Do not let it be forgot, that once there was a spot,
for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot...

Greetings and salutations to you, traveler! Take off your coat and stay awhile. I'm brewing some mead in the back room, how 'bout a mug to ease your weary bones? Please, call me Airheart. Ahh... you're wondering what all these beastly machines are doing here, aren't you? I'll try to explain. You see.. A long time ago, when I was only a child.. I found I had a great love and affinity for creatures with the magical ability of flight. My favorite of all these beings are the magnificent dragons of legends and fables. Of course, I've never actually had the good fortune to see one... although there was this one time, ahh... but I'm getting off the subject. The point being, my love for the crimson and azure brilliance of the sky drew me to it as surely as a moth to a... well, you understand, no? And so it was that I began the journey down the long road that finally led me to my destiny. That of course meaning I decided to go to college to become a pilot. Heh, reality check! While the flying was all I could have ever hoped. The cruel facts of a very competitive job market, and a career where experience (lots of it) is a must, daunted me. I was woefully unprepared (dragons be damned!). Yet still believing I am a pilot at heart (dragons be praised!), I have not given up. I finished college (Embry-Riddle Aero. U., for those who are aviation buffs, you'll know it by name) with my B.S. in Aerospace Studies (a general aeronautical degree with 3 minors) and a 2.5 GPA in 4 and a half years. I am actually quite proud of it, even though it sounds like nothing special to most. After seeing so many of my comrades loose heart and totally drop out (many for monetary reasons, ERAU is a money pit), I felt lucky to finish at all. So I've been out of college now for about nine years. For the first year I continued to pursue my dream, but in a slightly different direction. I HAD been flying small airplanes at Riddle, yet now I was going to try my hand at helicopters. WOOOAH!! I will Never go back! Heh... seriously though, helicopters rule. The amount of maneuverability and versatility they allow is unbeatable. Forget speed, give me the nimbleness and flexibility of a chopper any day! So anyway... I got my private add on for choppers and then ran out of cash. Another reality check! It got ugly then. I spent nearly four years doing little relating to aviation, besides wishing I could fly. But without the ratings to obtain a job to do so, it is impossible. Unless you know people of course, which I don't. Still not giving up hope, I looked into becoming an airline flight attendant (no, I'm not gay, I was just desperate... Hey! I'm not saying anything bad about gay people. slack down! heh... everyone seems to think all male FA's are gay, hell maybe they are, I don't know). I was just thinking I might be able to make some connections in the airlines that way. Needless to say, that didn't pan out for lots of reasons, all for the best I've decided now. It was then that I got turned on to a path I hadn't really given much consideration before. I knew military was out of the question with all the cutbacks and my mediocre grades, at best, I had little or no chance of landing a flight slot there. But, an old roommate of mine who is now a flight instructor (yuck! boring!) put me on the trail of going into Law Enforcement, to fly with them. Soooo.. I graduated the Basic Law Enforcement program (Florida's Police Academy) in '97 after 8 months of training, with a 97% GPA! I then spent a year with the Daytona Beach PD as an officer where I was assigned to the Safe Neighborhood Program. It was basically a narcotics unit that targeted the worst areas of town, one at a time. We were high visibility, zero tolerance, two man units that stayed in the specified area on a 24 hr patrol (in 12 hr shifts) until it was deemed "safe" by our commander. At which point we'd move to another hot spot in town. It was actually an incredible experience for me to start in. I would have stayed had I not loathed Florida so much, but leaving would turn out for the best as I would NEVER have gotten to fly there. And all I had on my mind was getting out to Colorado to get into police work, Denver in particular. I had always, since I can remember, felt this strange, inexplicable pull to go to Colorado. Back in '93 I got my first look at the state as I drove through it on my way to Prescott, Arizona to attend college at our campus out there for a year. I stayed in Denver a night as I drove through, and looking out my hotel window at the Rocky Mountains.. I knew it would be home some day. Denver's an amazing city (I Am a city boy at heart) and the only PD out there that I know of which has a chopper unit. They actually just started it up sometime in '98 when they got a government grant to purchase a new Bell chopper. Well, THIS dream came true in May of '99 when I left Daytona and finally got to Denver! (no no, I didn't get the chopper job, just finally moved out there!) But now, I've gone and done what I had thought I wouldn't need to do. I've joined the United States Army. Ayup.. that's right, I shiped out to basic training in January of 2000. If you've kept up with my story here at all you're asking "WHAT? What the? What happened? What about being a cop in Colorado?!" Yeah.. that's what I'm asking. It seems the Denver PD isn't interested in a 26 year old white male in great physical health, but of no minority or veteran status, with a BS degree in aerospace and a year of prior law enforcement experience. WHAT'S WITH THAT?! Twice they shot me down on their "oral interview"!! We're talking four stupid questions asked by three panel members!! It doesn't take a brain surgeon to answer four general questions and get a decent freakin grade! And I aced their written exam every time! I'm still sick to my stomach with this (they give you NO feedback as to what you did wrong on the oral, just a "sorry, please try again" bullshit line like I'm reading a coke bottle of a game I lost). At the time, it was a devistating setback to my plans. So, I began to look into what alternatives I had left open to me, to finally crack into the field of aviation. It was that or wait around for another year to try the Denver PD again. And even if I got into the academy, you're talking a good three more years before I could even try for their aviation unit. Sooo.. Who gets all the flying? How? Every place I looked led to the same result, the military. Who in the military flies the most choppers? The Army. Should I have waited for Denver to come to their senses and give me a shot in their academy? Or should I go out and do SOMETHING that may just finally get me where I want to be? Do something you idiot! (right? I know..) The question became.. can the Army really get me what I want? Well, I did as much as I could to find that out. There was the small chance of applying with my college degree, as a civilian, to get into the Warrant Officer Flight Training school (a real long shot I thought, but in hindsight might have worked out best). Or I could join the Army as an enlisted soldier and apply from within with a much higher chance of success, or so the recruiters said (don't laugh, I knew they'd say anything, but it did make sense). The main obstacle was that the WOFT school for pilot training has a restriction of, applicants must be before their 29th birthday (I was 27 at the time). So I didn't have much time to sit around and wait for Denver's next school without killing my chances with the Army. The clincher for finally joining? They offered me an $8,000 bonus for my college degree, and a $4,000 bonus for taking an aviation job with a 6 year enlistment. So the Army offered me $12,000's in bonus signing/ a job working on the UH-60 Blackhawk (I love this chopper)/ a chance (a good chance mind you, with my background) at getting into their WOFT school and becoming a military pilot/ I got to pick my assignment after I finished my job training in Virginia (I picked Fort Campbell in Kentucky because of the awesome aviation units they have based here)/ and I was enlisted at the rank of Specialist in the Army, which otherwise would've taken 2 to 4 years in service to make. Or, I could've stayed in Denver (which was actually the hardest thing about all this, leaving there) and putz around till I figured something else out or Denver PD would give me the shot I deserve. The choice was a bit harder then you might expect. The possibilities in the Army are great, but they're just that, possibilities.. Meanwhile they got me for 6 years if the possibilities don't pan out. But, the fact that nothing was going on in Denver to get me closer to flying made it much easier to go with those possibilities rather than sit there and hope for divine inspiration.. though it was SOOOO nice to just BE there in Colorado :). Bottom line.. if everything works out right in the Army, I stand the chance of coming out with a couple thousand hours of flight time on the military's money, with great benefits, great incentives for higher education (masters degree? back to school? nah.. I don't think so, but who knows?), lent my service to my country and finding a civilian job in aviation will be CAKE! If things don't go that far? Well, I am not without other options. So pretty much any way I slice this enlistment, I get more flying done by far than by sitting around in Denver, wishing and hoping. The greatest thing of all? Colorado isn't going anywhere.. and I WILL be back :)********* So I spent my first year after flight school flying all over Central America, awesome times. I spent the next year getting ready to go to Afghanistan with a new unit in upstate New York, not very awesome. I spent the NEXT year IN Afghanistan, also not very awesome but there were some interesting times. This year we're getting ready to go to Iraq, again not very awesome. Next year we'll likely be in Iraq, and I'm gonna go with not very awesome as a guess for the future. But you have to take into account that in all the not very awesome times.. the flying IS awesome. ********* Oooh.... I'm sorry... you didn't want to hear ALL that, did you? I get carried away. Thought it might be of some help. You see, I've been looking for tales about how others have gotten into aviation. So I just thought I'd chronicle mine for anyone interested. Well traveler, I see you finished your mead, such great stuff... can I offer you another? You have to go you say? I see.. it saddens me to see you leave... please come again anytime. I endeavor to bring more magical beasts of flight for your enjoyment. If you are in possession of any that you'd like to share, message me. And until our paths cross again...
Good journeys to you,
and may the wisdom of the dragons forever guide your wings
(be they fixed, rotary or purely in your imagination).
:)

Lost in your quest for knowledge? Perhaps these links can help...

Blizzard Entertainment: Consistently the best PC game maker around
Denver PD's Home Page
ProMotion - 3D Web Animation
Landings: An excellent general aviation information site
LAPD Home Page: The largest Aviation Law Enforcement division in the country
Police Officer's Internet Directory: A comprehensive list of links to many Police agencies **Highly Recommended**
National Directory of Emergency Services (membership accesses job listings through out the country for Police and Fireman)

Sybianna, try to DL here

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