Pilot in Command

I have not given a Terry update in quite some time. Rumor has it that he has about 20 days left in country but don't make any plans yet. If I have learned anything about the military it is anything can happen, at any time, anywhere. Nothing is set in stone until Terry gets off a plane at the airport. Anyway, he emailed this a while ago.

Nothing crazy going on in my neighborhood. Had a rather typical day here today, I flew a six hour mission. The only thing that made this mission interesting was that it was my first as a Pilot in Command. I wrote you guys a few months back telling you that I was nominated, however because I moved around so much, it was put on the back burner. But last month I was again nominated and a few days ago I was signed off. The instructor evaluated me on three flights, the first one running the mission, the second flying it, and the third was an assault on a village where I again ran the mission in our aircraft. After the flight he said I was good to go and so today they let me go out on my own.

In aviator land the move to becoming a PIC is a pretty significant event, especially for a junior officer like myself. It is like becoming an airline captain, I now have complete responsibility over the aircraft, and anything that happens falls on my shoulders. Before, as a pilot, if I screwed up, the guy next to me was the one to correct the problem or get us out of the situation, now its all on my me. Pretty crazy right? So if we start taking fire or if there is an emergency I’m now the one taking the controls and attempting to get us to safety. I was pretty excited today and of course nervous. My old company had two Lt’s that were PIC’s. But I believe that I’m currently they only Lieutenant PIC in the Task Force. So basically that’s pretty Bad Ass.

Many of the pilot’s that I’m flying with have around 400 hours of total flight time, crazy enough, I have more than that just in Afghanistan alone and I should hit 1,000 hours here pretty soon. It’s funny because I found myself nervous and not as confident as I usually am in the aircraft today, and the other pilot I was flying with was pretty good and cocky. At the end of the flight I said to him I was once in his position. He didn’t understand me, but I remember being that cocky at that hour level, but the more you fly, the more you realize all the stuff that you don’t know and have to try to prepare for. But I’m very happy to have hit a major goal of mine. Part of me wishes I could stay here longer doing this, because I like the team and love the job, but I also feel that I need a break from all this and 17 months is long enough to be away from the family. So this was a huge boost for my moral. I have been pretty worn out lately, hardly sleeping, and working ridiculous hours, so this just kind of got me back on track for the next 2 months. I’m slowly starting to see the finish line, just hoping it comes sooner than later.