I saw a bumblebee today. So cool! How can an insect that big fly? Huge body and small wings. Never fast but always gets its job done. Lumbering.
You know what it reminded me of? Flight. I always have been fascinated with flight. That is why I entered the Air Force at 17, hoping beyond hope to fly like a bird, and fly I did. Countless missions over South Vietnam but never dreaming that they would be medivacs in those lumbering C-130As.
I was supposed to work on their engines, and that I did over and over. But I never knew I would be required to work on human bodies too. The entire crew did too to save lives and help as many as we could as we flew for the hospitals of Da Nang, Cam Ranh Bay and Tan Son Nhut. That bumblebee brought it all back. Slow, lumbering, flying low.
But there is a huge difference between my friendly bumblebee and my C-130As. I am sure somewhere the bumblebee has a predator, but our C-130As had bullets coming at them and worse. The bumblebee has a stinger that it only uses in pure self defense. Our C-130As had nothing. But I should not say that. Our crews and specialists had the moxie and courage to save countless lives, and that they did.
We all realized that what we were doing was the real deal. Many never made it home, so if you want to trip my trigger go ahead and make an Air Force joke. I saw more courage, more bravery, more valor, more caring, more empathy, more love than in anything else I have ever done in my life.
I am no hero. The heroes never came home. Knowing full well their plane could get shot down, the pilots and crews went into enemy fire anyway to try to save those poor wounded troops on the ground. I saw it all in three years and three tours. I would not leave until the Air Force medivaced me because I tried too hard, saw too much, was ignoring my health, and just plain went nuts -- telling Army officers in their own club that they were cowards! Next stop--jail. Next stop--hospital. And next stop--Texas, waking up in my Nam fatigues, knocked out by drugs on the way home.
Think I have ever been the same? Wonder why I have no filters, no patience, get in someone’s face in a heartbeat, live by my own sense of justice? But I have also saved lives since being out due to medical knowledge gained.
Fly, my friendly bumblebee, for you have given me great memories of times long ago and have reminded me of what I still need to work on.