C-130 Hercules: I flew on one of these on my first military
flight in 1972 and in Iraq 37 years later.
All my life I have been late doing things:
- Nine years after high school gradation, I went to college.
- Many kids learn to swim shortly after learning to walk. I learned to swim when I was 59 years old.
- Ten years ago today, February 1, 2009, I was flying to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on my way to Iraq. It had not occurred to me before that I was leaving for my first combat deployment 37 years after I started basic training on February 1, 1972.
I enlisted during the Vietnam War, but the war ended and I never went to that one. In 1976, I went to West Germany and served on the border in the Cold War, but thankfully, that war never happened. I left the Army in 1980 to go to college.
Then in 2007, I re-enlisted in the Army National Guard and ten years ago today was on my way to Iraq.
I connected the two dates because basic training and the trip to Iraq both began with saying goodbye to my family and flying away.
The very first flight in my life was the flight from Boston to San Antonio for Basic Training. That first flight gave me a love for flying that led me to travel every chance I could on military flights. For $10 I could fly across the nation or across an ocean.
But it was funny to think that the gap between starting Basic Training and serving in a war was 37 years. I went to Basic at 18 years old and to Iraq at 55.
Most people had long retired at the age where my career hit one of its big milestones.
By the time I went to Iraq, I had three college degrees, but learning to swim was still four years in my future. And it's only in the past year that I started to meditate and practice Yoga.
Who knows what I'll learn or do this year?
Happy February 1! It's a big day for me.
