I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my commander at dinner one night in 2007 at Balad Air Base, Iraq. He asked me what I wanted to do next after the retirement of my current special operations helicopter. During that dinner, he and a good friend of mine filled my mind with ideas on the CV-22 Osprey mission. This event kick-started dreams of how this game-changing platform would shape the future of special operations vertical lift.
A domestic-related shooting unfolded at a convenience store, known as a "shopette," on the Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo around 5:30 p.m. — plunging the 93-square-mile base into lockdown, th...