A Milestone To Remember

Yesterday, I flew with my son on his first day back on the flight deck after his battle with throat cancer – a milestone I'll never forget. The journey of life is made up of thousands of steps and measured by dozens of milestones, and this was one worth celebrating.

The Beginning

On April 11, 2023, Rian and I flew together on his first day as a pilot for Southwest Airlines. His mother and grandmother were paying passengers on the flight and we celebrated what we hoped would be the beginning of a long and prosperous career as a professional pilot. However, that celebrated milestone was quickly eclipsed by the diagnosis of throat cancer less than two months later—not the milestone I was expecting.

The Treatment

With the diagnosis began the painful steps of metastatic cancer treatment. Fortunately, he was able to get into the Mayo Clinic facility, probably the best in the world and not far from his house. They began with surgery to remove the cancer and left him with a beautiful nine-inch scar and a feeding tube. Unable to cope with the feeding tube, he had it removed the morning after surgery and coped with the difficulties of eating with a liquid diet for a while. During the course of his treatment and recovery, he lost over thirty pounds.

After the surgery came the weeks of radiation and chemotherapy that burned the skin and destroyed the facial hair on that part of his neck. Five days a week his life was consumed by the treatment and the efforts to recover from them. His wife, a doctor herself, kept tabs on his treatment, but had to detach herself somewhat just to cope with the situation and continue to put food on the table. We did our best to provide support, along with family and friends, by taking him to treatment, encouraging him, and praying for him. Oh how we all prayed for him to see dozens more milestones in his journey of life!

The Company's Response

During all of this, Southwest Airlines provided support above and beyond that required of an employer, especially for a new employee still in their probationary first year. His local leaders reached out often to check on him. Corporate personnel made sure all of his insurance and disability benefits were handled properly. Coworkers cheered him on. Southwest Airlines lived up to its name—The LUV Airline—and helped ease the pain of those difficult steps of the journey.

The Waiting Game

Then came the next milestone—the scan. After the surgery, the treatments, and the recovery came the anxious day of the scan to determine if the process had indeed removed the cancer. No matter what was discovered from the scan, it was going to be a milestone we would all remember. Fortunately, it was a milestone worth celebrating. A clean scan!

For most people the clean scan would be the happy ending and a return to normalcy. However, for professional pilots, serious medical issues such as cancer become milestones of a permanent professional detour unless they can obtain medical clearance. The Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) told us that nothing could even be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for at least a year from the last treatment, and suggested that nothing be submitted until after a clean scan a year later.

Now the steps became trudges of impatience hoping to see another professional milestone worth celebrating. Rian tried to keep busy with hobbies, professional education, and supporting his busy wife in her demanding job. We all waited anxiously to take the next step of sending in the paperwork for his first-class medical certificate – the documentation required for commercial airline pilots.

The Return to Flight

When the next scan came back clean, we all began to hope again. However, we understood all too well that the wheels of bureaucracy moved slowly and that getting back his medical certification would take some time. The AME thought it would probably be April or May before the process would be complete. The paperwork was submitted and we waited to see if and when we could celebrate the next milestone.

The second week of January my son texted me a picture of his application window with the FAA. Nothing yet. We braced ourselves for more arduous steps of impatiently waiting. Then that afternoon, he refreshed the screen. He had been approved with no restrictions! The milestone we had been hoping and praying for finally arrived!

Now the fun began. He began the steps of returning to fly at Southwest Airlines. They reinstated his active employee status. They scheduled his training. He dug out and refreshed his uniform and made sure his headset was in working order. The steps took on speed and purpose.

Coming Full Circle

I took the bold step of asking to fly with him on his first trip back. As a Check Pilot – an experienced pilot responsible for training and evaluating new pilots – with over thirteen years at Southwest, I have the responsibility and privilege of teaching, mentoring, and evaluating new pilots. I wanted the opportunity to fly with my son again on his first day back, just like that first day in April of 2023. Again, Southwest delivered. They granted me the request with a sweet note of congratulations.

Yesterday was the celebratory milestone we have been hoping for. We took off from Phoenix to Salt Lake City together as father and son, Check Pilot and new First Officer. It was an incredible milestone! Ironically, the weather at SLC was marginal, and the flight felt like the Line Oriented Flight Training scenario where you battle with task loading, additive conditions, and crew factors the entire flight. We laughed together as our approach changed four times and we had to adjust. Just another day at the office for professional pilots. Just another milestone for a cancer survivor.

Some might see it as just another flight, but for us, it was a testament to resilience, family bonds, and the power of never giving up on your dreams.