A Special Evening

Thanks to the magic of social networking, I recently connected with a high school peer, Brad, who attended the U.S. Air Force Academy. Now he pilots unmanned aircraft over Iraq and Afghanistan remotely from a States-side Air Force facility. Brad has earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. His story is fascinating for all sorts of reasons.

And as it turned out, Brad was staying just an hour-long drive from Hermes this past week doing work on an advanced degree. The two of us agreed to meet briefly if possible during the week he was close by and we managed to make that get-together happen the other night. I brought my son Philip and his friend Joshua along.

With no shortage of digital flight simulators creating appeal for the life of a military pilot among today’s teens, both Philip and Joshua were curious to meet Brad, hear Brad’s story, and learn about careers in the military and the educational options available—especially the Service Academies. Philip’s career interest is engineering, and the engineering programs at all of the Service Academies are top-rated. The chance to be a military pilot would be gravy for Philip. In contrast, Joshua with his physical prowess and black belt is most interested in a long-term military career.

Riding for an hour with two fourteen-year-old boys was an experience all its own. They’d created a game for themselves called Stupid Americans. The game was simple. Each tried to outdo the other with a humorous one-liner about the silly things Americans think, say and do. Each one-liner was delivered with a mock-accent and always began with the words “Stupid Americans …” It didn’t take me long to catch on.

Philip was ready to make us all laugh, “Stupid Americans! They cut down the rain forests in order to get cheap cow meat!”

Then Joshua quipped, “Stupid Americans! They think black and white movies are ‘classics’!”

So I entered the fray from the driver’s seat, “Stupid Americans! They pay forty cents per minute once they’ve used up all the time on their cell phone plans!”

They laughed sincerely at my one-liner. But then I got serious, “Alright guys. This game is funny. But once we’re with Brad, no more using our country as the basis of jokes. Brad almost certainly knows people who have died for our country and has certainly risked his own life in service to this country. We’re about fifteen minutes out. Spend some time thinking about what kind of questions you’d like to ask him.”

Our evening proved better than I’d hoped. To begin with, Brad took us to a military pub that served especially good greasy spoon. Philip and Joshua each devoured their fish-and-chips. But the real value was delivered as Brad began to explain to the boys about careers in the military, about the military academies, what the boys could do to gain admittance into the military academies and the alternative path of the ROTC programs. He also explained the benefits of enlisting directly out of high school. (Brad felt some of the very best officers were the ones who began their military careers as enlisted men.)

It was an evening to remember, if for no other reason than the fact that I got to see someone I had not seen in twenty-five years. We took pictures of the boys with Brad and then me with Brad. And then it was time to go home. We dropped Brad off at his hotel and headed back to Hermes.

On the ride home, did the boys talk about all the interesting things they’d learned from Brad? Of course not! They went right back to their game of Stupid Americans.