WEBVTT

00:01.410 --> 00:03.028
- I have T-Cell Leukemia,

00:03.028 --> 00:04.619
and basically went through

00:04.619 --> 00:06.418
two and a half years of chemotherapy.

00:06.418 --> 00:08.585
^Year and a half in, or so,

00:08.637 --> 00:12.152
^I was kind of through the brunt of the hardest part

00:12.152 --> 00:14.073
of the chemotherapy, and

00:14.073 --> 00:16.167
that's when the Make A Wish came to my parents

00:16.167 --> 00:18.179
and said, "Hey, we'd like you guys to go on a

00:18.179 --> 00:19.596
Make A Wish trip.

00:19.833 --> 00:21.555
For my Make A Wish trip I said I wanted

00:21.555 --> 00:23.274
to see the airplane graveyard.

00:23.274 --> 00:25.385
^- I was an instructor pilot in the A-10 here

00:25.385 --> 00:28.052
^and one of my additional duties,

00:28.168 --> 00:29.592
something that I volunteered for

00:29.592 --> 00:32.362
I was a tour guide out at the bone yard.

00:32.362 --> 00:34.746
And I work with public affairs a lot.

00:34.746 --> 00:36.376
And every once in a while, you get some unique

00:36.376 --> 00:38.208
opportunities that come along like,

00:38.208 --> 00:40.248
Pilot of the Day program that they had

00:40.248 --> 00:42.452
and I volunteered to do this one.

00:42.452 --> 00:44.546
Not realizing or knowing the

00:44.546 --> 00:46.776
background of what was goin' on.

00:46.776 --> 00:49.890
And it turned out to be a pretty memorable experience.

00:49.890 --> 00:52.418
- Lucky for me, Greg was on Linkedin,

00:52.418 --> 00:54.850
and president of a local association,

00:54.850 --> 00:57.250
so I got his email from the website.

00:57.250 --> 00:59.523
And sent him an email with one of the posts

00:59.523 --> 01:02.634
out of the newspaper article, sent it to him

01:02.634 --> 01:04.971
and I said, " I don't know if he'll remember me,

01:04.971 --> 01:08.618
but I'm still around and we're coming to Arizona

01:08.618 --> 01:09.883
and we'd like to get caught up.

01:09.883 --> 01:12.522
If this is you, and you're still available.

01:12.522 --> 01:14.756
- And I'm sittin' here lookin' at my email.

01:14.756 --> 01:17.756
And I see the name, and I'm thinkin'

01:18.714 --> 01:20.510
there's somethin' in the back of my brain goin',

01:20.510 --> 01:21.919
"I know this name".

01:21.919 --> 01:24.548
So I went and looked at the preview of it.

01:24.548 --> 01:26.170
And it said, "You may not remember me,

01:26.170 --> 01:27.379
I was this," and I went,

01:27.379 --> 01:29.338
"Yes, I remember that now."

01:29.338 --> 01:32.338
It's like finding an old, long-lost friend.

01:32.338 --> 01:36.505
That's a part of your life that now has come full circle.

