This morning I will be fulfilling a dream of mine, which has been several years in the making (eight to be exact). I simply must tip my hat and thank my lovely wife Nawth Chucka for all of the support and love she’s provided the past few years, especially the past ten months where I have been in Florida and she’s been in Georgia. Situations like this are not easy on a marriage, especially one still so new. But I love her, and I thank her for what she’s done for me, and what she’s let me do: chase that life dream so that “I know.”
And with this, I don’t want to gloat [sub]well, a touch, but you’ll see in a second[/sub]. There are Dopers on the boards that have known me in and out of the Air Force for years, and they know how much this means to me. So, with them in mind, I can tell them that by God, I’ve finally earned it!
Today, at 9:AM on Eglin AFB, I will graduate Navy EOD school and become a full-fledged, working Air Force Bomb Technician; an EOD Tech.
I’ve had to draw upon all of my past schools and jobs and all of the electrical, mechanical to go with; interesting things I learned in the Scouts (who’d ever think knots and ropework would be important in this day and age), and a healthy dose of good ol’ fashioned, John Wayne-inspired, f*ckin’ gumption. This feels like the culmination of my professional life. And dammit, it’s frickin’ cool too.
Today, I am ten feet tall, and am on pins and needles.
If you haven’t seen it, you must get hold of the British series Danger - UXB. Lots of stuff that blows up, and doesn’t blow up, neither always according to plan.
(Sorry, I just had to!)
