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| U.S. Army Capt. Mark Flitton |
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Posted on 04/18/2006 4:19:15 PM PDT by SandRat
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Golfing in the World's Biggest Sand Trap -- FORE!!!
Armed to a 'tee' :)
Golfing cool.
Keep Pres. Ford off the links with that one.
“Dad didn’t like kids on the golf course because they never respected the grass, the people, and the game,” Flitton recalled. “So what happens when you tell a kid he can’t do something? He does the opposite. And, so I bought my first golf club at a garage sale for 25 cents.”
Captain takes Mocs pride to battle zone
By Jan Galletta Staff Writer
Eight years ago, Nicu Nastase gained a berth in the U.S. Amateur Public Links qualifying tournament when the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior made par on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. He’d earlier posted a 3-under-par round of 67 to force the playoff at the Moccasin Bend Golf Club.
Today at 30, he’s a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and a pilot of AV-8B Harrier jets — the kind of plane he said Arnold Schwarzenegger flew in the film "True Lies." A member of HMM-261 and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), he’s on deployment in an area of responsibility that stretches from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia.
En route to earning a B.S. in accounting at UTC’s fall 1998 commencement, the Maryland native amassed a 3.73 grade point average and graduated cum laude.
But this winter he was in Iraq, providing air support to American ground troops in Al Anbar province. In the air, he had a Mocs sticker on his pilot’s helmet; for fun, he drove golf balls off a flight deck into distant sea horizons.
Last week, he agreed to an email interview with the Times Free Press. An edited account of the interview follows.
Q: When did you last visit Chattanooga ?
A: It was late October during the Chattanooga air show. I wanted badly to fly a Harrier in, but because of our upcoming deployment, we couldn’t risk a maintenance effort to fix a jet stuck in Chattanooga.
Q: What has your military involvement entailed?
A: I reported to Officer Candidate School Jan. 30, 2000, and was commissioned a second lieutenant on April 7, 2000. I reported to TBS (The Basic School) on April 15, 2000, at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Va. TBS is a six-month infantry-based school to train all Marine officers how to fire all weapons in the infantry arsenal and to get a firsthand experience on the struggles the basic Marine infantryman encounters.
(In February 2001 in Pensacola, Fla., then-2nd Lt. Nastase completed Aviation Pre-Indoctrination Training, which he said tested academics in aviation physics and water-survival training. Further schooling followed in flight basics, jet piloting, Harrier training and SERE, short for survival, evasion, resistance and escape, special combat, he said.) I am part of the 22nd MEU. Basically we are a group of ships that are designed to carry a few thousand Marines and all their gear as well as helicopters and AV-8B Harrier jets. We float around, train and wait for something to happen. If it does, we can have a landing party on the beach ASAP.
Most MEU missions involve evacuating American embassies or disaster relief, but in the past few years we have become part of the effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Q: What is the most difficult aspect of your current situation?
A: I am single, but while I don’t have children, I do have loving parents, grandparents and a sister that I miss dearly.
I learned much about myself out on the golf course, and I think it has transferred into how I carry myself now. When hitting a bad shot, I tried to put it aside and move forward. The same thing goes for the plane. You better learn from your mistakes, or from mistakes others have made, and press forward. Small mistakes are acceptable, but careless egregious mistakes can hurt you, much like hitting out of bounds can destroy your round.
Q: What’s the flip side — the positive aspects — of your present circumstances?
A: Supporting the Marines on the ground is the most rewarding experience. While there is some element of danger in what I do, it doesn’t shake a stick at what the ground-pounder faces every day in a guerrilla-style conflict. They really don’t know when or where the next IED (improvised explosive device) or small-arms fire attack is coming.
I used to play golf occasionally with a young man, fellow Pi Kappa Alpha brother and Vanderbilt graduate Deeg Sezna. Deeg had just received a job one week before Sept. 11, 2001, in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Tragically, Deeg perished in the 9/11 attack. People like Deeg have had an impact on my life and reminded me of why we are here.
Q: Has your stint in Iraq changed you as a person?
A: I’m not sure it has changed me really. Seeing the conditions of some of these other countries makes you feel very lucky to be an American. My father defected from Romania 35 years ago to avoid oppression under a Communist regime. He reminds me... to be very thankful I was born in the USA and not in Romania. Hence, I can relate with those in Iraq and the Middle East who just want to be free.
Probably, my most memorable experience was my very first flight in Iraq. I took off into a black abyss. The sun was setting, which made it too bright to don our night-vision goggles but too dark to clearly see much in front of you.
As I rolled out on my final heading toward the area I would be supporting that night, I saw a massive bright fireball in the distance. It was an IED that had hit a convoy in the area I was to work. I thought to myself, "Welcome to Iraq."
http://collegesportingnews.net/Sites/utc/article.asp?articleid=77244
Thanks for your post 10. Very informative, and nicely formatted.
I'm not seeing them.
Thanks for the response.
BTTT
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