WEBVTT 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:09.060 All across America and around the world, this 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:15.160 is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. Good 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:18.600 day. I'm Jim Fossone. I'm the Officer of the 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:20.699 Deck today here on Veterans Radio and thanks 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:23.469 for joining us. We've got some interesting stories 00:00:23.469 --> 00:00:25.649 for you. We always want to remind you you can 00:00:25.649 --> 00:00:28.750 find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:32.429 site or at the web, veteransradio .org, where 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:35.270 we're on the web 24 -7. You can find a lot of 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:38.310 our podcasts there as well. We post new ones 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:42.490 every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a 00:00:42.490 --> 00:00:45.229 new interview, something you didn't know before 00:00:45.229 --> 00:00:49.219 by going to VeteransRadio .org. 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It provides water 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:42.019 damage remediation, flood water removal, fire 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:45.840 and smoke damage remediation, mold removal, biohazard 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:50.879 cleanup. It also has a focus on veteran franchisees. 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:54.359 You can learn more about them by going to PuroClean 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:58.200 .com. We just want to remind you that veterans 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:03.280 radio podcasts are available on all your favorite 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.319 streaming platforms including RSS .com, Apple 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:12.199 Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, by Heart 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:16.280 Radio and Reeves Across America Radio. So wherever 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:20.340 you are, you can find us. We were recently identified 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:25.439 as in the 15th spot, if you will, of the top 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.939 100 veteran -centric podcasts by Feet Spot. So 00:02:30.939 --> 00:02:34.240 really pretty proud of being in the top 15. So 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.400 listen in wherever you're at to veteransradio 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:43.219 .org and its podcasts. We want to welcome to 00:02:43.219 --> 00:02:48.560 Veterans Radio today, Derek Damets, a naval aviator, 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:51.780 spent a long time in the Navy, is out now and 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:56.340 that explains kind of the background drop for 00:02:56.340 --> 00:03:00.740 him with the plane behind him. But more importantly, 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:05.180 Derek, you have written a book, it's your story, 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:09.120 kind of a personal memoir called Unbreakable 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:12.069 Wings. piloting the impossible journey through 00:03:12.069 --> 00:03:15.229 cancer and naval aviation. And we just gave it 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:18.389 away a little bit by the title about some of 00:03:18.389 --> 00:03:22.110 the struggles. But before we get there, how did 00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:24.750 a nice kid from a small town in Wisconsin get 00:03:24.750 --> 00:03:28.169 turned into a naval aviator? What was the impetus? 00:03:29.149 --> 00:03:32.150 You know, it kind of started early, but I didn't 00:03:32.150 --> 00:03:34.669 recognize it until later. You know, being on 00:03:34.669 --> 00:03:36.770 the farm and growing up, there's always crop 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:39.349 dusters flying overhead and being a kid sitting 00:03:39.349 --> 00:03:43.530 on a tractor raking hay or doing yard work or 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:45.490 throwing bales. There just was always something 00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:48.360 intriguing about it. And then of course, 1986 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:51.400 comes along and I'm a young kid and Top Gun comes 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:53.659 out. And, you know, there's a part in the book 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:55.379 where I just wanted to see Short Circuit. Man, 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.620 that Johnny Five is alive. That was the movie 00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:00.080 for me. And dad forced me to this movie called 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:02.680 Top Gun. And I went kicking and screaming. And 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:04.699 when I came out, I'm like, that's what I want 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:06.879 to do. It's like both parts clicked, you know, 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:09.060 that watching that plane fly overhead when I 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:10.740 was young and seeing, you know, the military 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:12.300 aircraft flying off the aircraft carrier. I'm 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:14.360 like, I finally, for the first time, figured 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:17.079 I think that's what I want to do. I think a lot 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:19.459 of people can relate to the story in that they've 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:23.860 had sort of portions of your upbringing, and 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:28.019 by that I mean great relationship with your dad, 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:32.019 great relationship with your grandpa, farm life, 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:36.860 hard work, high school sports. Give us that flavor, 00:04:36.899 --> 00:04:41.360 because that's really, Derek, where your foundation 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:44.949 is built. Yeah, it's uh, you know everybody has 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.329 a story and nobody really knows everyone else's 00:04:47.329 --> 00:04:49.250 story and your story is the only one that you 00:04:49.250 --> 00:04:51.449 know and growing up from since I remember it 00:04:51.449 --> 00:04:53.370 was Get down on the barn. You're helping milk 00:04:53.370 --> 00:04:55.449 the cows, right? And then as a young kid, you 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:57.509 don't do much and as you grow older You're you 00:04:57.509 --> 00:04:59.709 kind of take on a lot more responsibility and 00:04:59.709 --> 00:05:02.129 there's no vacations. There's no breaks, right? 00:05:02.389 --> 00:05:04.449 It's a long day of work in the field just to 00:05:04.449 --> 00:05:06.449 come home at 7 p .m and then you got to run to 00:05:06.449 --> 00:05:08.370 the barn and feed the dogs and milk the cows 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:12.079 and I think that constant just work ethic is 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:14.240 just kind of how when you develop at that age, 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:16.420 that's just was my mind. It was just built to 00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:19.060 get up in the morning and work all day. And if 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:20.759 you can eat, that's great. But if you miss a 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:22.279 couple of meals, well, that's just too bad because 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:26.079 there's chores to do. And it doesn't matter how 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:27.839 skinny or small you are, you still got to throw 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:30.420 that bale of hay, don't you? Yeah, those bales 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:32.100 of hay, thank God they got lighter when I got 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:34.800 bigger. But those first couple I picked up, they 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.139 were probably as heavy as I was. Well, and again, 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:41.540 what's very relatable from a Midwestern standpoint 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:45.279 is those high school years. And you had a couple 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:50.019 of challenges in those years that maybe, again, 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:53.360 were foundational for challenges you were going 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:55.500 to have to have in the future and get over. So 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:58.300 talk a little bit about the high school years 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:03.740 and kind of how that built into your character. 00:06:04.899 --> 00:06:07.980 Yeah, I think it um, you know growing up on a 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:11.529 farm you're eating a lot of dairy Right. So I 00:06:11.529 --> 00:06:13.550 call it my dairy fueled farm physique. Right. 00:06:13.610 --> 00:06:16.209 So I'm entering high school, probably the largest 00:06:16.209 --> 00:06:18.569 kid in the class. You know, I'm going to be the 00:06:18.569 --> 00:06:20.810 center of the football team. And a couple of 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:23.389 my friends encouraged me to run cross country. 00:06:23.509 --> 00:06:25.610 Right. And thank God they did in hindsight. But 00:06:25.610 --> 00:06:28.170 there I was that freshman year of high school 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:30.230 and cross country. You know, everybody's clapping 00:06:30.230 --> 00:06:32.209 at me as I come across the finish line 10 minutes 00:06:32.209 --> 00:06:33.970 after everybody else. And they already have the 00:06:33.970 --> 00:06:36.740 shoot already cleaned up. You know, but But again, 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:38.540 I wasn't going to give up. So it goes back to 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:39.980 kind of that farm work. I say, if I'm going to 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:42.360 do this, I'm going to do this. And I lost the 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.459 weight and went through. And there was some challenges 00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:47.180 there. And I don't know if that goes into college, 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:50.019 too, where we talk about if you're getting into 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.259 college is great. I finally have it all figured 00:06:52.259 --> 00:06:55.180 out. I love running. I'm running 10 miles a day 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:57.540 or every other day. And college is coming to 00:06:57.540 --> 00:07:00.060 an end. And all of a sudden, there's a huge medical 00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:01.959 emergency where my lung decides it's had enough 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:05.800 air. Yeah, exactly. So you went to the University 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:11.300 of Wisconsin, like a good farm boy. But again, 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:14.399 there's not a lot of cash around. So how did 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:18.899 you get through college? Well, obviously, growing 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:22.100 up on a farm, I was on my own. And that was pretty 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:23.660 clear from the beginning. If you want to go to 00:07:23.660 --> 00:07:27.569 college, go to college. And so, you know, the 00:07:27.569 --> 00:07:29.550 whole thing about being a pilot is kind of coming 00:07:29.550 --> 00:07:32.829 into view. How am I going to get money for college? 00:07:33.250 --> 00:07:35.689 And so, you know, getting on an old school typewriter, 00:07:35.790 --> 00:07:37.550 I guess it was a word processor back in the day. 00:07:37.610 --> 00:07:40.069 There were no computers. Tip, tip, tick, tick, 00:07:40.069 --> 00:07:41.689 tick, as the fingers went across the keyboard, 00:07:41.769 --> 00:07:43.889 you know, I typed up my application for both 00:07:43.889 --> 00:07:47.230 the Academy and ROTC. And that was how I was 00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:48.589 going to get in. And if I didn't get either one 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:50.370 of those, I probably wasn't going to college. 00:07:51.859 --> 00:07:55.420 um and and but got achieved both uh but uh my 00:07:55.420 --> 00:07:57.160 guidance counselor sat me down one day and said 00:07:57.160 --> 00:07:59.279 i think you're a razi guy you know you got way 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.339 too much energy to go to the academy and be kind 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:04.060 of combined in and sit in those rooms all day 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:06.220 and not get outside those walls and so he really 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:08.600 convinced me to take that razi scholarship go 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.060 to madison you know do the military thing they 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:12.779 pay for college and then that's that's kind of 00:08:12.779 --> 00:08:16.319 what got me there i think today so many people 00:08:18.280 --> 00:08:22.759 sort of rule out or don't even think about ROTC, 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:28.139 and you went to Naval ROTC again with that idea 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:32.039 that I want to ultimately be an aviator, but 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:34.480 I think a lot of people don't even consider it, 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:36.720 maybe because they don't know anybody who's gone 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.019 through it. Talk to us about that experience, 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.440 and would you today recommend to kids, hey, look 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:46.070 at the ROTC scholarship program? Yeah, I think 00:08:46.070 --> 00:08:48.429 I think everybody looks at it from the military 00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:50.549 point of view and social media gives you almost 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:52.889 too much information And not all of it is real 00:08:52.889 --> 00:08:55.370 right Top Gun wasn't real There's nothing in 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:57.509 Top Gun that was real -life Navy, but it you 00:08:57.509 --> 00:08:59.129 know It's a movie and it's meant to be a movie 00:08:59.129 --> 00:09:02.029 and even today the those commercials you see 00:09:02.029 --> 00:09:04.769 it's it's not really what the military is and 00:09:04.769 --> 00:09:06.570 I don't know if I would have made it through 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:09.070 college without it right because the first day 00:09:09.289 --> 00:09:11.129 You're sitting there, you're at attention, you're 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:12.710 making uniform, you know, they're putting in 00:09:12.710 --> 00:09:15.690 uniforms and you're marching around and it instills 00:09:15.690 --> 00:09:18.919 that. Just that mental toughness. I think I already 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:21.019 had it, but I never realized that until you get 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:24.080 Narazi and then they have expectations, you just 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:25.840 can't go out and do what you want. You have a 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:29.019 GPA expectation or the scholarship goes away 00:09:29.019 --> 00:09:31.100 and you're getting up at five o 'clock in the 00:09:31.100 --> 00:09:33.279 morning to march on Tuesdays and you're in uniform 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:34.879 and you're walking around the McLean Center where 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:37.440 the Badgers play football practice and you're 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:39.840 learning things, right? And it instills that. 00:09:40.029 --> 00:09:42.529 a character, I'll say as well. Right. It just 00:09:42.529 --> 00:09:45.509 it changes who you are as a person into a more 00:09:45.509 --> 00:09:48.029 responsible, mature kind of character. And I'm 00:09:48.029 --> 00:09:49.570 not sure I would have matured as quickly if I 00:09:49.570 --> 00:09:52.409 didn't have that. It sort of accelerates growing 00:09:52.409 --> 00:09:57.309 up to be a to be an adult. I think that's right. 00:09:57.750 --> 00:10:00.009 One way to look at it, because if you don't, 00:10:00.009 --> 00:10:02.789 if you don't mature quickly, you'll be out and 00:10:02.789 --> 00:10:04.429 you'll be without that scholarship and you'll 00:10:04.429 --> 00:10:07.149 be spending your days back on the farm. So there's 00:10:07.149 --> 00:10:13.629 a little incentive there. But we're back to, 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:17.809 and I think in high school you had an eye problem. 00:10:19.330 --> 00:10:22.190 I want to mention that because then we're going 00:10:22.190 --> 00:10:24.289 to talk about the problem in college. Then we're 00:10:24.289 --> 00:10:25.850 going to talk about the problem in the Navy. 00:10:26.289 --> 00:10:28.370 So let's start with the eye problem. There's 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:30.129 so many problems, Jim. I appreciate you keeping 00:10:30.129 --> 00:10:34.179 me in line there. We were good there so that 00:10:34.179 --> 00:10:36.179 the first problem is just the weight really and 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:38.259 you know losing the weight was the problem and 00:10:38.259 --> 00:10:40.379 then there was a day on a tennis court and you 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:42.860 know if you were back in the 80s there was no 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:45.299 safety equipment right so we were having a tennis 00:10:45.299 --> 00:10:47.100 thing for gym right where we go and learn how 00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:49.340 to play tennis and keep score and they had a 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:51.740 little ball machine and we'd hit it back and 00:10:51.740 --> 00:10:53.620 one day I look up trying to fill the balls in 00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:55.480 the ball machine and I hit it my buddy of mine 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:57.500 hit a tennis ball back and hit me square in the 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:02.549 eye No goggles, no protective equipment. We just 00:11:02.549 --> 00:11:05.169 didn't think about that stuff back then. I kind 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:10.070 of let it go until I ran into a neighbor and 00:11:10.070 --> 00:11:12.629 she saw my eye and it was purple. Usually your 00:11:12.629 --> 00:11:14.649 purple isn't a color when you go for your eye 00:11:14.649 --> 00:11:17.070 color on any kind of application. She could see 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:19.190 there was blood pooling in my eye and grabbed 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:21.860 me and took me home. Ended up in the hospital, 00:11:22.220 --> 00:11:25.000 and it was a hyphae month. So the tennis ball 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:26.840 didn't pop the eye, but it made this big packet 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.080 of blood back on the retina. And so I had to 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:31.360 kind of sit in the hospital. And where this comes 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:33.519 is now I'm scared, right? I'm just a young, I 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:35.440 think, sophomore at the time in high school. 00:11:35.879 --> 00:11:37.820 And they have to patch both my eyes. Because 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:39.360 as you know, if you move one eye, the other eye 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:41.399 is going to move. And so if I have one eye free, 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:43.440 I'm still going to look around. And so it was 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:46.929 the first time for seven days. I had sat there 00:11:46.929 --> 00:11:49.309 in complete darkness and stillness and blindness 00:11:49.309 --> 00:11:51.370 and it, you know, you kind of get in your head. 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:54.370 I really wasn't prepared for for how hard and 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.370 difficult that was to get through that time. 00:11:56.809 --> 00:11:59.289 Yeah. And again, veteran radio listeners were 00:11:59.289 --> 00:12:02.649 talking to this pilot who had this dream from 00:12:02.649 --> 00:12:05.029 being a young kid. Well, we all know you got 00:12:05.029 --> 00:12:08.090 to be able to see to fly and you got to be seven 00:12:08.090 --> 00:12:11.309 days of not being able to look out. You got to 00:12:11.309 --> 00:12:14.450 be thinking, is that dream over with? Obviously, 00:12:14.669 --> 00:12:16.870 you overcame that problem. Everything healed 00:12:16.870 --> 00:12:22.409 up. We get to college. Life is beautiful. Everything's 00:12:22.409 --> 00:12:26.309 wonderful. And then you run into another medical 00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:29.309 problem, this time with a lung. Tell us about 00:12:29.309 --> 00:12:32.009 it. Yeah, I thought. I definitely thought the 00:12:32.009 --> 00:12:35.129 eye might be a distractor as we got there. But 00:12:35.129 --> 00:12:37.509 there was a lot of time lapse between sophomore 00:12:37.509 --> 00:12:39.289 and high school. But still, it was on my mind 00:12:39.289 --> 00:12:41.629 for that first entrance physical, right? Are 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:43.409 they going to find that little scar tissue in 00:12:43.409 --> 00:12:45.610 my eye? And back in those days, we didn't have 00:12:45.610 --> 00:12:47.610 internet where you could look things up. So what 00:12:47.610 --> 00:12:49.809 you knew is what you knew. And so that was scary. 00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:52.830 And actually, that also means that the medical 00:12:52.830 --> 00:12:55.629 exam couldn't find a digital record of that problem. 00:12:55.909 --> 00:13:00.259 That's right. That is true. Which today has often 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:03.320 created bumps in the road, because they find, 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:05.320 oh, when you were a kid, you had this problem 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:08.700 or that problem. But let's get us to college, 00:13:08.740 --> 00:13:11.279 because this becomes even more dramatic. Yeah, 00:13:11.419 --> 00:13:13.860 the issues definitely amplify as they move along. 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:15.759 But yeah, I never really happened to mention 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.220 that. I just forgot about it, too, when I filled 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:20.919 out that application. I don't know why, I just 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:25.100 did. But yeah, in college, college was going 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:27.220 great and I was really in shape. Things were 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:29.820 going well. And it really wasn't until my senior 00:13:29.820 --> 00:13:32.679 year that last year where I kind of crossed that 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:36.080 threshold like, hey, I was a little bit excited. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:37.879 I'll even say a little bit arrogant, right? The 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:39.720 whole world's in front of me and I'm going to 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.259 flight school and I get accepted. It was that 00:13:42.259 --> 00:13:44.960 beautiful Friday afternoon after classes in the 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:46.940 fall and the leaves were turning and I had my 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:48.980 baseball cap, my badger cap on backwards with 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:51.840 my Walkman pinned to my shorts to listen to my 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.080 Whitesnake cassette and I go out on a run and 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:56.080 I come back and all of a sudden I'm about a mile 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:58.340 from home and it feels like someone stabbed me 00:13:58.340 --> 00:14:00.799 in the back. And I actually looked around to 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:02.480 see if there was an assailant, right? Like it 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.259 felt that real. And then come the weekend, like 00:14:06.259 --> 00:14:08.659 the lung hurt, I'm kind of moving around and 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:11.259 my lungs sloshing around like there's a little 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:14.480 bit of water in my lung. It's hard to understand 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:18.179 what's going on. My breathing rate elevates quite 00:14:18.179 --> 00:14:20.919 a bit. I get through Friday night, I get through 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:23.259 Saturday, I go to the emergency room on Sunday 00:14:23.259 --> 00:14:25.919 and I'm sitting there breathing like I'm running 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:28.409 a marathon. Go up to the front desk. They had 00:14:28.409 --> 00:14:31.269 me fill out paperwork. I'm panting like a dog, 00:14:31.769 --> 00:14:33.669 sitting trying to fill this paperwork out. Hand 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:37.210 it back, and I sit in the ER for 45 more minutes, 00:14:38.649 --> 00:14:41.309 just almost unable to breathe. Can't take any 00:14:41.309 --> 00:14:43.690 more. I go up and ask, and they say it's going 00:14:43.690 --> 00:14:46.230 to be some time. I said, well, I can't do this 00:14:46.230 --> 00:14:48.389 anymore. I go home. So I go home, lay down, go 00:14:48.389 --> 00:14:50.950 to bed. Again, panting away, but laying down 00:14:50.950 --> 00:14:54.279 kind of helped. Next morning I get up, it's Monday, 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.460 so the University of Wisconsin medical clinic 00:14:57.460 --> 00:14:59.460 was open, so I just, I'm like, let's go in there, 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:01.259 because I can't go to class like this. I can 00:15:01.259 --> 00:15:03.700 hardly breathe, it's labor breathing, my chest 00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:07.480 is heavy. I go in, they take an x -ray, and before 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.679 I even know what's going on, I get thrown in 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:12.480 a wheelchair into the back of an ambulance and 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:14.740 just sent to the emergency room at University 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:17.460 of Wisconsin hospital. And so I have no idea 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:18.879 what's going on, right? At this point, I don't 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:20.659 even know if I have a thought, because it's all 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:24.909 so dramatic. They rush me in, throw me on the 00:15:24.909 --> 00:15:26.929 table. I mean, it wasn't really nice, like you 00:15:26.929 --> 00:15:29.350 see in the movies, like it was tossing me around. 00:15:29.789 --> 00:15:32.370 And they put me on my side, pull my shirt up. 00:15:32.929 --> 00:15:35.250 Nurse grabs my hand, starts talking to me. And 00:15:35.250 --> 00:15:37.210 I see out of my left eye, this doctor just kind 00:15:37.210 --> 00:15:39.909 of feel with my ribs, takes a scalpel and poof, 00:15:40.210 --> 00:15:42.070 right between the rib cage. Still got the scar 00:15:42.070 --> 00:15:45.309 today, still a little sensitive. Sounds like 00:15:45.309 --> 00:15:48.669 a gigantic release of air. I pass out. The pain 00:15:48.669 --> 00:15:51.350 is immeasurable, right? Like I never experienced 00:15:51.350 --> 00:15:54.350 anything at this time in my life. Wake up, tube 00:15:54.350 --> 00:15:57.230 in my chest, doctor comes in, I have a spontaneous 00:15:57.230 --> 00:15:59.830 pneumothorax. spontaneous because it happened 00:15:59.830 --> 00:16:02.250 on its own pneumothorax I have a collapsed lung 00:16:02.250 --> 00:16:05.250 left lung was completely collapsed my heart was 00:16:05.250 --> 00:16:07.769 on the right side of my body my esophagus looked 00:16:07.769 --> 00:16:09.990 like a question mark I was breathing on a half 00:16:09.990 --> 00:16:14.629 and all that pressure was on my heart so it was 00:16:14.629 --> 00:16:16.429 a tension pneumothorax why my heart could have 00:16:16.429 --> 00:16:17.970 stopped any time because it just can overcome 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:20.409 the pressure of that air escape in my lungs so 00:16:20.409 --> 00:16:22.909 that's what I had to to look forward to right 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:25.169 at my senior year right before I was ready to 00:16:25.169 --> 00:16:27.860 leave for flight school Yeah, again, this is 00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:30.820 one of these medical complications nobody can 00:16:30.820 --> 00:16:34.720 anticipate and There's a couple of choices that 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:37.399 you just sort of fold the tent call it a day 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:40.200 Or figure out how you're gonna get through it 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:45.139 with some support You got through it tell us 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:47.899 about getting through it because they kind of 00:16:47.899 --> 00:16:52.139 have to glue your lung back up together Yeah, 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:54.860 the this this was really where I was ready to 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.419 give up probably the first time Because I thought 00:16:58.419 --> 00:17:00.950 no way a pilot needs eyes I'm questionable at 00:17:00.950 --> 00:17:02.769 that. A pilot needs lungs. I don't think there's 00:17:02.769 --> 00:17:05.529 any way. And once the doctor went and did surgery, 00:17:05.829 --> 00:17:08.029 he came back and he told me, put a couple rows 00:17:08.029 --> 00:17:09.890 of staples in the hole in the top of my lung. 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.829 And what they usually do is they scrape the scar 00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:15.630 tissue or scrape the lung so it's irritated. 00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:17.630 And when the lung inflates, it would adhere itself 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:19.690 to the wall to kind of keep that lung inflated. 00:17:20.049 --> 00:17:23.230 So just to prevent any kind of additional. tear 00:17:23.230 --> 00:17:25.910 in the lung. Well, because I waited three days 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:27.769 and I kind of went out with friends and there's 00:17:27.769 --> 00:17:30.009 smoky bars backed in and hailed all that air, 00:17:30.369 --> 00:17:31.890 I had an infection. He's like, why didn't have 00:17:31.890 --> 00:17:33.630 to scrape because there was kind of an infection 00:17:33.630 --> 00:17:37.680 in there. Oh, how lucky. So that's great. I didn't 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:39.500 think anyone like okay but you took care of it 00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:42.079 right until until I think it was that night or 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:44.640 the night after when my that infection kicked 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:47.279 over and also my temperature spiked a hundred 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.599 six i'm starting to hallucinate i'm starting 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.759 to have trouble breathing again and i don't think 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:53.160 i'm gonna make it through the night i just had 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:56.539 that feeling. You know call my girlfriend at 00:17:56.539 --> 00:17:58.980 the time said hey, can you come with me? You 00:17:58.980 --> 00:18:00.599 know, I just I just I just don't they want to 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:02.819 make it I need I need somebody here and you know 00:18:02.819 --> 00:18:05.400 This is the point where she's making excuses 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:07.759 and the relationship ends right there, right? 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:09.779 So it's not just the long it's not just flight 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:11.640 school I was dating this girl for five years 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:13.519 my high school sweetheart and she leaves me sitting 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:15.900 there in a hospital So if there's a culmination 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:17.759 where I'm just ready to give up. It was that 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:20.799 point right there And as I say you get through 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:23.279 this but it's not without a lot of time passing 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:26.549 and I don't know. I'm not sure I'd call it luck, 00:18:27.230 --> 00:18:32.490 but fate. Because now you medically have to recover, 00:18:32.809 --> 00:18:34.769 physically have to recover, mentally have to 00:18:34.769 --> 00:18:36.769 recover. And oh, by the way, I got to go see 00:18:36.769 --> 00:18:41.369 the flight surgeon. So talk to us about what's 00:18:41.369 --> 00:18:43.970 going on during that period in your head and 00:18:43.970 --> 00:18:47.750 I guess physically. Yeah. And so I thought for 00:18:47.750 --> 00:18:49.549 sure they just pulled my papers. And I don't 00:18:49.549 --> 00:18:50.890 know if I'm even in the Navy is going to take 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:52.869 me anymore. So before I even got to the flight 00:18:52.869 --> 00:18:55.480 surgeon, There were days and days where I couldn't 00:18:55.480 --> 00:18:58.079 walk, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't laugh. I 00:18:58.079 --> 00:18:59.640 could barely go to the bathroom because that 00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:02.440 long, remember all that rib cage just healing 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:05.940 was the rest of that semester was a blur. But 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:07.940 you know, like you said, okay, I get the flight 00:19:07.940 --> 00:19:09.880 school. They let me go. But I'm like, they let 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:11.640 me go because that's why I selected. But there's 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:13.640 no way I'm gonna get through that Naval Aviation 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:16.440 Medical physical, right? Like this is over. So 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:18.160 I didn't even unpack my clothes. I just kind 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:21.019 of found a hotel and stayed and went in there. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:23.039 And if you've ever sweat before, I'll tell you 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:25.079 I was sweating in front of that doctor. It was 00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:26.720 a full day of tests. They looked at everything. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.559 I didn't lie about the lung because I still had 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:31.400 the open scar pretty much. And he looked at me, 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:33.619 and he looked at my record, and there was a pregnant 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:36.359 pause that lasted two years if it lasted 30 seconds, 00:19:36.460 --> 00:19:38.839 right? And I'm for sure he'd be like, sorry. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.059 Like, I was just waiting for that. And when he's 00:19:41.059 --> 00:19:42.960 like, oh, you're cleared, and he signed that 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:45.980 medical clearance form and handed it to me, otherwise 00:19:45.980 --> 00:19:48.420 known as an up -chip for those aviators, boy, 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:51.140 I was shocked. I thought I'd be happy, but I 00:19:51.140 --> 00:19:53.079 think I was shocked and stunned in that moment 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:54.599 that I'm sitting here with an up -chip like, 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:57.099 I'm going to fly, because I never thought it 00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:00.860 was possible. And what year is this now? This 00:20:00.860 --> 00:20:05.940 right now is 1996. So I graduated in 96, so I've 00:20:05.940 --> 00:20:10.220 been late 96, maybe early 97. So off the flight 00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:15.819 school, and you do some activities at Pensacola, 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:21.519 is it? And you get through flight school, and 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:23.700 then you're off to, I think maybe it's Puerto 00:20:23.700 --> 00:20:27.849 Rico? Yeah, so if the quick the quick is you 00:20:27.849 --> 00:20:29.450 go to flight school Pensacola everybody goes 00:20:29.450 --> 00:20:31.569 there aviation pre -flight indoctrination And 00:20:31.569 --> 00:20:34.910 then you kind of do t34s I selected p3s because 00:20:34.910 --> 00:20:36.789 it seemed like the great kind of personality 00:20:36.789 --> 00:20:38.769 and lifestyle I wanted even though top gun was 00:20:38.769 --> 00:20:41.509 all jets go to Corpus Christi, Texas for advanced 00:20:41.509 --> 00:20:43.529 you get winged down there Send you to Jacksonville, 00:20:43.529 --> 00:20:44.869 Florida, and that's how I learned to fly the 00:20:44.869 --> 00:20:47.789 p3 That's a couple months. It's now about beginning 00:20:47.789 --> 00:20:52.190 of 1998 and I'm finishing up No more problems. 00:20:52.430 --> 00:20:54.869 The rest of your career is just straightforward, 00:20:55.049 --> 00:20:57.069 isn't it? That's what I thought. Just like you 00:20:57.069 --> 00:20:59.549 said, hey, the past is behind me. I'm in the 00:20:59.549 --> 00:21:01.369 Navy. One, I never thought I'd get here after 00:21:01.369 --> 00:21:03.369 all of that. Nothing else is going to go wrong, 00:21:03.650 --> 00:21:06.869 right? Big, big question mark. And then I select 00:21:06.869 --> 00:21:08.910 from my squadron. They're on deployment. They 00:21:08.910 --> 00:21:11.549 give me a call. And then I'm like, all right. 00:21:11.589 --> 00:21:13.509 So I go down there, meet them in Puerto Rico. 00:21:13.900 --> 00:21:15.759 Do a couple flights in Puerto Rico. We go to 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:17.599 Panama with my crew for a month. I am living 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:19.200 the dream. Panama, if you've never been to Panama 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:21.640 City, Panama, man, it was so much fun. Flying 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:25.700 out of Rodman Air Force Base there. And then 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:28.019 one day I wake up and we head back to Puerto 00:21:28.019 --> 00:21:29.700 Rico just for some little bit of training and 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:31.400 some rest. And we're going to Panama again the 00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:33.559 next day. And I'm super excited. And I wake up 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:38.730 with some chest pain. Oh, boy. So I'm like, all 00:21:38.730 --> 00:21:40.450 right, it was so bad. I couldn't get out of bed 00:21:40.450 --> 00:21:42.289 It was again back to the lung where it felt like 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:43.950 someone stabbed me in the back and I'm like I'm 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:45.869 breathing Okay, I can't be the lung. So I'm like 00:21:45.869 --> 00:21:48.029 me go to the dock. I got an hour before pre -flight 00:21:48.029 --> 00:21:51.970 So I go to the dock they they take some x -rays 00:21:51.970 --> 00:21:54.849 He takes a long time. He comes back. I'm now 00:21:54.849 --> 00:21:56.670 late for pre -flight now I'm not worried about 00:21:56.670 --> 00:21:58.269 the health anymore. I need to get to the plane. 00:21:58.269 --> 00:22:00.170 I just really want to get back in the cockpit 00:22:00.170 --> 00:22:02.390 I don't I can't think about another medical problem 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:04.569 and he didn't even tell me what it was. He's 00:22:04.569 --> 00:22:08.609 like, sorry, you're down And tomorrow you're 00:22:08.609 --> 00:22:11.890 leaving on a medevac to Bethesda, Maryland for 00:22:11.890 --> 00:22:15.230 some tests. That's all I heard. So I packed a 00:22:15.230 --> 00:22:16.910 small bag thinking, oh, I'm going to be back. 00:22:16.990 --> 00:22:18.470 He didn't say anything about a long -term stay. 00:22:18.509 --> 00:22:21.509 He just said some tests. And so I really didn't 00:22:21.509 --> 00:22:23.789 take anything. I jumped in a plane. Flight surgeon 00:22:23.789 --> 00:22:26.269 came with me. We jumped to Bethesda. And there's 00:22:26.269 --> 00:22:28.230 no time wait, right? We go right to the hospital. 00:22:28.450 --> 00:22:31.470 And it is different place after different place, 00:22:31.690 --> 00:22:34.069 ENT throat. They took some blood. They took some 00:22:34.069 --> 00:22:36.710 bone marrow. And all of a sudden I'm in front 00:22:36.710 --> 00:22:39.690 of the oncologist. I don't know what an oncologist 00:22:39.690 --> 00:22:41.990 is back in those days, right? And then he sits 00:22:41.990 --> 00:22:44.190 down in front of me and he's like, so the test 00:22:44.190 --> 00:22:46.970 came back, they took a little bump out of my 00:22:46.970 --> 00:22:49.509 neck, part of a lymph node. And he's like, well, 00:22:49.509 --> 00:22:51.349 we got the results back and you have Hodgkin's 00:22:51.349 --> 00:22:53.910 lymphoma. And I look around the room a little 00:22:53.910 --> 00:22:56.529 bit like, are you talking to me? Like, I'm healthy, 00:22:56.650 --> 00:22:58.569 I'm running. Like, what do you mean Hodgkin's 00:22:58.569 --> 00:23:02.329 lymphoma and what is that? Yeah, this is again, 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:06.170 one of these like, okay. When is enough enough? 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:10.849 both from a personal standpoint, but but now 00:23:10.849 --> 00:23:14.369 it seems that that's That's a cancer diagnosis. 00:23:14.369 --> 00:23:16.650 It's got to sound like okay that ends my career. 00:23:17.730 --> 00:23:20.589 Yeah Yep, and it wasn't even understanding the 00:23:20.589 --> 00:23:22.309 cancer because it's again. I did didn't really 00:23:22.309 --> 00:23:23.809 have internet You can't just go research hot 00:23:23.809 --> 00:23:25.289 skins and foam and gives you all the symptoms. 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:26.869 You're like Oh, here's a bunch of pamphlets He 00:23:26.869 --> 00:23:28.650 gave me and I only knew what I could read in 00:23:28.650 --> 00:23:30.509 front of me And he's like and by the way in ten 00:23:30.509 --> 00:23:34.279 days you start chemo And there's a 50 % chance 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:36.400 you could be sterile from chemo. So now I'm thinking, 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.180 wow, so now I'm not flying. I'm starting this 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:40.940 chemotherapy. So now I'm starting to, you know, 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.599 the gravity is starting to kick in and like, 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:45.859 this is big, right? Like this, I actually didn't 00:23:45.859 --> 00:23:47.400 start thinking about flying. I'm just now thinking 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:50.799 about, am I going to make it through this? And 00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:53.180 one of the things too, I think most of our veteran 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:57.380 radio listeners having been in the military or 00:23:57.380 --> 00:24:00.200 have friends and family in the military understand 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.880 that that the military medicine is pretty damn 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:08.119 good, that the doctors and the nurses and the 00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:10.960 specialists really kind of have trained, and 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:12.819 some of these folks are the best of the best. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:18.460 And you received great medical care getting you 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:22.160 through this. But at that point, you're just 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:26.400 sort of thinking, what the heck has my life turned 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:29.980 into? Yeah, you know and a lot of the book I 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:31.859 really kind of anchored at this point because 00:24:31.859 --> 00:24:34.059 there was a lot You know, it's not just go to 00:24:34.059 --> 00:24:37.200 chemo and go home and you know every every cancer 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:39.380 is different every treatments different and so 00:24:39.380 --> 00:24:41.880 You all fall into the same umbrella, but everybody 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.180 has different experience even with the same chemo 00:24:44.180 --> 00:24:46.160 So in the book I anchor a little bit about kind 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.059 of going treatment to treatment and kind of that 00:24:48.059 --> 00:24:50.039 I call it the staircase into the basement You 00:24:50.039 --> 00:24:52.099 kind of level off and then they step down a chemo 00:24:52.099 --> 00:24:54.200 level off and step down and you never quite make 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:56.599 it back up And it's just a continual kind of 00:24:56.599 --> 00:24:59.119 body degradation from losing the hair to losing 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:02.859 the weight to just no energy. And it was great 00:25:02.859 --> 00:25:06.180 care. But my body was taking a physical toll. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:08.500 And there were times where I didn't think I was 00:25:08.500 --> 00:25:11.539 going to make it out. But they told me six months. 00:25:12.560 --> 00:25:14.640 Six cycles, so every cycle is two treatments. 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:17.059 So 12 treatments, six months, and I'm done. And 00:25:17.059 --> 00:25:18.700 they take a CAT scan to make sure the tumors 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:22.440 are reducing. And an emergency within an emergency 00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:24.480 then happens at month six, right? I get to month 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:26.819 six. I actually got some energy thinking, hey, 00:25:26.859 --> 00:25:28.579 this is it. I'm going to go in. The doctor's 00:25:28.579 --> 00:25:31.140 going to say I'm done. And I can leave. And he 00:25:31.140 --> 00:25:33.079 says, well, there's a further reduction in the 00:25:33.079 --> 00:25:35.420 tumor. So we're going to have to either do radiation. 00:25:35.960 --> 00:25:37.579 First, he just says, we're going to do radiation. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:39.140 And then I fought with the doctor a little bit. 00:25:39.180 --> 00:25:40.900 I said, I'm not doing radiation. This is working. 00:25:41.470 --> 00:25:43.049 And so then he's like, well, then you're doing 00:25:43.049 --> 00:25:45.089 two more cycles of chemo, four more treatments. 00:25:45.089 --> 00:25:48.329 And at that point, any kind of hope I had just 00:25:48.329 --> 00:25:50.109 just went out the window. Like I'm like, I can't 00:25:50.109 --> 00:25:52.750 do four more treatments. I am not going to make 00:25:52.750 --> 00:25:55.009 it through this. And so that was kind of an emergency 00:25:55.009 --> 00:26:00.029 within an emergency. Yeah. And you know, let's 00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:03.009 talk a little bit about who the audience for 00:26:03.009 --> 00:26:05.990 this book is, because while we're talking about 00:26:05.990 --> 00:26:09.730 it here on Veterans Radio. And certainly a lot 00:26:09.730 --> 00:26:12.750 of veterans, even post -service, have a lot of 00:26:12.750 --> 00:26:16.250 medical challenges that I think this book would 00:26:16.250 --> 00:26:19.170 help them realize, hey, stick with it, you'll 00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:21.470 get through it. But when you were writing this, 00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:26.029 who did you feel your audience was? So I think 00:26:26.029 --> 00:26:28.329 that was the hardest part of writing the book 00:26:28.329 --> 00:26:31.970 was one I had to dig up a lot of memories and 00:26:31.970 --> 00:26:33.990 thoughts that I buried right and so I had to 00:26:33.990 --> 00:26:37.210 go through those emotions and so you know I I 00:26:37.210 --> 00:26:39.150 got the chills a lot when I started thinking 00:26:39.150 --> 00:26:41.230 about the chemo and and there's a lot more in 00:26:41.230 --> 00:26:42.869 there packed in as you read the book and we'll 00:26:42.869 --> 00:26:44.609 let the readers kind of maybe experience the 00:26:44.609 --> 00:26:47.150 book but you know I had to if I'm going to write 00:26:47.150 --> 00:26:50.990 this honestly and raw I have to put myself back 00:26:50.990 --> 00:26:53.130 in there and so at first I thought I was just 00:26:53.130 --> 00:26:54.710 gonna write it to people who are undergoing cancer 00:26:54.670 --> 00:26:56.509 answer, going through an issue. But the more 00:26:56.509 --> 00:26:58.869 I wrote, it doesn't matter what the challenge 00:26:58.869 --> 00:27:02.829 is. The problem is, it's resilience redefined. 00:27:04.609 --> 00:27:07.210 It's about embracing discomfort. This whole life 00:27:07.210 --> 00:27:08.750 of mine has been almost discomfort. And I just 00:27:08.750 --> 00:27:11.650 have to embrace where I'm at, redefine what resilience 00:27:11.650 --> 00:27:14.609 is, and just find my way with grit. And it's 00:27:14.609 --> 00:27:16.950 just a story of true grit for anybody who needs 00:27:16.950 --> 00:27:19.789 a story that really has a lot of grit in it. 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:22.960 And get through that problem, because the other 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:24.819 side is going to be better. The other side is 00:27:24.819 --> 00:27:27.859 going to it. It may be opportunities you never 00:27:27.859 --> 00:27:31.480 thought you wanted or would experience, but there 00:27:31.480 --> 00:27:33.119 will be those opportunities. And that's what 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:35.519 happened. You kind of get through the cancer 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:38.420 treatments. And then it's like, well, now what? 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:40.740 You're not going to put me back in the plane 00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:43.880 right away. What do I do? And there were opportunities 00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:46.529 you never would have expected, right? Yeah, I 00:27:46.529 --> 00:27:49.470 think I think to the it's not explicitly stated 00:27:49.470 --> 00:27:51.250 in the book, but I think you get the sense after 00:27:51.250 --> 00:27:53.890 reading it is life changes. Now, like my life 00:27:53.890 --> 00:27:56.390 is never going to be what I imagined for the 00:27:56.390 --> 00:27:58.789 past 20 plus years. Right. I'm like, at this 00:27:58.789 --> 00:28:01.609 point in my life, I'm just along for the ride. 00:28:01.630 --> 00:28:04.769 I feel like it's I have no control. It's just 00:28:04.769 --> 00:28:06.509 medical emergency after medical emergency. And 00:28:06.509 --> 00:28:08.230 I feel like I'm just on the back of the bus getting 00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:11.599 bounced around. And but But I gotta keep fighting, 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:13.619 right? As long as there's a breath, I gotta keep 00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:15.660 fighting. And I get through those two, and it 00:28:15.660 --> 00:28:18.119 wasn't the easiest two months, and then I'm on 00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:20.519 my own, right? And this is kind of the hard part, 00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:24.039 is back in... the day, I'm just a young JG, right? 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:25.960 I just had my first squadron. I'm kind of got 00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:28.960 left at the hospital. I don't really have military 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:30.799 Navy leadership helping me right now because 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.539 it's a hospital. It's not a command. And so I've 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:36.079 got to pave my own way. And in some of the struggles 00:28:36.079 --> 00:28:38.140 then afterwards, the reason it says piloting 00:28:38.140 --> 00:28:39.759 the possible journey through cancer and naval 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:41.920 aviation is some of the biggest challenges of 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:44.299 my professional life are about to come. You know, 00:28:44.299 --> 00:28:46.119 it's easy to talk about the personal ones with 00:28:46.119 --> 00:28:48.559 the cancer in the lung. But, you know, professionally 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:50.680 now, I'm different. Like I've spent a year in 00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:52.829 chemo. while all my other colleagues are at their 00:28:52.829 --> 00:28:55.769 squadron. And now, BUMED, I have to wait two 00:28:55.769 --> 00:28:57.589 years before I could ever think about getting 00:28:57.589 --> 00:28:59.849 a medical certificate or a dump ship to fly again. 00:29:00.250 --> 00:29:02.650 So I've got to find where to go. And I'd like 00:29:02.650 --> 00:29:04.490 to go to Monterey, go to Naval Plus Graduate 00:29:04.490 --> 00:29:06.329 School 1, because I know I got to rebuild my 00:29:06.329 --> 00:29:08.609 mind, because it is deteriorating quickly. And 00:29:08.609 --> 00:29:11.160 we talk about the chemo brain in there. you know, 00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:13.700 how that's treating me. And so I go to Monterey 00:29:13.700 --> 00:29:15.880 and I go to get a master's in mechanical engineering, 00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:17.539 which would never been an opportunity otherwise. 00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:19.960 And so, you know, I made that happen by just 00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:21.779 the determination and the perseverance to get 00:29:21.779 --> 00:29:26.240 through. And finding a new path and not expecting 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:28.680 somebody necessarily to give you the path. But 00:29:28.680 --> 00:29:31.200 for you, you know, the book talks about who you 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:33.420 had to write to and who you had to talk to. And, 00:29:33.420 --> 00:29:36.579 hey, I'm way behind these other guys in terms 00:29:36.579 --> 00:29:38.700 of experience. I'll never get promoted. I've 00:29:38.700 --> 00:29:41.519 got to I've got to move myself into a position 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:44.500 to kind of catch up, maybe is the right word, 00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:52.240 or try to catch up. All of that occurs, but it's 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.940 because you have grit and determination and you 00:29:54.940 --> 00:29:57.559 don't give up. Geez, I think I hear a kid from 00:29:57.559 --> 00:30:00.819 the farms in Wisconsin here, right? That's part 00:30:00.819 --> 00:30:04.140 of where that upbringing really comes back. Yep, 00:30:04.220 --> 00:30:06.140 and that and that was a recommendation that wasn't 00:30:06.140 --> 00:30:07.759 really in the first draft and somebody who read 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:09.819 through my draft recommend He's like I want to 00:30:09.819 --> 00:30:12.339 know he used the word. It was great It wasn't 00:30:12.339 --> 00:30:13.700 great, but it was like grades like I want to 00:30:13.700 --> 00:30:15.799 know why you have so much grit You need to talk 00:30:15.799 --> 00:30:17.200 about your upbringing because I think that makes 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:19.099 the book so much better And you know, there's 00:30:19.099 --> 00:30:21.200 a fine line between selfish and selflessness, 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.579 right? And so I felt going through that first 00:30:23.579 --> 00:30:25.720 squatter when I was a whole, you know, two years 00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:28.960 three years behind I had to be selfish and put 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:31.700 myself on a path to succeed while trying to be 00:30:31.700 --> 00:30:33.500 selfless, too, and just kind of being part of 00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:36.700 the team. And that was hard to balance. I made 00:30:36.700 --> 00:30:38.660 a lot of people very upset because the Navy's 00:30:38.660 --> 00:30:41.420 not structured like that. They're very structured. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:44.099 were their expectations and it's a conveyor belt 00:30:44.099 --> 00:30:45.839 and you show up and you do your time and you 00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:47.339 leave after the guy in front of you and the guy 00:30:47.339 --> 00:30:50.319 behind you stays behind you and that the professional 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:52.359 career became more of a challenge almost than 00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:55.519 my my personal side of trying to fit into naval 00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:59.059 aviation kind of as an outcast. Well, and because 00:30:59.059 --> 00:31:02.119 you have to explain every time. Are you the dumbest 00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:06.759 Lieutenant? Here or what? What is it? And you 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:09.640 have to explain the medical history problem and 00:31:09.640 --> 00:31:12.450 why you now are. may be seen differently than 00:31:12.450 --> 00:31:15.130 what other guys have been able to do. Before 00:31:15.130 --> 00:31:21.049 we run out of time, there were so many medical 00:31:21.049 --> 00:31:23.170 off ramps you could have taken and just sort 00:31:23.170 --> 00:31:28.190 of let that dream or goal go away and find another 00:31:28.190 --> 00:31:32.769 one. And I think that rings true with a lot of 00:31:32.769 --> 00:31:37.930 people facing adversity. But Derek, your story 00:31:37.930 --> 00:31:40.529 is really there for them to realize. You may 00:31:40.529 --> 00:31:42.650 have to change the dream a little bit. You may 00:31:42.650 --> 00:31:45.630 have to go a different route. But you didn't 00:31:45.630 --> 00:31:49.589 give up the dream, did you? No, I think I think 00:31:49.589 --> 00:31:52.069 what what a dream means to every person is what 00:31:52.069 --> 00:31:54.769 it means to that person. And for me, when I set 00:31:54.769 --> 00:31:57.589 myself on this dream to fly, that was it. Right. 00:31:57.650 --> 00:31:59.410 And especially when I got that taste that I'm 00:31:59.410 --> 00:32:01.950 in the squadron and I had it for a short time, 00:32:02.009 --> 00:32:05.269 but lost it that that, you know, it was easy 00:32:05.269 --> 00:32:08.170 to give up and move out. But I just I just wanted 00:32:08.170 --> 00:32:10.049 that again, and I was going to do everything 00:32:10.049 --> 00:32:12.029 possible to get back no matter what that took. 00:32:12.890 --> 00:32:15.769 Well, this is I want to read a couple of lines 00:32:15.769 --> 00:32:19.329 here from the conclusion before we run out of 00:32:19.329 --> 00:32:23.329 time. This is the conclusion. And I'm reading 00:32:23.329 --> 00:32:25.609 quoting from the book. There was a time when 00:32:25.609 --> 00:32:27.990 I believed life followed a neat, predictable 00:32:27.990 --> 00:32:31.329 path with checkpoints and milestones laid out 00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:34.569 like a flight plan, leading to some picture perfect 00:32:34.569 --> 00:32:37.740 destination. But life doesn't work that way. 00:32:38.339 --> 00:32:40.579 It throws storms in your path, forces you into 00:32:40.579 --> 00:32:42.759 uncharted aerospace, and sometimes rips away 00:32:42.759 --> 00:32:45.579 the very things you thought defined you. The 00:32:45.579 --> 00:32:48.339 key is learning to navigate the turbulence, to 00:32:48.339 --> 00:32:51.059 stop chasing an illusion of an unattainable perfect 00:32:51.059 --> 00:32:54.359 future, and find joy in the moment you're in. 00:32:55.859 --> 00:32:59.660 Really well said, and I think sums up the advice 00:32:59.660 --> 00:33:03.220 you're trying to give people in Unbreakable Wings, 00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:06.240 Piloting the Impossible journey through cancer 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:10.619 and naval aviation. Derek, if folks want to find 00:33:10.619 --> 00:33:14.140 the book or find you, how do they do that? You 00:33:14.140 --> 00:33:16.759 can find me on Facebook. You can find me on LinkedIn. 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:18.759 There's quite a bit of information and profile 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:21.880 there. The book is on both Barnes and Nobles 00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:24.559 dot com and Amazon dot com. And then the publisher 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:26.660 Ballast Books dot com. They have it there as 00:33:26.660 --> 00:33:29.220 well. And so it's pretty readily readily available, 00:33:29.299 --> 00:33:32.640 both hardcover paperback and the Kindle version. 00:33:33.099 --> 00:33:38.579 And it's Derek D -E -R -E -K, damn it, A -D -A 00:33:38.579 --> 00:33:41.339 -M -E -T -Z, for those of you who are trying 00:33:41.339 --> 00:33:43.579 to put it in a search engine and say, I can't 00:33:43.579 --> 00:33:46.000 get the, it's not the normal spelling of anything. 00:33:47.420 --> 00:33:49.599 So Derek, thanks for taking time to talk to Veterans 00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:53.339 Radio today. I think the, your story should be 00:33:53.339 --> 00:33:56.859 inspiring to many. We've all had challenges in 00:33:56.859 --> 00:34:00.059 life, maybe not a series of medical challenges 00:34:00.059 --> 00:34:03.400 like you, Dan. And most body parts are still 00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:05.380 working, it looks like. So that's good, too. 00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:10.059 Yeah, I'm still all in one piece. There's definitely 00:34:10.059 --> 00:34:12.719 a lack of veins in my arm from some chemo track 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:14.679 and some moments there. And we won't even get 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:16.599 to the Jolly Rancher story. I'll leave that to 00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:20.000 the readers to enjoy that. Well, good. And thanks 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.920 for talking to us today, Derek. Thanks, Jim. 00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:25.610 Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. 00:34:50.539 --> 00:34:53.300 and listen to its podcasts and internet radio 00:34:53.300 --> 00:34:58.059 shows by visiting us at veteransradio .org. That's 00:34:58.059 --> 00:35:01.400 veteransradio .org. 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