What Do You Feed a Hero?

There are many things that can qualify someone as a hero. There are the small things that you can do, like giving someone a hug because they look like they have been having a bad day. Then there are the bigger heros who pull a car off of someone who has gotten stuck like these bystanders did in Utah last year.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. One of my personal heroes is a little girl I used to coach in ski racing who, by the age of 18, had gone through cancer not once, but twice. With everything working against her - losing her hair, missing school, losing many or her so called friends - she persevered and is the most beautiful, mature, amazing person ever (not to mention she won Utah's Sterling Scholar for languages while doing her interview via Skype from her hospital bed!).
Another one of my heroes in the mythical, if my life were a fantasy types, is Superman. I mean for one, he is just drop dead gorgeous (for pretty much everyone who has been cast as him this is true), but he is portrayed as being completely down to earth, kind, caring and gentle while also being the most macho, marry-me-now, handsome man.

There is another type of hero though. One that is in our world, in our Real world, on a daily basis. This hero can start very young, such as my young track athletes in JROTC, and as they grow so do their heroic qualities. I am fortunate enough to be blessed to have an amazing hero and friend in my life who is currently serving in Afghanistan. He is a helicopter pilot (yeah, he's pretty badass, but really is a big softy in any other situation) and in on his second tour (I believe, it's amazing how the time blends together). While he seems to be having fun over there with some things, there is definitely a lot he misses. For example, drinking is not allowed on base. He read my blog about beer and admitted that it was a bit difficult to read (made him a bit thirsty). Being close to Thanksgiving and having had sent him back to Afghanistan with treats before, I decided I would find out just what he was missing the most.

Here is what he had to say:

every meal we have here is in a dining facility, serving cafteria type mass produced food. its not too bad, but gets really repetitive after 10 months and ive pretty much given up trying to eat healthy. we plan our missions around getting to the chow hall on time for hot food. on the early morning team, we always make sure we squeeze breakfast in sometime between our brief and preflight and taking off on time. and they stop serving lunch at 130 pm, and we try not to land any later than 115 to make sure we get lunch before it closes.
ive really come to miss normal home cooked food, basically anything thats not mass produced. really looking forward to being able to cook my own food again.

first place im planning to eat when i get back is some awesome sushi (hawaii has some kick ass sushi), maybe place called Banzai Sushi on the north shore, little expensive but amaaazzzinnnng sushi, and i wont be too worried about saving money when i get back to hawaii.

as for alcohol, ive been good about not breaking that rule over here. a bunch of national guard CH-47 pilots (big cargo helicopter) got busted a couple of weeks ago for brewing their own beer. the reason they got caught is because someone was waving his pistol around when he was wasted, pretty stupid. They ended up finding something like 300 bottles of beer. not good for them. def looking forward to drinking beer again(steve was never able to turn me into a scotch person, he tried pretty hard tho), and theres a sweet little mexican place in waikiki with over 100 different tequilas, ill be looking forward to getting back there for sure.

holidays here are pretty much just another day, not too much changes. i should be flying on veterans day, planning to fly a flag out the door of my helicopter over the heads of some ground troops for a little morale boost, maybe drop a care package off for the Navy SEALs that live out in the boonies. should be able to send you pictures if you want.

anyways hope that helps, guess thats kind of a lot. let me know if i can help at all w anything else. and im praying for snow! (in utah, hopefully it doesnt snow here it gets damn cold when were flying around)

He said he would send me some pictures of flying our flag from his helicopter when he had a chance, (which is the reason this blog is late in being posted, sorry!). No pictures yet, but as soon as I get some I will post them!

I've gotta say that if I were in his position I would probably crave a pig burger and fries or a perfect bone-in rib-eye steak, but I guess when you are stationed in Hawaii the sushi is hard to beat. But of course, just as my friend said, nothing beats making your own food in your own kitchen!

Here is a picture from July 4th!

Thank you heroes, veterans who serve our country every day. Your love and dedication are not overlooked!