This particular tee-shirt is all about fitness, endurance, and determination. My time at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar was very filling and the mission was all consuming. One of the few ways to de-stress was through exercise. We were working 24 hour shifts when we pulled duty crew. We would go directly from a medical mission to duty crew. This entailed 24 hours of launching and recovering medical crews, picking up medical equipment, and configuring aircraft. At 98% humidity on the flightline we really got a workout. The duty crew was followed by 12 hours of crew rest. From there, we went to crew alert and, hopefully, we were alerted for another medical mission into Iraq. Once we completed our mission we went right back into duty crew. Needless to say, there were a lot of 12 hour crew rest cycles over the 4 month period that I was there. Several of us had a routine set up. During this time, we would spend our mornings at the gym, our afternoons studying professional development courses, and our evenings running and walking across the base. Originally, my goal was to achieve the 100 mile tee-shirt. Once I reached that goal, I needed another goal. Hence, the 200 mile tee-shirt followed. Towards the end of the tour I was determined to receive the 300 mile tee-shirt. During those last few weeks most of my free time was spent either on the treadmill or trekking across the base to earn miles towards the final tee-shirt. This tee-shirt represents a quest for fitness, the endurance to achieve additional goals in the face of adversity, and the determination to go the extra mile to achieve those goals.

This tee-shirt represents not only several deployments but my last deployment in a war zone. I spent two tours in Afghanistan totaling almost one full year of my life. I lived at Bagram Air Base just outside of the capital city of Kabul. My home was a plywood hut with no running water. I spent a lot of time on the flightline overseeing medical evacuation operations. We ran a 24/7 operation. I worked seven days a week with no days off. When we were short of medical crews, I filled in and flew to forward operating bases to bring the patients back to Bagram Air Base for treatment. During the first tour, I made numerous site visits to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. I met with Critical Care Teams and medical crews to work through medical evacuation issues specific to that part of the country. You learn a lot about yourself in dangerous situations. You learn to be flexible. You learn to rely on your experience and your training. You learn that you are part of a team, part of a mission bigger than yourself. Also, you learn to take life one day at a time.

This tee-shirt represents a 30 year career in the United States Air Force. I joined the service right after high school. Within the first year I was assigned out of the country. That was the beginning of many new friendships and experiences for me. There was a lot of traveling during that time. Thanks to the Air Force I was able to visit places I could have never managed on my own. I was introduced to people and customs that left me with lasting impressions. I learned a lot about myself over those years. Patience and flexibility served me well. Putting the mission and others above self became routine. Towards the end of my career my focus has been on mentoring others to take over when I am gone. It is also a transition period for me to prepare for the next phase of my life. All in all it was a memorable 30 years.

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I've decided on this desert tan tee-shirt for the next shirt in the quilt. There are a lot of memories and hundreds of pictures that go along with this experience. The year was 2003. I was on my way to a small country called Qatar located on the eastern side of Saudi Arabia. Another desert...Deja Vue! The accommodations were better than in 1991. This time we were billeted in tents with floors and air conditioning. My living space was 4 by 10; small but it was all mine. The humidity was 98% on any given day and the temperatures on the flightline closer to 120 degrees. I remember drenched tee-shirts under our flight suits from the heat and humidity on the ground. Once we reached altitude we froze in the aircraft due to the soaked tee-shirts. We still had a long flight ahead of us. We were tasked to bring patients out of Iraq and back to medical facilities there at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. The missions were almost surreal. We would don flak vests and helmets as soon as we reached Iraqi airspace. We went in at night and under low light conditions inside the aircraft. You held your breath hoping that nothing would be fired at the aircraft or trigger the tracers. We would land, keep the props running, and load the patients as quickly as possible. Each run included several stops within Iraq before heading back to Qatar. Returning to Al Udeid was always a welcome relief! This tan tee-shirt represents a lot of friendships through shared experiences. Also, it represents a commitment to care for the patients regardless of the danger, the conditions or the circumstances.

This is the second tee-shirt of the 12 that I will be using for my quilt project. Several of the aircraft pictured here are aircraft I have flown in or been in at one time in my 30 year Air Force career. The C-130 aircraft was my primary aircraft for patient evacuation. I was an Instructor and taught others how to work in medical crew positions aboard this plane. My daughter is now an Instructor and an Evaluator for this aircraft. The plane can be configured to hold up to 70 litters. My experience with the C-141 included a lot of hours configuring for heavy patient loads in 2004. I also spent months directing the off-load of patients returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The C-141 was retired in 2006 after 43 years of service. I've flown aeromedical evacuation missions on the KC-135. This aircraft is a tanker and refuels other aircraft in-flight. On occasion it was used to transport patients utilizing special litter pallets. AWACS is special to me because my brother-in-law retired from AWACS and he is a special kind of guy. The C-5s were in my life at the beginning of my Air Force career. When I was 19 years old I was placed in the engine of the aircraft for a photo opportunity. The photograph was printed in the Air Force Times and went global. Now at the end of my career the plane has returned. It is linked to my new son-in-law who is a loadmaster aboard the C-5. Just as the first tee-shirt held memories, this one, too, reminds me of places I have been, and the memories along the way.