Where Do We Get Such...?

EXT. USS SAVO ISLAND, BRIDGE WING - DAY

RADM GEORGE TARRANT

Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When they find it they have to land on it's pitching deck. Where do we get such men?

MAN ON LOUDSPEAKER

Launch jets!

Thus ended the 1954 film, "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," starring William Holden as a reserve Naval aviator recalled from his law practice for the Korean War; Grace Kelly as his not-so typical Navy wife (She broke the rules to join him in Yokosuka, Japan.); Mickey Rooney as Chief Mike Forney, a Navy enlisted helicopter pilot; and Frederic March as RADM Tarrant. The movie is based on James Michener's novel of the same title, written well before women broke into tactical naval aviation.


As a Navy flight surgeon, I've known many naval aviators over the last two decades. I've shared their wardrooms, their ready rooms, their squadron spaces, and their aircraft. I've been through their survival training, initial flight training, recurrent training, and NATOPS quals. (I once earned a bona-fide F-14 NATOPS qual.) I've sat with them on Human Factors Boards, FNAEBS, and Mishap Investigation Boards. I've signed their annual exams, cared for their physical and mental well-being, and that of their families, given them down chits and up chits, and processed a variety of waivers.


And, I've flown with them in just about every platform they operate (P-3  and F/A-18 being notable exceptions).


I've enjoyed stick time in dual-controlled naval aircraft, including the Blue Angels' famous "Fat Albert." I've set up bombing runs in the venerable A-6 Intruder, searched for bogies in the back of an E-2 Hawkeye, done high pops in the S-3 Viking, and performed airborne intercepts in the F-14 Tomcat. I've flown close to the ground in the dark wearing night vision goggles in the H-60 Seahawk.  I've soloed in the T-34B Mentor.


Thirty times I've been with them as they landed those planes on that pitching aircraft carrier deck. That includes one dark, cloudy Adriatic night in the back seat of a Tomcat that boltered several times before safely trapping aboard. (CAG had some choice words for me after that flight.)


As I enter the twilight of my Navy Medicine career, its single most satisfying experience is my association with Naval Air. That was why I made the leap from civilian practice, and I've never been disappointed. (Except for not getting enough flight time, of course.) I love aviation and I relish flying. So no surprise that I'm thrilled to be part of this elite community, to have felt the head rush of transition from single engine Cessnas to tactical jets!


But it's not all about the flying. It is very much more about the people. Indeed, where do we get such men? And such women?


Some of the finest men and women I've ever known wear those U.S. Navy wings of gold. Their indomitable spirit would infect even the most cynical of hearts. Their commitment, focus, and dedication to mission would surpass many a driven businessman. Their love for life and for fellow man would overshadow even a wide-eyed optimist.


"I could die tomorrow."  I've heard Naval Aviators accused of using that phrase for wanton self-aggrandizement. The community is not perfect, nor do I mean to blindly glorify its members. But to this observer that phrase actually reflects an essential aspect of the aviator spirit. Certainly life should be cautiously managed, to include careful planning and deliberate risk mitigation. But we cannot reduce risk to zero, and we cannot outsmart life. Ultimately we must live and enjoy life as if we were to die tomorrow. We strive to achieve what Maslow called "self-actualization." I know few other communities that capture that self-actualization any better than my friends and colleagues in Naval Aviation.


I'm proud to be a part of the Naval Air community. That's why I love to don my flight suit, why I will always sport brown shoes with my khakis, and why I proudly pin my own wings of gold above the ribbons and that other warfare device on my left uniform chest.  For me, those wings represent peak experiences, not only of slipping the surly bonds of earth and touching the face of God, but also of being a better man for knowing those who do it as a vocation.