What I really learned in Combat Control training
WHAT I REALLY LEARNED IN COMBAT CONTROL TRAINING
Using the mindset of modern day warriors can help people succeed in everyday life.
There is something that happens to yourself when you face an enormous challenge, when the odds of failing are better than being successful, something in yourself changes.
I learned a lifetime of valuable life skills in three years of Combat Control training, and I still reap the rewards of reaching my mental and physical limits.
I never did any actual missions, only practice ones that were unbelievably challenging. But it doesn't matter. I placed myself in a vulnerable position, one that my family, friends, and co workers said not to. For whatever reason, I followed my gut, and ignored the opinions of others, even those close to me.
With a beret on my head at the graduation, I proved to myself I was capable of much more than I told myself in the past.
I finally summoned the courage to leave the comfort and familiarity of my hometown because I was miserable. Going through the motions of college, part time jobs that paid nothing, and living in a dump, finally got to me. I wanted to live life, but I didn't know how.
Giving everything I had, every ounce of mental and physical energy, to a program where 90% of guys failed, changed my life.
I never did any actual missions, only practice ones that were unbelievably challenging. But it doesn't matter. I placed myself in a vulnerable position, one that my family, friends, and co workers said not to. For whatever reason, I followed my gut, and ignored the opinions of others, even those close to me.
With a beret on my head at the graduation, I proved to myself I was capable of much more than I told myself in the past.
COMBAT CONTROL SCHOOL Fall 2006
I finally summoned the courage to leave the comfort and familiarity of my hometown because I was miserable. Going through the motions of college, part time jobs that paid nothing, and living in a dump, finally got to me. I wanted to live life, but I didn't know how.
Giving everything I had, every ounce of mental and physical energy, to a program where 90% of guys failed, changed my life.
Not many guys get a chance to go through a program like combat control, so I want to share what the Air Force taught me.
I was an anxious and shy child, to the point it was holding me back. I love to give myself as an example of overcoming fears and jumping into an unknown situation because if I can do it, anyone can.
The only way to grow as a person and become more confident is to face obstacles and strive to overcome them.
Even if you fail, it is better than not trying at all. In fact, failing is the only way to achieve anything worthwhile and leave a mark on this world.
The interesting thing is, earlier in my life I was too scared of what everyone would think of me.
I had a talent for playing music, but I did not dare play in front of anyone. I secretly knew I was good enough to play guitar and sing for an audience, but I did not do it until years later. I still regret this. I did not try when I was younger because it was safe , but I was becoming more and more miserable.
After getting out of the Air Force, my next challenge was to apply to become an air traffic controller in the FAA. I knew this was a huge risk, especially with my limited experience. Most people I knew, even my family, said to play it safe. Most advice I heard was to stay in the comfort of a secure paycheck, housing, and job. Nothing was guaranteed on the outside of the military.
I got out anyway.
Being a passive guy by nature, I had to use the experience I learned in Combat Control to push me through another challenge in my life. Talking to pilots on the radio was one of my weaknesses in the Air Force. After daily practice and hard work, I got my first certification in the FAA. It was only after years of practice and pushing myself that I became that confident voice that pilots hear in their headset.
Did I fail along the way? Yes. A few times actually.
In Combat Control training, I was set back in air traffic control school. My teammates moved on, and I went through the class again, and I barely made it.
After getting out of the Air Force, I took a job at a contract tower near San Francisco CA. It was the beginning of my ultimate goal becoming a civilian air traffic controller. My goal to have a career I actually enjoyed and also get paid well.
As I trained to be an air traffic controller, it was another challenge for myself to become more confident. The job requires an individual to give commands to pilots without hesitation. Being a passive guy by nature, left a lot of work for me to do.
Taking the job was like jumping out of a plane at 30,000 feet.
You jump and hope for the best. I had no idea if I could actually do it.
Contract towers are not like FAA towers; they run with minimum staffing, and you only have a few months to fully certify. They are mainly staffed by retired FAA controllers. I knew it could take years to get hired by the FAA. In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to work at one of these towers. The only experience I had was barely passing a simulator in the Air Force, and working traffic at a sleepy tower in Nebraska.
I knew from the start, the contract tower would be very difficult. I moved my wife and daughter from our home in Nebraska to California. It was a huge risk, and I failed. I resigned because I was not catching on fast enough, and they were going to terminate me.
I took losing my job hard. My family was homeless because we already rented our house to tenants in Nebraska. I had failed myself and my family. But I gained a ton of experience while I was there. I developed good listening and core skills.
Air traffic control made more sense to me because I had a firehouse of knowledge at a busy contract tower in California. When I was finally hired by the FAA, I aced the simulators at the FAA academy
After getting out of the Air Force and falling on my face at a contract tower, I still wanted to become air traffic controller in the FAA. Again, many people, even those close to me, told me to apply for other jobs. I needed to face reality and move on to something else.
I had failed out of college, so I did not have a lot of opportunities to find a good job. I was afraid to tell anyone I was not successful in college. I felt ashamed of it for years. Failing college turned out to be a win too. I had randomly picked marketing as my major, but I had zero interest in it. I would have been miserable with any job related to my major.
The cut off age to be hired by the FAA was 31, and all I needed was some military experience. No college degree was required. There was a problem though. There were tons of military air traffic controllers getting out and applying at the same time, and I only had a little over a year to get in.
I flew around the country and tried to talk with any managers or employees that could to help me get in. It felt strange begging for a job I had failed at months earlier. I was turned down on five hiring cycles. On the sixth , just months before the age cut off, I was hired.
The sweet reward of growth and success is SO much better than sitting in a corner wishing you made a move.
After achieving my certification and working for the FAA a few years, the job became routine, and I stopped challenging myself. I became miserable again. I became the guy who sat around and saw problems and issues at my facility, but instead of doing anything about it, I just sat around complained with the rest of my coworkers.
The facility union president at the time was becoming complacent. Management was aware of this fact, and they began to run the facility their way, even though it may have not been the best for the people working there. I saw the issues going on. I voiced that I would step up and be the facility president. The following year, I stepped into the position.
In new territory, I didn't know signing up for Combat Control, one of the most challenging and stressful events in my life, gave me the skills to not only become a successful air traffic controller, but also step up to the position of union president of my facility.
Like riding a bicycle, I remembered that it was normal to feel the fear.
I had to force myself to do it anyway. I was able to gather the courage to do it by remembering what I was capable of.
Becoming a leader, confronting issues with management and the people I represent, is no easy task. In fact, the very nature of being a good union president requires confronting issues and having uncomfortable discussions with people, not by people pleasing or refusing to rock the boat. It requires me to become a leader.
These are skills I had to learn through practice, not by hoping I would change.
I did not want to admit it, and honestly I was scared to step up. But I did it anyway.
I took over as the president and let my frustrations out with conversations with management. I did not know exactly what I was doing, but I felt better after a while.
After two years, I was reelected by the members in the facility for a second term. Although the facility is not perfect, it is better than when I arrived.
I had a vision, which many thought was ridiculous. I wanted to change procedures and even airspace around the facility. I was getting comfortable with bigger and bigger goals through practice. Now it was getting fun! Now I am leading meetings on changing these very things.
Changing airspace for commercial, military, and flight school traffic was not something a guy from Tennessee, who was afraid of his own shadow, is supposed to do. I CAN do it by forcing myself to speak up and risk being judged or falling on my face.
Unable to have college as an excuse for staying safe and not pushing myself, I joined the Air Force. Getting out of the job security of the Air Force , and possibly being unemployed, made me take whatever action necessary to apply for air traffic control jobs. Being tired of seeing obvious issues in my facility, made me take action to be a leader. Without knowing, I put myself into positions that forced me to take action and face a big challenges. I had nothing to lose.
It took me some time to realize that I needed to find challenges on purpose.
Jumping in and taking action on huge goals created momentum, and over time, I became more comfortable with challenges and facing them.
After some time, I felt unstoppable.
I was becoming someone different. Someone I could respect, even if no one else did. But the crazy thing was, a lot of people did respect me, just for speaking up.
I was beginning to like the feeling of facing challenges again, so I signed up for the Pensacola marathon in 2018
This was a story of struggle and pain that I intentionally signed up for. It was a lot of work; I struggled to complete some of the longer training runs, but the experience fulfilled a void I was missing at the time.
My goal was to run it in under 4 hours. I did run to stay in shape, but I had never ran any serious distances since I was in the military. Some of my co workers saw my struggles and wondered why I signed up for such a long race, but some asked me daily of my progress and set backs.
I trained religiously for 3 months, and as I got closer to the race, I thought my time goal was ridiculous. It made me concerned and I trained harder. I ended up coming in at 3 hours and 52 minutes. This time is nothing impressive, but for me, I felt like I won the Olympics
A few co workers became very interested in my training, like they were watching a sporting event. I had a story to tell after every long run, and they were waiting to hear it. One co worker had failed to finish a few marathons in the past, after hearing I signed up, also entered the race. We pushed each other, and he finished too.
You can live like a combat controller starting right now.
Like all special operations forces, combat controllers are ordinary individuals who do extraordinary things. They do things most people only read about in books or watch in the movies.
No person signs up for combat control sure they will be successful. These people decide to face the challenge knowing they more than likely could fail. Nobody gets through the training without being challenged or facing fears.
Jumping out of a plane at night, diving into a cold dark ocean, or being in the wilderness alone with just a map and compass for days, is not something your born to handle without feeling fear. You have to practice feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Like any other skill, it is a learned behavior.
Put yourself out there. We all have challenges we want to face, and the hardest part, for me, was just taking action and creating momentum.
If your goal is to be ordinary, to live a safe life without any fear or risk of failure, that is easy.
You have to seek out opportunities to test yourself. To feel fear. To try something new. Whether you fail or not, you will come out on the other side a little better and have more confidence. Every time you do it, it will get a little easier.
Whether it is speaking up when you fear you should not, confronting an issue at your workplace, or playing a song you wrote in front of people, start somewhere and start now.
Keep seeking out challenges worth your time and energy.
I hope you fail big a few times... yeah I said it.
Go fail big. You will become two times the person you are now in just a few years, if you hit it hard.
Find your next challenge like you life depends on it.
For your future life, it does.
I was an anxious and shy child, to the point it was holding me back. I love to give myself as an example of overcoming fears and jumping into an unknown situation because if I can do it, anyone can.
The only way to grow as a person and become more confident is to face obstacles and strive to overcome them.
Even if you fail, it is better than not trying at all. In fact, failing is the only way to achieve anything worthwhile and leave a mark on this world.
The interesting thing is, earlier in my life I was too scared of what everyone would think of me.
I had a talent for playing music, but I did not dare play in front of anyone. I secretly knew I was good enough to play guitar and sing for an audience, but I did not do it until years later. I still regret this. I did not try when I was younger because it was safe , but I was becoming more and more miserable.
After getting out of the Air Force, my next challenge was to apply to become an air traffic controller in the FAA. I knew this was a huge risk, especially with my limited experience. Most people I knew, even my family, said to play it safe. Most advice I heard was to stay in the comfort of a secure paycheck, housing, and job. Nothing was guaranteed on the outside of the military.
I got out anyway.
Being a passive guy by nature, I had to use the experience I learned in Combat Control to push me through another challenge in my life. Talking to pilots on the radio was one of my weaknesses in the Air Force. After daily practice and hard work, I got my first certification in the FAA. It was only after years of practice and pushing myself that I became that confident voice that pilots hear in their headset.
Did I fail along the way? Yes. A few times actually.
In Combat Control training, I was set back in air traffic control school. My teammates moved on, and I went through the class again, and I barely made it.
After getting out of the Air Force, I took a job at a contract tower near San Francisco CA. It was the beginning of my ultimate goal becoming a civilian air traffic controller. My goal to have a career I actually enjoyed and also get paid well.
As I trained to be an air traffic controller, it was another challenge for myself to become more confident. The job requires an individual to give commands to pilots without hesitation. Being a passive guy by nature, left a lot of work for me to do.
Taking the job was like jumping out of a plane at 30,000 feet.
You jump and hope for the best. I had no idea if I could actually do it.
Contract towers are not like FAA towers; they run with minimum staffing, and you only have a few months to fully certify. They are mainly staffed by retired FAA controllers. I knew it could take years to get hired by the FAA. In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to work at one of these towers. The only experience I had was barely passing a simulator in the Air Force, and working traffic at a sleepy tower in Nebraska.
I knew from the start, the contract tower would be very difficult. I moved my wife and daughter from our home in Nebraska to California. It was a huge risk, and I failed. I resigned because I was not catching on fast enough, and they were going to terminate me.
I took losing my job hard. My family was homeless because we already rented our house to tenants in Nebraska. I had failed myself and my family. But I gained a ton of experience while I was there. I developed good listening and core skills.
Air traffic control made more sense to me because I had a firehouse of knowledge at a busy contract tower in California. When I was finally hired by the FAA, I aced the simulators at the FAA academy
After getting out of the Air Force and falling on my face at a contract tower, I still wanted to become air traffic controller in the FAA. Again, many people, even those close to me, told me to apply for other jobs. I needed to face reality and move on to something else.
I had failed out of college, so I did not have a lot of opportunities to find a good job. I was afraid to tell anyone I was not successful in college. I felt ashamed of it for years. Failing college turned out to be a win too. I had randomly picked marketing as my major, but I had zero interest in it. I would have been miserable with any job related to my major.
The cut off age to be hired by the FAA was 31, and all I needed was some military experience. No college degree was required. There was a problem though. There were tons of military air traffic controllers getting out and applying at the same time, and I only had a little over a year to get in.
I flew around the country and tried to talk with any managers or employees that could to help me get in. It felt strange begging for a job I had failed at months earlier. I was turned down on five hiring cycles. On the sixth , just months before the age cut off, I was hired.
The sweet reward of growth and success is SO much better than sitting in a corner wishing you made a move.
After achieving my certification and working for the FAA a few years, the job became routine, and I stopped challenging myself. I became miserable again. I became the guy who sat around and saw problems and issues at my facility, but instead of doing anything about it, I just sat around complained with the rest of my coworkers.
The facility union president at the time was becoming complacent. Management was aware of this fact, and they began to run the facility their way, even though it may have not been the best for the people working there. I saw the issues going on. I voiced that I would step up and be the facility president. The following year, I stepped into the position.
In new territory, I didn't know signing up for Combat Control, one of the most challenging and stressful events in my life, gave me the skills to not only become a successful air traffic controller, but also step up to the position of union president of my facility.
Like riding a bicycle, I remembered that it was normal to feel the fear.
I had to force myself to do it anyway. I was able to gather the courage to do it by remembering what I was capable of.
Becoming a leader, confronting issues with management and the people I represent, is no easy task. In fact, the very nature of being a good union president requires confronting issues and having uncomfortable discussions with people, not by people pleasing or refusing to rock the boat. It requires me to become a leader.
These are skills I had to learn through practice, not by hoping I would change.
I did not want to admit it, and honestly I was scared to step up. But I did it anyway.
I took over as the president and let my frustrations out with conversations with management. I did not know exactly what I was doing, but I felt better after a while.
After two years, I was reelected by the members in the facility for a second term. Although the facility is not perfect, it is better than when I arrived.
I had a vision, which many thought was ridiculous. I wanted to change procedures and even airspace around the facility. I was getting comfortable with bigger and bigger goals through practice. Now it was getting fun! Now I am leading meetings on changing these very things.
Changing airspace for commercial, military, and flight school traffic was not something a guy from Tennessee, who was afraid of his own shadow, is supposed to do. I CAN do it by forcing myself to speak up and risk being judged or falling on my face.
Unable to have college as an excuse for staying safe and not pushing myself, I joined the Air Force. Getting out of the job security of the Air Force , and possibly being unemployed, made me take whatever action necessary to apply for air traffic control jobs. Being tired of seeing obvious issues in my facility, made me take action to be a leader. Without knowing, I put myself into positions that forced me to take action and face a big challenges. I had nothing to lose.
It took me some time to realize that I needed to find challenges on purpose.
Jumping in and taking action on huge goals created momentum, and over time, I became more comfortable with challenges and facing them.
After some time, I felt unstoppable.
I was becoming someone different. Someone I could respect, even if no one else did. But the crazy thing was, a lot of people did respect me, just for speaking up.
I was beginning to like the feeling of facing challenges again, so I signed up for the Pensacola marathon in 2018
This was a story of struggle and pain that I intentionally signed up for. It was a lot of work; I struggled to complete some of the longer training runs, but the experience fulfilled a void I was missing at the time.
My goal was to run it in under 4 hours. I did run to stay in shape, but I had never ran any serious distances since I was in the military. Some of my co workers saw my struggles and wondered why I signed up for such a long race, but some asked me daily of my progress and set backs.
I trained religiously for 3 months, and as I got closer to the race, I thought my time goal was ridiculous. It made me concerned and I trained harder. I ended up coming in at 3 hours and 52 minutes. This time is nothing impressive, but for me, I felt like I won the Olympics
A few co workers became very interested in my training, like they were watching a sporting event. I had a story to tell after every long run, and they were waiting to hear it. One co worker had failed to finish a few marathons in the past, after hearing I signed up, also entered the race. We pushed each other, and he finished too.
You can live like a combat controller starting right now.
Like all special operations forces, combat controllers are ordinary individuals who do extraordinary things. They do things most people only read about in books or watch in the movies.
No person signs up for combat control sure they will be successful. These people decide to face the challenge knowing they more than likely could fail. Nobody gets through the training without being challenged or facing fears.
Jumping out of a plane at night, diving into a cold dark ocean, or being in the wilderness alone with just a map and compass for days, is not something your born to handle without feeling fear. You have to practice feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Like any other skill, it is a learned behavior.
Put yourself out there. We all have challenges we want to face, and the hardest part, for me, was just taking action and creating momentum.
If your goal is to be ordinary, to live a safe life without any fear or risk of failure, that is easy.
You have to seek out opportunities to test yourself. To feel fear. To try something new. Whether you fail or not, you will come out on the other side a little better and have more confidence. Every time you do it, it will get a little easier.
Whether it is speaking up when you fear you should not, confronting an issue at your workplace, or playing a song you wrote in front of people, start somewhere and start now.
Keep seeking out challenges worth your time and energy.
I hope you fail big a few times... yeah I said it.
Go fail big. You will become two times the person you are now in just a few years, if you hit it hard.
Find your next challenge like you life depends on it.
For your future life, it does.
This and your other post on quiting has been very thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteGreatly appreciate it and wish more operators would talk about the identity issue.
I'm glad it helps you out. Thanks for reading.
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