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Twenty years ago this month, I had the extraordinary opportunity to attend the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC), the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s own offering to a select group of civilians to travel to various places around the globe with all branches of the military.
Over the course of a week, our group of fifty from all over the country was hosted by US European Command and traveled by C-17 military transport aircraft from Washington, DC to military bases across Europe.
Highlights included spending a day at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, then flying to Bosnia where we participated in foot patrols with members from the Indiana Army National Guard as part of NATO’s commitment to peace after the Bosnian War.
From there it was on to Baku, Azerbaijan, to spend a day with US Navy SEALs who were participating in joint training exercises. The SEALs took us on boat rides in their rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) where we spun doughnuts on the Caspian Sea, then let us shoot an M4 carbine. When it was my turn, the SEAL assisting me kept saying, “Ma’am, the target is over here.”
We left Azerbaijan for Rota, Spain, where we were flown by carrier on-board delivery (COD) aircraft out to the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) Navy aircraft carrier. Although the Enterprise has since been decommissioned, it came online in 1958 and was the world’s first nuclear aircraft carrier. It was also where the aircraft carrier scenes from the first Top Gun movie were filmed.
Somehow, I survived the tailhook landing onto the Enterprise, although afterward I wished we had not enjoyed so much sangria the night before. While on the Enterprise, we ate lunch with the sailors, then were taken up to the flight deck where we watched an airshow and saw an F/A18 Hornet break the sound barrier as it flew overhead.
And then it came time to leave the Enterprise on the COD aircraft via catapult launch. While the flight deck crew was setting the catapult, we were told to brace the bottoms of our feet against the seat in front of us to avoid doing a face plant. I was convinced I was going to pass out from anxiety, but we were already in the air flying before I realized what had happened.
In retrospect, the week was a blur due to all that was going on with me at the time. A week before, my ex-husband had sold the company he had built and I, and many others, had helped him save, so I was out of a job. We had moved into our new house a few months before, so things were still getting settled. On top of that, I realized he and I were moving in opposite directions, so my personal life was in turmoil.
But the JCOC trip, with all its sensory overload and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, injected me with a restored sense of confidence and self-awareness. Above all, I developed an even greater sense of appreciation for the commitments and sacrifices our troops from all branches of military service make every day.
To those who serve and protect,
