm only a Vietnam Era veteran, not a Vietnam Vet. I have mixed feelings about not getting to go over there. 99% of the pilots I know that served in Vietnam are great guys. They have a brotherhood unique to their experience. Vietnam opened up the need for helicopter pilots like nothing else could. As tragic as war is, if Vietnam had never taken place, I probably would have never gotten the opportunity to become a helicopter pilot. This second video: "Angels of Vietnam" sure makes me miss it. All good things eventually come to an end. Enjoy em while you got em!

This was an easy Tall Tale... not much writing, but the films brought back a lot of memories.

Ciao...

Partial Seizures to Foggy Headed Days

I still have plenty of tall tales I want to tell. My head doesn't always cooperate. I have the want to, but not the can do.

Please accept my apologies for when I'm not able to provide fresh material in a timely manner.

My 15 second partial seizures were 10 times better than these foggy headed days. I had no idea what they were when they first started visiting me. The common way they presented was simply as a strong feeling of angst with a sense of doom and gloom for what is coming on the world. I could still think, make decisions, and function. In my estimation; I wasn't at 100%, but I was never far from it and they only lasted for a mere 15 seconds. Then some of them started to include visual distortions. Those were entertaining, but I knew I needed to seek medical help and find out what was going on.

"Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:17

It is not always easy doing the right thing, especially when you know doing it can hurt you or those you love. But then, failing to do the right thing can also harm you and those you love. Such is life...

ciao...

How do you like your pork chops?

Before I got married I had a decent job in "LA" (Lower Alabama). I was living in a little two bedroom "Kelly" trailer which was barely a step up from a school bus converted into a motorhome, but I was content. It's the female part of the species that ended up domesticating us men anyhow. If it wasn't for women, we'd be content with a sleeping bag out in the weeds. I must admit that we are prone to get a little spoiled though after tasting the goods and conveniences the ladies like.

The picture on the right shows myself, my wife, and an almost new born Simeon Langham in front of our little "Kelly" trailer. Simeon is the oldest child of Dwayne and Penny who are close friends, and have stayed with us more than once during our married life. The door is still open Dwayne, if you ever need a place to stay or just want to come by for a visit.

I had a brother in the Lord (Brother #1) show up and stay with me for awhile at the little Kelly trailer pre-marriage. Over all we had some pretty good times. He taught me a recipe that he liked involving pork chops where he would marinate the pork chops in italian salad dressing before cooking them. We tried it and I liked it, so I added his recipe to the list of things I'd cook.

While I enjoyed Brother #1's visit and company, he had a pretty good deal going on I thought. I had a good job, so I allowed him to stay rent free while I bought groceries and paid bills. I'd have to go to work for a little bit everyday, while Brother #1 had free run of the place. He enjoyed both humming and singing Psalm 133

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever.

Overall life was pretty good. We had some good fellowship and did some neat things. However...

I get home from work one day and I'm sitting at the dinning table looking at a sink stacked high with dirty dishes. The thought then occurs to me that I had been washing waaaaaaaaaaaay more than my fair share of dishes lately. While I'm sitting there looking at the stack of dirty dishes with some displeasure, the Lord gives me a vision and takes me on a journey to the pearly gates.

As I approach the pearly gates I notice Saint Peter the proverbial greeter. When Saint Peter noticed me, his countenance turned super happy and he said, "Wow Dave! You made it! It is so good to see you. Come on up in here. We have a great place for you to stay..." As he extended his arm with a wave to point out a beautiful mansion. Saint Peter continued saying, "This is your Brother #1's" mansion, and you have free run of the whole place. The only thing that will be required of you is to simply take care of all the dishes."

Wow! Just take care of all the dishes... I wasn't too happy about that at the moment considering I'd been the only one taking care of all of the dishes and everything else so it seemed. Taking care of everything except for his personal laundry. Now that would have been some serious foot washing. How pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity... Actually things had seemed pretty happy and pleasant until this moment. Given how I was feeling at the moment, I looked at Saint Peter and said, "That seems worse than going to hell."

Saint Peter's countenance dropped from happy to extremely sad as he said, "Well David if that is how you feel, then maybe that's where you need to go."

I thought about it for a little bit, then I resolved myself to do the dishes. I ran a sink and put my hand to the task. My peace had returned. I got about halfway through the stack of dishes when I felt the Lord's gentle voice say, "Okay David, you can talk to Brother #1 about this problem now."

I finished the dishes and when the opportunity arrived I broached the subject of the dishes with Brother #1. He seemed to receive it well, but a day or two later he told me he was ready to move on. And so, he was soon gone.

After Brother #1 left Brother #2 showed up. When the topic of kitchen duties came up, Brother #2 said, "I do all the cooking, you do all the cleaning. Sounds fair to me."

Now this is another small tall tale about how it came about, but when I cook I clean as I go. When I sit down for a meal I already have a sink run and knock out my dishes immediately after eating. I start with a clean kitchen and finish with a clean kitchen as long as no one else has started a stack of dirty dishes. So, I told Brother #2 that his cooking and me cleaning system wouldn't work for me because I clean as I go as I cook and there is no super large mess to clean up. Isn't it amazing how some cooks seem to get every item in the kitchen dirty as they create their wonder? Anyhow, we worked it out and things seemed to work well.

While Brother #2 was there I fixed the pork chop recipe Brother #1 had taught me. Brother #2 appeared to like the meal. A week or so later we found our selves in the grocery store ready to stock up on a fresh supply of necessities. The subject came up as to what we should get and I asked Brother #2 if he liked pork chops. Brother #2 said, "Let me count the ways I like pork chops!" There seemed to be a bunch of them, so I made up my mind that we'd get some. And..., as I walked by the salad dressings I reached my hand out to grab a bottle of italian for the marinating part of the recipe I knew and thought he liked.

OUCH! When Brother #2 saw what I was reaching for it was like I stuck my hand into a hot fire. Well, the truth was now known about how he really felt about that recipe Brother #1 had taught me. Brother #2 had simply tried to be polite and not show his true feeling about how he felt about the meal until he was faced with having to suffer through it again. We didn't get any pork chops. We settled for something else, and I was glad to know that from now on I wouldn't be fixing something I thought he liked while he silently suffered through it.


Shortly after my wife and I got married she told me a story about a precious old couple that are good friends with her parents; Emily and Sterling Lacy. Emily thought Sterling liked collard greens, so she fixed them for him. He always ate them. After thirty years of marriage Emily fixed collard greens and Sterling said, "You know, after all these years of eating collard greens I think I finally learned to like them."

Emily said, "You what!" Neither one of them really liked collard greens in the beginning. He ate them cause he thought she liked them. She cooked them and ate them because she thought he liked them. Both being polite silently suffered through them for years.

After my wife told me that story stacked on top of the italian dressing marinated pork chop story, I made up my mind that I wasn't going to go through thirty years of eating something I didn't like. So, I established a three menu system in our home.

The only thing my wife could cook when we first married was lasagna. She did a mighty fine job too. I told her, "Baby, this is pretty good. You can put it on the guest menu and also fix it for me anytime you want too."

A little while later she experimented with something knew. It wasn't near as good as the lasagna, but it was tolerable, so I told her, "Baby, I wouldn't put this on the guest menu, but it is okay for me, so you can cook it anytime you want to for just us for sustenance."

Then the day came when she cooked something that to me was like the italian dressing marinated pork chops were to Brother #2. I said, "Baby, please don't do this one again." My sweetheart always received that bit of news with displeasure. The nerve of me to dislike something she put so much time and effort into, but I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to politely suffer through something I didn't like.

Over the years my sweetheart has become a pretty good cook. We still have only the three things on the menu: quest quality items, sustenance only items, and please don't do it again items. The last time I recall her fixing a please don't do it again item, it was a meatloaf. I don't know what she had done to this particular meatloaf, but it was bad. After a taste, I looked at her and said, "Baby, please don't do this again." After all the time and loving effort she had put into that meatloaf, she was p.o'd at my displeasure. She turned her nose up, huffed over to the table, picked the meatloaf up and huffed over to the corner of the room where she placed it on the floor for the dog. The dog then walked over and took a whiff, then promptly walked away quite obviously not willing to touch that stuff either.

My wife thought, "Hmm, maybe Dave knows what he is talking about."

Well, it's not hard to know what you like and don't like, but our precious princesses need to know that they are still appreciated for all their hard effort. So, do you show that appreciation by silently suffering through what you dislike? Not this kid! There has got to be a better way.

So, how do you like your pork chops? If I'm going to take the time to fix you something I certainly don't want to waste my time by fixing something you dislike. So, please let me know what you think of the meal. It won't hurt my feelings if you dislike something. After all we all have different tastes with things we like and dislike. Sometimes they coincide, and sometimes they don't. And, it is nice to know that if I'm trying to do something special just for you that it truly is special. So don't be shy or unnecessarily polite. Life's too short to fake it when you can make it right.

Ciao!