Risk Management Magazine

Late winter 2012 found me on a four-day mission flying a UC-35 to transport distinguished visitors to various locations throughout Europe. The second day of the mission had us departing Bydgoszcz, Poland, at mid-morning, refueling in Bucharest, Romania, then continuing to Ankara, Turkey.

Our crew in the UH-60 Black Hawk was a good mix with a 1,100-hour night vision goggle pilot in command in the left seat and myself, a 650-hour day/night PC acting as the pilot in the right seat.

It was a fairly typical January morning in the Midwest when I headed out for my monthly individual duty training assembly weekend in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. There were several inches of snow on the ground already and more was on the way. Fortunately, my Army unit would be conducting indoor training and maintenance due to the severe cold, ice and potential for bad weather.