23
Oct
2016
After spending six years in Alaska, I thought winter driving at Fort Drum, New York, would be a snap. After all, I’d seen my share of accidents and figured I was prepared for anything. But it only took a week to show me I was wrong.
I’m what you’d call a 50-50 rider. If the chance of rain is greater than 50 percent or the temperature is lower than 50 F, I prefer not to ride.
It was early 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom and I was flying as the tail gunner on a CH-47D Chinook. We were doing a troop movement from Camp Doha, Kuwait, to Balad, Iraq.
Overhead power lines are so common that we practically don’t see them when we look down a road or walk around a building.
We see exit signs inside buildings all the time, but many of us don’t give them a second thought. If there was a fire or other emergency and you had to make a quick exit from a building, would you know where to go?
It was the beginning of fall, and my friend, Joe, and I planned a trip with the motorcycles we’d bought earlier in the year.