Where does Navy helicopter pilot fit in?
Great question. I’m glad you asked that. I went to school, went to Georgetown on the Navy ROTC scholarship and I owed them some time afterwards and I wanted to fly and I was able to fly and it was a ton of fun. Here’s what I learned and what I think is directly applicable to my job. I learned to take a group of people, some resources and a plan and accomplish a mission. Get a job done. And I think the way I learned that, against stereotypes, you very rarely order anybody to do anything in the service, contrary to popular opinion. And as an aircraft commander, me and my crew are five people, each guy, or gal, because we had coed squadrons, had his or her job to do regardless of rank or position or seniority. So my job as aircraft commander was to take inputs from everybody, regardless of rank, about how the mission was going. So take a team, take resources—in this case a helicopter—and how to plan, develop and accomplish the mission. I heard some sort of disparate aphorisms ab
