Primary, Complete!

Jordan completed Primary this week, and in only 4.5 months, to the normal 6-8! No wonder it feels like time has flown by, it has! His last tasks in Primary were completing his remaining forms flights with his partner, which culminated in a forms solo. After hours spent chair-flying in our living room, the boys completed their last flights and solo on Tuesday. And we have the pictures to prove that it was much cooler than the chair-flying practice photos:

These pictures were taken by the chaser plane with the instructors grading them. Jordan's partner has a few more photos, that I will update this with when we get them.

Jordan greatly enjoyed flying forms, well actually that is probably an understatement, as his exact words when he walked in the front door after each flight were more along the lines of Forms are  %$^&*^& Awesome! So it was a bittersweet moment to come in for their final landing. Flying the T-34, despite the never-ending studying, the sweat drenched flight suits, and toll his body took pulling G's, was one of the best experiences of Jordan's life. He LOVED every moment of pulling G's, flying in formation, and performing aerobatic procedures in the air. And so on his final flight, he took a few moments to look around and take everything in, trying to capture and internalize his whole experience; however, he was also more than motivated to come over the radio communications on final descent, " BOOMER Base, BOOMER 756 and wingman BOOMER 733, formation 4005 complete, Primary complete...CAN I GET A YUTTTTTT!" To which the guys over the radio in the tower, responded with YUT YUT! If you haven't already figured out, "yut" is another one of the Marine Corps intelliglble grunts, much like 'rah, that is motivating amongst themselves.

Another bittersweet moment was when Jordan turned in his helmet. Some of the guys had their helmets customized by a local guy on base, who applies the designs with subtle reflective tape. Some chose Alma Mater logos, but Jordan chose a motivational message, knowing his instructors would be staring at the back of his helmet every flight: Keep Calm & Yut On!

Well the moment you have all been waiting for, selection time! Jordan graduated with not only Jet grades, but also the top score in his graduating class!!! It is such an amazing accomplishment, and I could not be more proud of him! However, by the luck of the draw, there were no jet slots available the week he graduated. So he received his second choice of helicopters. And while it was a bit of a disappointment for a guy who worked so hard and earned superb grades in Primary, and has dreamed of flying jets since he was a little kid, he will always have the knowledge that he had the talent to fly any of the Marine Corps platforms, the Marine Corps needed his talents in helicopters. And at the end of the day, no matter what platform a Marine Corps Aviator flies, their job is to support those men and women who are fighting on the ground. And as a helicopter pilot, the Marine Corps will use his talents to save and support these lives.

The helicopter community is a very die-hard community, and we will be moving back to Milton, FL for his advanced training with a few other guys here from Texas that are extremely motivated helicopter pilots. One of which also graduated top of his class a few weeks back, and chose to put helicopters as his first choice.While out to dinner with this guy celebrating his selection on Thursday, we ran in to two other guys, one of which grabbed Jordan's head between his hands and planted a giant kiss on his cheek after telling him, he was going "helos." It was almost as if he was so grateful and motivated to be building up a strong and talented team to storm the helicopter training with. It was such a fun moment to see these big tough marines, so passionate and emotional about something. Jordan's friends that are ground Marines, also could not be more ecstatic for him. According to them, there is no sound like the sound of rotors when they are in the middle of a fire fight and they hear it. All the Marines love it because they can rest assured that they are going to win this battle, and it gives them that extra rush of adrenaline and motivation knowing they are having these Cobras and Hueys come in  at low level to support them in the fight. One friend told Jordan, you can't really describe the fear it instills in our enemies, or the rush it gives us on the ground.

Jordan, who has wanted to fly jets for so many years, can not stop getting excited about all the positive aspects that flying helicopters entails.  Not only do they have "cooler" mission, they fly on day to day basis, versus Marine Corps jets, which only average about 1-2 flights per month for training. Also since Vietnam, the jet air-strikes are conducted differently than the air-to-ground attacks that his dad flew in. With today's technology, jets fire precision guided missiles 20,000 feet off the ground and GPS takes it in. So while the adrenaline of going fast in a jet is probably unmatched, the missions of the helicopters in today's wars, and their down-low, with-the-Marines fights, may in fact be the best match for his personality. His Primary instructor told him before the selection news, that from the beginning he thought Jordan would make an awesome Cobra pilot. So I guess it is all meant to be!

Marine Corps Super Cobra: One of the two Marine Corps attack helicopters, which no other service has.

Well after taking some time to take in this big life moment, one which will direct the rest of his career as well as our life as a family, we are happy to share with all of you this accomplishment and milestone in Jordan's career. So we are back off to Milton, FL and get to be reunited with some of my family, and some of our best friends. After 6 months here in advanced, Jordan will earn his wings, and be selected for his specific type of helicopter. Once advanced is complete, we will move to the RAG,where Jordan will train on his specific helo, and where we will have our duty station for 3 years. And we are hoping that will either be Camp Pendleton, CA or Hawaii!