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Do you ever think about your “DASH”?
I know this is supposed to be a blog about Rotor aviation. But it’s MY blog, it’s raining heavily and a blizzard is threatening so I find myself waxing philosophical.
First, is every one familiar with what your “DASH” is? No, I am not trying to coin a new phrase or plagiarize from some famous author, the word has been used in this context for many years by many people.
But just to insure that everyone has it for the purpose of this particular rambling… On a grave stone or in an obituary there are always two dates. A beginning and an end, and between these dates is a dash, THE “DASH”. The dates in and of themselves most people have no control over, but the “DASH”, that is almost completely within your control. The “DASH” is the meat and potatoes. If I have any regular readers they will recognize that this is a strange direction for me to go, but recently there was an event that made me look at my “DASH”.
Over this last Christmas holiday my beautiful wife and I made a quick trip out to my home town of Las Vegas to see some of our children and grandchildren and a couple of friends. The day we arrived I found out that one of the Police officers I had worked with for so many years had retired the day before and there was to be a party in his honor that night.
He had been on the force for over thirty years and for at least the fifteen years that I have had the privilege of calling him my friend he held the rank of sergeant, never wanting to go higher although he certainly could have, but this advancement would have forced him to do something unthinkable . ..give up flying.
Yes, the friend I’m talking about is a pilot. In most segments of helicopter aviation pilots and mechanics work very closely together. And every mechanic classifies the pilots he flies with into groups. And every mechanic give his groups different names but they come down to:
- The ones you would rather not fly with again
- The ones you have no objection to flying with but no real desire either
- The pilots you enjoy flying with and look for the next opportunity, and then there is the last group
- These are the pilots that you trust completely, the ones you would go to hell with if the need arose.
My friend who retired is in the last group, this group has only had about three occupants in my career but he is one of them.
That night at the retirement party there was a long line of people giving short speeches about my friend and it was inspiring to see how many other people felt the same way about this man that I did. But the most incredible thing that was revealed to me that night was that even though I knew what a search and rescue pilot does, it struck me to learn that over 300 people are alive today because of my friend that would not be, had he made different choices in his life. What an awe inspiring “DASH” and since he is only a couple years older than myself I am sure that he will find some equally inspiring pursuit to undertake as this is the type of man he is.
This brings us to what makes up your “DASH”, I feel the answer is “everything”. How you love your spouse, how you raise your children and the people they grow up to be, how you approach your chosen profession. Are you involved and passionate or do you phone it in and get your paycheck, have you ever put your life directly in danger for the life of another human being, Do you believe in something greater than yourself and if so do you strive towards it.
But back to where I was going with this, since the night of the party I have periodically thought about my “DASH” and looked back at things that I have done and questioned what I should have done differently.
In my case, the answer to the question is NO… there is nothing that I would change in my past as those events make us who we are. You are your “DASH”.
There is a saying that has been accredited to many great people with numerous variations but accentually it goes: “At the end of your days when you look back, your regrets center around things you did not do rather than those that you did.”
Hopefully in another thirty years I will still feel the same.
