Read the full transcript of Lieutenant Colonel Mike Drowley’s talk titled “There Are Some Fates Worse Than Death” at TEDxScottAFB 2012 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Lieutenant Colonel Mike Drowley, and today, I’m here to tell you who I am. Now in standard Air Force presentations and briefings, I dazzle you with PowerPoint skills. I’d have a nice overview telling you what I’m planning on talking about today. And for my biography, I’d go through what my assignments were, the schooling that I’ve had, the awards that I’ve won. But instead today, I’m just going to simply tell you exactly who I am.
I’m a Marine rifleman. I’m an Army infantryman. I’m a Navy SEAL. Now some of you are probably looking at me right now going, no, you’re not. You’re in fact none of those things. You obviously have a flight suit on. You’re wearing some sort of scarf. Your hair looks amazing. You sir are a fighter pilot. But I’m going to argue that last point with you for just a second.
I am not a fighter pilot. I’m in fact an attack pilot. I drive the A-10 Warthog. And being an attack pilot means that I stand for something that is bigger than myself. To me, I am all those people.
I have an extreme amount of empathy for that infantryman that’s being shelled by artillery, for that Marine rifleman that’s standing out there by himself guarding a hill, for that Navy SEAL who’s about to kick down a door for a building where he has no idea what’s on the other side. I try and put myself in those shoes of every single one of those people. That’s what makes me an A-10 attack pilot. And it sounds funny to say, but empathy is probably one of the greatest skills that I have to be able to do that mission.
So for me, there’s three words that can stop my world in a heartbeat.
And those words are “troops in contact.” And what troops in contact means is that friendly forces are receiving direct and effective fire. That somebody else is trying to hurt my friends that are on the ground. And when I think of troops in contact, when I’m in a training scenario trying to prepare for the real fight, sounds a little bit cheesy, but what I think about is that opening scene from “Saving Private Ryan” on D-Day. When the boat drops, the friendly forces try and storm the beachhead. They’re taking that constant and incessant fire. That’s what I try and think about. Those forces are going through on the ground. Every second in my world counts to be able to protect and help those guys out on the ground. And so when I hear troops in contact, that mental clock, that opening scene starts ticking through in my mind.
First Combat Experience
It was on 16 August in 2002 that I heard the words “troops in contact” for the first time in a combat situation come across the radio. I was doing a night support for a team that had just captured a high value target. They were making their way up out of the valley with the high value target. We’re trying to get to a safe house. The weather was not phenomenal that night.
It was stacked up several thousand feet in an overcast deck. Above the weather, everything was nice. It was like flying over a blanket of snow. There were stars out. The moon was out. But talking to the team on the ground beneath the weather deck, they anticipated that the clouds were about a thousand feet above the ground. They were right in the middle of the valley. There was blowing west wind. There was dust. There was very intermittent rainstorms that were going on.
And as I was checking in and talking with them about their situation, the vibe that I was getting is they did not feel like things were going well. There was indicators out there that were putting them on edge. Certain things that they were seeing in the town led them to believe that others were aware of their presence.
[The story continues with detailed descriptions of the combat situation, weather conditions, and Mike’s actions to support the ground troops.]
Reflection on Risk-Taking
When I think about that day and what I executed to help those guys out, I’m asked the question every now and then, how could you do that? How could you do a weather letdown with a semi-reliable global positioning system, semi-reliable Russian map into weather in mountainous terrain to try and help those guys out? And the answer is always pretty easy for me.
It’s because there are fates that are worse than death out there. And in my world, letting something happen to my brothers and sisters on the ground is one of them. It is something that I have sworn that I will never let happen. It is what I have built my entire life, my mission credibility. My whole purpose for being is to protect those forces on the ground.
Operation Iraqi Freedom
You fast forward to 2003 and you ask who I am. In the first scenario, I said I’m an attack pilot. In 2003, March 23rd, I would answer, I’m a mission commander. I’m a Strike Eagle pilot. I’m a Viper pilot. I’m an HH-60 rescue helicopter crew.
[Mike then describes a challenging mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom, involving downed helicopters and difficult decisions as a mission commander.]
Lessons in Leadership
Now after I got to do those two operations, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, I got the opportunity to go to the weapons school as an instructor pilot. And I finally had time to reflect on the missions that I had accomplished. And as I was thinking about those missions, something smacked me square in the face, and that was an incongruency that I was living within my life, as weird as it sounds.
[Mike shares a personal story about realizing the importance of service leadership in everyday interactions, not just during missions.]
Conclusion
So when people ask me who I am, I still believe I’m an attack pilot. I still believe I am a mission commander. But now my answer is pretty darn simple. I say I’m Lieutenant Colonel Mike Drowley, and I’m an Airman. Thank you.
