AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2019 - 35

A modest sort, he gave me a simple
thank you as we greeted his mom and made
our farewells for the day.
Time passed, and when Dale was a
high school junior, he sent a letter asking
if I would consider writing a recommendation for him to the U.S. Air Force Academy,
something I was proud and honored to do.
Dale graduated from the academy and
became a fighter pilot. We stayed in touch,
and one day he told me he'd been approved
to fly the F-117 stealth fighter. No sooner
had he checked out in the craft than the
first Gulf War broke out, and he was off to
do battle, always in the zero-dark-30 hours,
returning to base before first light.
Following the war's conclusion, I
received a phone call from Dale. "Would you
like to see some cockpit tapes?" he asked.
"I'm on leave visiting my mom. Come join
the family for dinner."
The next evening, as I watched the
incredible night-vision videos taken from
his cockpit, I noticed Dale fiddling with

something in his hand. It looked like a piece
of broken lanyard with a metal clip at one
end. Then he said something I've never forgotten: "I love to fly; I love my country; and
I love to fly for my country. On one of my
sorties, I realized that if it hadn't been for
that flight you took me on way back when,
I almost certainly wouldn't be doing what
I'm doing today."
I nodded, unsure where this was going.
"So, I dedicated my target that night
to you, and although I can't tell you what
it was, you'll be pleased to know it's now a
pile of debris." He held out what he'd been
holding. "This is the arming clip from that
smart bomb. It's yours."
By the time Dale presented me with
this treasured memento, the attorney for
the board of education had long put an end
to my student flights. He opined that even
though the permission slips I'd sent home
specified I was acting as a private citizen
and not as a school employee, the fact that
I'd used the school's ditto machine to print

the slips, and that I'd mentioned the flights
during school time and on school grounds,
made the board liable for any student injuries that might occur. He was right, of
course, and yes, I'd been naive even to risk
driving my students to the airport, much
less putting them aboard an airplane. But
when I consider the beauty of introducing my kids to the wonders of flight-Dale
wasn't the only one who went on to become
a pilot-I bless my youthful naivete.
As for Dale, his career took him to the
Yugoslavian conflict in 1999, where his
stealth fighter was blown out of the sky
by a surface-to-air missile. His account of
the against-all-odds, literally in the nick of
time combat search and rescue made for a
compelling two-hour debriefing he gave his
family, my wife, and me upon his safe return.
But that's a story for another time.
STEPHEN M. DEBOCK earned his private

certificate in 1968. He is retired now from
teaching.

| 35

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2019

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