Last Flight In The Mighty Viper

March 30th, 2015 marked the end of my Air Force flying career after 10 years of flying the F-16 (12 years total).  Here's the base recap of where we've been assigned:

Maxwell AFB, AL - Officer's Training School
Columbus AFB, MS - Pilot Training
Moody AFB, GA - Intro to Fighter Fundamentals
Luke AFB, AZ - F-16 flying training
Aviano AB, Italy - 510 Fighter Squadron
Kunsan AB, S. Korea - 35 Fighter Squadron
Shaw AFB, SC - 77 Fighter Squadron
Nellis AFB, NV - 16 Weapons Squadron
Spangdahlem AB, Germany - 480 Fighter Squadron

When I woke that morning in the base temporary lodging facility, the heavy rain was "falling" sideways and I had the stomach bug our family had been passing around the house the past few days.  I prayed silently, "Jesus, please clear the weather today and calm this sickness."  Upon the day's conclusion Lana, the family, and I would close a major chapter of our lives in preparation for the next.

I was feeling the emotions of excitement and sadness mixed together as the much anticipated day had arrived -- one of many lasts.  The last flight brief I would give, the last time I would strap on my g-suit, the last time I would organize mission materials on my flying knee board, the last ride out to and back from the jet in the pilot bus, the last takeoff, the last "kick" of the afterburner, the last castle tour along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers, the last of seeing the green German countryside from the air, the last time I'd lead my 4-ship up initial, the last landing, the last time I'd be welcomed by my fellow pilots and family back in my parking spot before being wrestled to the ground, duck taped, and sprayed with water in awesome fighter pilot fashion.  God answered our prayers and cleared the sky almost completely that afternoon and my stomach felt fine for the duration of the flight; He cares even about the small things in our lives!

I wasn't sure how the last flight would phase me emotionally (manly fighter pilot tears as Lana calls them), but it was more a day of excitement and looking forward at what is to come.  It may hit me later and I will miss flying the F-16, but knowing God has clearly led us to Pacific Mission Aviation made this day of lasts much easier to handle.

Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Live Like It.

In two weeks I will have my last F-16 flight after flying the jet for 10 years straight. It's a little sentimental each time I fly realizing there are many "lasts" happening each sortie. A couple weeks ago I shot the gun and dropped training bombs for the last time, and this coming week I'll flying some Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) flights for the last time. I sound a little like a broken record sometimes with the following phrase, but life is flying by (no pun intended). A great phrase from John Piper states the way Lana and I feel and are striving to live out, "Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Live Like It.

As we close the door of the Air Force chapter and start the next in missions, one thing I've learned is so many things in life are a matter of the heart - and only God truly knows a man's heart. Money, success, retirement, missions, how we treat and see people, etc. I pray God keeps us from "prideful missions" or feeling like we're "really living for God" by leaving the Air Force. Proverbs 16:2 says, "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit."

Where God is leading us now and where He leads us in the future is His plan, not ours, and we have no room for pride. Our missions team that is coming together is His working, not ours. The talents and abilities God has given us by His grace are not something we've created or built up on our own, He gave them to us. 1 Corinthians 4:7, "For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" Our earthly possessions are ultimately His and we're stewards of them; God help us to live with open hands and allow you to give and take as you like!

Jesus stated we the we'd have to lose our life to find it and I pray for a heart that continues to care less and less about the temporal, earthly things and more about eternal things. Luke 12: 33b-24, "Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Augustine - "They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them."

The Ferguson Flyer - Last Weeks In Germany

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THE FERGUSON FLYER
MARCH 2015

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Click here (English) or here (Deutsch) to read our March newsletter.

Pressing Forward,

Lance, Lana, Liam, Lilli, & Luis