Training the Military
I was very busy providing Aircrew Coordination Training to military aviation instructors around the world. I started with the Navy rotary wing Fleet Replacement Squadrons, and the training was so popular and successful that I quickly expanded to all branches of the military and all types of aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and transports. I travelled to bases across the United States, as well as in Japan and the Philippines.
Fringe Benefits
Because I had a secret clearance, I was able to learn about their various missions, and even got to fly their simulators. Even though I am not a helicopter pilot, I seemed to have a natural talent for flying helicopters, but one of the high points was flying the F-14 Tomcat Air Combat Maneuvering simulator. The instructor set me up in one simulator and then got in a second simulator next to the one I was in. We each had a dome visual system on which we would be able to see, and attempt to shoot down, each other.
After we started, I flew across a lake and under a bridge the instructor had told me about, and then climbed up to where he was waited for me and basically just let me shoot him down with a Sidewinder missile. Then we started again, but this time he was supposed to shoot me down. I could see him trying to get behind me so he could fire at me. I had no training in combat maneuvering, but I remembered a scene from the movie Top Gun, so I pulled the power back and extended the speed brakes. Because he was not expecting me to do that, he quickly flew past me, and I shot him down again!
The Layoff
One day all the employees received a notice that the company was having a layoff. I was really enjoying my job, and the pay and benefits were great, so I was happy to see that I was not on the list of people to be laid off, but I soon got a very clear sense that I was supposed to get myself included in the layoff. My wife was obviously not happy to hear this, as she was not employed, but was running a little home word processing and mailing business, so no benefits and not much income, plus we had seven of our nine children at home. I think I may have lost a little of my hearing as she exclaimed, “How come God’s not telling me you need to lose your job?”
To confirm this was really coming from God, there were several serious obstacles that needed to be overcome. For example, I had to write a business plan explaining why I needed to be laid off, and how other employees could do the work I had been doing. I could only proceed if all the obstacles were overcome. My business plan was accepted, everything else went smoothly, and I was laid off with the other employees.
Why?
We don’t often discover how things would have turned out if we had taken a different path, but in this case, God let me know:
- I could have just quit, but there were benefits to being laid off. I learned of one such benefit a few years ago when I got a call from Raytheon. I have never worked for Raytheon, but they eventually bought the company I had been working for, and they were calling to tell me I would be getting a small monthly pension payment.
- Years later during a seminar at Lockheed Martin Space Systems I mentioned the work I had done training military aviation instructors. At the end of the seminar a man came up and introduced himself. He was the son of the president of the company I had been laid off from. He told me that shortly after the layoff they had transferred the remaining employees to Binghamton, New York, and then later shut the company down. I would have been stuck in Binghamton without a job!
- Most important of all, after I was laid off I started my own company providing Preventing Pilot Error training to corporate flight departments, and eventually expanded to providing Error Prevention Training to corporations and government agencies around the world. I am now using the experience and skills I learned to provide discipleship training to Christians, while looking forward to where God will lead me next.
I was very busy providing Aircrew Coordination Training to military aviation instructors around the world. I started with the Navy rotary wing Fleet Replacement Squadrons, and the training was so popular and successful that I quickly expanded to all branches of the military and all types of aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and transports. I travelled to bases across the United States, as well as in Japan and the Philippines.
Fringe Benefits
Because I had a secret clearance, I was able to learn about their various missions, and even got to fly their simulators. Even though I am not a helicopter pilot, I seemed to have a natural talent for flying helicopters, but one of the high points was flying the F-14 Tomcat Air Combat Maneuvering simulator. The instructor set me up in one simulator and then got in a second simulator next to the one I was in. We each had a dome visual system on which we would be able to see, and attempt to shoot down, each other.
After we started, I flew across a lake and under a bridge the instructor had told me about, and then climbed up to where he was waited for me and basically just let me shoot him down with a Sidewinder missile. Then we started again, but this time he was supposed to shoot me down. I could see him trying to get behind me so he could fire at me. I had no training in combat maneuvering, but I remembered a scene from the movie Top Gun, so I pulled the power back and extended the speed brakes. Because he was not expecting me to do that, he quickly flew past me, and I shot him down again!
The Layoff
One day all the employees received a notice that the company was having a layoff. I was really enjoying my job, and the pay and benefits were great, so I was happy to see that I was not on the list of people to be laid off, but I soon got a very clear sense that I was supposed to get myself included in the layoff. My wife was obviously not happy to hear this, as she was not employed, but was running a little home word processing and mailing business, so no benefits and not much income, plus we had seven of our nine children at home. I think I may have lost a little of my hearing as she exclaimed, “How come God’s not telling me you need to lose your job?”
To confirm this was really coming from God, there were several serious obstacles that needed to be overcome. For example, I had to write a business plan explaining why I needed to be laid off, and how other employees could do the work I had been doing. I could only proceed if all the obstacles were overcome. My business plan was accepted, everything else went smoothly, and I was laid off with the other employees.
Why?
We don’t often discover how things would have turned out if we had taken a different path, but in this case, God let me know:
- I could have just quit, but there were benefits to being laid off. I learned of one such benefit a few years ago when I got a call from Raytheon. I have never worked for Raytheon, but they eventually bought the company I had been working for, and they were calling to tell me I would be getting a small monthly pension payment.
- Years later during a seminar at Lockheed Martin Space Systems I mentioned the work I had done training military aviation instructors. At the end of the seminar a man came up and introduced himself. He was the son of the president of the company I had been laid off from. He told me that shortly after the layoff they had transferred the remaining employees to Binghamton, New York, and then later shut the company down. I would have been stuck in Binghamton without a job!
- Most important of all, after I was laid off I started my own company providing Preventing Pilot Error training to corporate flight departments, and eventually expanded to providing Error Prevention Training to corporations and government agencies around the world. I am now using the experience and skills I learned to provide discipleship training to Christians, while looking forward to where God will lead me next.