The Power of Testimony

’TIL WE MEET AGAIN
“Are you kidding me?” The words came from a
young cadet I’d spoken to a few times. “This is great
news. Remember Joey, who washed out midway through
Gonzaga? He wrote me and said he was offered this option
too. As soon as he got home, he went to an air base in
Columbus and took the exam, and now he’s flying with
those guys.” He thumped me on the back. “Think about it,
Whipps. How much math do you need when you’re taking
off and landing in a field?”
It all sounded good, but the decision still weighed
heavily on me. This was a tough choice for me to make
on my own, even if I was already twenty-​ one. I wished I’d
worked harder at math while I was in school, especially
since my mom had been a teacher and would have helped
me. Yet I’d never felt the urge to really push myself in
school. I had no way of knowing back then that my future
as a pilot could rest on trigonometry formulas.
I was torn. Did I need to apply myself to study and
work harder than ever, hoping I’d make it to Florida
and beyond? It was a risk, but weren’t pilots supposed to
take risks?
Then again, I had to admit that the alternative looked
a lot better. A pilot was still a pilot, whether he took off
from water or land. And if this route was a guarantee that I
wouldn’t end up trapped in an oversized tin can along with
hundreds of other sailors, surely that was worth it, wasn’t it?
Both arguments played out in my mind, but just when
the balance seemed to shift one way, I would reconsider
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