Milk Jugs and Christmas

The invention of the plastic milk jug and Christmas morning; what could they possibly have in common? Well strangely enough quite a bit; at least for me anyway. No, I don’t mean to imply that I have any connection whatsoever to the plastic jug industry; not at all. Nor do I mean that there could be any other significance attached to Christmas for me, than there probably is for anyone else. Plastic milk jugs and Christmas morning are two links in a chain of events of my life. These events began early on for me and continued through a life in the military. These events are related to my Christmas; they are linked together in a chain. And, this chain has remained unbroken to place me precisely where I am now on Christmas morning.

What is a chain of events? Several years ago I signed up for a class titled Human Factors in Aviation. It was one of those continuing education classes that I take every so often; part of the curse of a perpetual student; unable to pass up any class that might be halfway interesting. Well, this class turned out to be a series of case studies dealing with aviation mishaps, aircraft crashes, accident investigations, and so on. Without going into too much detail, the theme throughout these cases we studied was every accident had a certain “chain of events” that led up to the mishap. Many of these events, taken on their own, would be insignificant; however as part of the “chain” each was a contributor. More important, all of the mishaps we studied could have been averted if just one of those insignificant events had not occurred; breaking a link in the chain. What I took away from this class was the concept of a chain of events and the related consequences. Not only how this applied to aviation safety, but also how this applied to life in general. Intuitive? Yeah, I suppose it is, but I hadn’t really looked at life choices as a chain of events up to that point. When I was going through the Army’s basic infantry training I had a Drill Sergeant that taught us to take what we learned, change it a little, and then apply it to something else. So, here is my chain of events that tie together plastic milk jugs and Christmas morning.

When I was about seven or eight years old my parents would drive out to the airport on Sunday afternoons to watch the aircraft take off and land. I suppose it was mostly just something to do on a boring afternoon, but it spawned an interest in aviation for me at a young age. Essentially, that was the first link in the chain. Later when I was twenty years old and working in a Dairy, I was literally bored out of my mind; placing gallon milk jugs on a belt to be filled; all day long, day after day after day. Boredom is what led me to walk into a recruiter’s office, and what did I see hanging on the wall of his office? I saw posters of military aircraft; so I enlisted and began a life in the military, and also a career in aviation. Working in that Dairy and joining the military are two more links in the chain.

So how are these events related to Christmas? Well I spent seven years in the military, got out for a little while, missed military life, so went back in as a reservist, and have been a weekend warrior ever since. Also, since leaving active duty I continued a civilian career in aviation. Military life and aviation have two things in common: you are away from home a lot and you work when everyone else is home in bed; for example, Christmas morning. I can only remember a few Christmases that I have spent at home or with my family since I was a kid. I have spent Christmas in barracks, overseas, on deployment, in motels, on the road, in aircraft hangars, you name it. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because along with all that there are also the memories of watching Mt. Etna erupt, strolling through Roman or Greek ruins, and swimming in the Ionian or the Mediterranean, flying over the Alps, drinking beer in an Irish pub in Frankfort; a lot of beer. Then there are others such as the biker chick I met on the east coast, or the dark haired beauty I met in a no-name bar in Izmir; she didn’t speak English, I didn’t speak Turkish; but then so what? All of these events are related as links in a still growing chain of events.

What if just one of those links had been broken? What if my parents had not taken me to the airport to watch aircraft? What if I had not walked into a recruiter’s office that day? What if I hadn’t pursued relationships along the way that were bound to auger in at mach 3.0; thereby providing incentive for links such as the detachment to Izmir. Or, most important of all; what if milk was not bottled in plastic jugs? If just one of those links had been broken, no matter how insignificant, then the chain of events would have been broken. And that of course would mean that right now I would not be doing what I am doing; specifically standing in an aircraft hangar at 2:00 AM Christmas morning, looking over a wiring schematic with a mechanic while he tries to figure out why this Falcon 2000 experiences a pressurization spike every time the pilot pushes the throttles forward. Yup, plastic milk jugs.

As my Drill Sergeant taught me - take something you learn, change it a little and then apply it to something else. What did I learn from aircraft accident case studies? Of course I learned about air safety and accident avoidance. But, what I really learned was a life lesson about the choices that we make and the links that we forge for ourselves, beginning with childhood and continuing as we go through life. So, how are plastic milk jugs related to Christmas morning? Those damn plastic jugs are a link in the long chain of events that led to me spending another Christmas morning in a hangar, a barracks, overseas, or anywhere but home. If that plastic milk jug link had been removed from my chain of events, I could be home in bed right now. Are there holes in my syllogistic logic? Yeah, it probably looks as though it has been strafed by an M-60, but it is Christmas after all, so what the hell.