One Leg Up On Life

Episode Transcript
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Ben Hall (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the pilot bass podcast. I'm Ben
and I've been a pilot for over adecade.

Dave Rogers (00:11):
And I'm Dave categorically not the pilot.

Ben Hall (00:14):
Every Monday we'll be chatting to both pilots and non
pilots with amazing aviationstories from all around the
world. You can find all episodesof the pilot based podcast for
free wherever you get yourpodcasts. If you like what
you're hearing, subscribe to ourchannel and leave us a review.

In this episode, we head back across the Atlantic
Ocean to meet major Christy wisenow imagine how elite you'd have
to be to become a US militarypilots. Now imagine that, that
as an amputated leg, Christy'slife and Christy's journey has
been incredible both in and outof the cockpit, and the way she
tells her story. Well, you'reabout to find out. This is major

(00:50):
Christy wise. Major Christywise, welcome to the pilot base.
Thank you for joining us. Andwell, thank you for taking some
time off your busy skiingschedule to fit in.

Christy Wise (01:04):
You know, it's a tough life here as the Air Force
pilots tough life so I'm doingpretty good. Thanks for having
me.

It's an absolute pleasure, Ben, before we get
into it with Christie, how areyou?

Ben Hall (01:15):
I'm doing all right. I worked out today. It's been 11
months since I last got on anaeroplane. So I need to get
airborne again. Pretty soon, Ireckon. Whoa. 11 months, 11
months to the day.

What's the longest you've spent out of the cockpit
Christy?

After I lost my leg, I was out for 16 months. I
spent a lot of time in thesimulator every week. So it
didn't exactly feel like I wasout of the plane. So that was
good.

11 months, man, how does that make you feel?

Ben Hall (01:49):
It was fine for the first bit because I actually had
like a normal sleeping scheduleand stuff. kind of came to the
point now where I want to beback in the sky. cutting some
holes in the clouds.

Then is that just is that because of COVID?
Because of all the furloughs?

Ben Hall (02:05):
Yeah, so I just got furloughed from British Airways?
Yes. And even the guys that arestill there, they're hardly
flying at all.

Gotcha.

Ben Hall (02:15):
Not a great place to be at the moment. the aviation
industry.

Yeah, that's definitely true.

quite brutal, actually. Ah, I feel like we
started on a down and now I knowyou look great. And that foliage
behind you for the people whodon't watch on YouTube and and
just listen to the audiopodcast. It looks great. You
really cultivating it. Thanks.
It's growing into the ceiling alittle bit lower, which is a
problem. Just put it on thefloor. Anyway, Christie, I
always love to know this becausewe have great guests from all

(02:46):
over the world. Where are youright now?

I'm in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

What a beautiful part of the world. Is that where
you were born and raised? Or isthat just where the best skin is
right now?

Um, so I was born and raised in Reno, Nevada, but
that is, Colorado is where theAir Force has me. So being the
military pilot, I've moved allaround the nation. And currently
I'm in Colorado.

My American geography isn't the best but
Nevada and Colorado. They're nottoo far from each other.

Yeah, they're both on the west coast. It's not
really driving distance. I thinkit's like 16 hours or something.
But you know, same side of thecountry.

Okay.

Ben Hall (03:29):
I just thought it'll 16 hour drive.

No problem.

Ben Hall (03:33):
Three laps to the UK.
And I

was gonna say is there anywhere? What would like
Exeter to Newcastle be but thatthat wouldn't be 16 hours?

Ben Hall (03:41):
No, no, it'd be like six or seven.

Maybe? Yeah. That is a long way. Right. Then where
do we start with you, Christie.
It has been a very, verycolourful life. This is the
pilot based podcast and you area pilot. So let's start with
your, with your journey into thecockpit. Are you from an
aviation family?

I am not. I am actually not from an aviation
family or a military family. Oh,wow. So I went to the Air Force
Academy out of high schoolbecause I was recruited for that
ski team. So I was always a skiracer, and I just wanted to
continue in college. And thatwas one of the places that I
would be able to join theirteam.

Ben Hall (04:28):
So how does that work?
The Air Force pay for you to goto college, because you're
really good at skiing.

So the airport so the academies are kind of unique
in that. So anyone that goes toan academy, whether it's Air
Force, Navy, Marine army, youare going to graduate as an
officer and go into the militaryservice, but kind of like a
normal college, they also havesports teams. So I went because

(04:56):
of the sports team, but I alsoknew that you know, it came with
some tabs that I was going tohave a military service
requirement upon graduation.

This is going in a very different direction. So I
thought it was going to alreadyand I love it with regards to
the ski racing them because ofcourse some of the greatest ski
racers of all time, LindseyVonn, Bodie, Miller, you name
them from the States did a partof you think, right? I can do
this military thing, but alsomaybe I could be an Olympic
skier Did you? Did you everthink that skiing could take you

(05:27):
all the way? Or was it alwayssomething you used to get the
next step whether it was the jobin the military or the college
degree.

So originally, when I was younger, and even in
early high school, I was hopingto go to the next step. And then
it was a little bit of a realitycheck about junior senior year
of high school where I realisedOh, I am not good enough to be
an Olympic skier. I'm goodenough to be a college skier at
a small college. That's thelevel skier I am. So it was a

(05:56):
really cool, niche place for methe Air Force Academy where I
was still able to compete in thecollegiate level, but knew that
it otherwise I didn't reallyhave a future and skied by so
got to enjoy it and then alsobecome a pilot. So

now I can't, I can't speak on behalf of
American military skiing, Ben.
But in my younger years, when Iused to try and get any excuse
to get to the mountain, I usedto go and work on British
military ski trips as like aresort rap. And as an announcer
for the ski racing. They have areally good time mate. tickets.

(06:34):
I mean, yeah, yes, they race.
And yes, there are freestylecompetitions. And there are some
really good races. But there aresome not so good races, who are
really good at all the otherstuff in ski resorts. So being

(06:55):
in Colorado, are you getting anytime on the slopes at the
moment? I mean, I know theanswer to this is yes. So I just
want to hear about it. We can'tgo in Europe at the moment. And
it's very limited. So if youcould just do your best to make
me jettison sort of me in themountains right now. That'd be
fantastic.

Yeah, so Well, I'm sure we're gonna get into this
later. But now, when I ski racedin college at Everest, khadem II
in two legs, so I was a normalable bodied racer. But now since
I've been back in Colorado, I'mactually on the adaptive ski
racing team right now. So I wastraining this weekend. And just
seeing if I can make a run atthe Paralympics. So we'll see. I

(07:35):
don't know it's not going togreat right now. So ask me about
that later.

Well, if you need Paralympic advice, then you need
to speak to Mr. Ben Hall as a2012 Paralympian himself. So we
will get into that and with theadaptive skiing and are you on
the you want to skis are you inone of the six skis?

I'm on two skis. I actually have a full ski leg.
And yeah, so I'm on to ski. Sothat's what I'm trying. It's a
lot of angles and physics.
That's what I'm kind oftinkering with right now.

Ben Hall (08:08):
Are you enjoying it?
The ski attached to the lowerpart of your leg? And then
you've got like a special knee.
How does that work?

Yeah. So I mean, I'll have to get it in a minute.
And I'll show it to you guys.

I love aviation podcasts.

like yours, you're very surprised. It's a fox bike
shocks. So it's like some shockssuspended in a metal frame.
That's what the knee is. Andthen the foot is a similar
bumper system that clipsdirectly into the ski. So I
don't wear a ski boot at all.

Oh, wow.

Ben Hall (08:44):
It's a custom.
Obviously, it's custom fit toyou. But is it custom made for
you?

No, it's not. And it's this company named bio
adapt. And it's a guy who's a heactually won the gold in
Paralympic snowboarding, MikeSchultz. Yeah, so he built a leg
and all the snowboarders are onit. Everyone in the Paralympic
snowboarding world, but nobody'son it yet on the scheme side. So
I'm trying to introduce it toskiers

Ben Hall (09:11):
Trailblazer.

Yeah, I'm not doing so good yet.

Unknown (09:16):
That's my goal.

Amazing. I will certainly keep an eye out for
that. What? Oh, what a greatthing. Oh, I love it. I love it.
I tell you what, while we're onsports, let's talk Invictus
Games. Because I think our pathsmay have crossed without us
without us realising and howcould we were you at Orlando?

(09:38):
2016 or 2017? Okay. Um, did yourace in the in in the road race,
the lap race around the ESPNWide World of Sports?

I'm on in the car and the bike

on the bike.

I did. Yes. Oh,

I caught that race.
Oh, that's how I yeah, they it'sone of the one of the best
things I've ever had theprivilege of doing. So when the
Invictus Games started in in2014, they asked me to come to
London to do the indoor sports.
So the sitting volleyball, thewheelchair basketball, and the
wheelchair rugby. And then theyflew a load of us out as kind of

(10:20):
heritage, I suppose the peoplewho did the first games out to
Florida for the second game, soI did the indoor sports again.
And the cycling too. So I willhave Yeah, I'll have called you
in a in a road race, which isreally quite strange, isn't it?

Yeah. I didn't bother the cycling events both
times Orlando and Toronto.

Amazing. They pretty special events, actually
Invictus Games, aren't they?
Yeah, I

think for me, I have, I think a lot of my
recovery. And the success thatI've had since I lost my leg was
in part because of adaptivesports. So that's just been
really amazing. The interestingthing for me is that when I lost
my leg, there was actually fiveother pilots in the Air Force
that had already gotten back toflying after an amputation. So

(11:09):
they reached out to me and so wehad this little we called it
that amputee pilot mafia. And wejoke that you had to lose the
arm or leg to enter, but that weare pretty tight knit. And so it
was cool, because I always hadthe support from the pilots. And
so in my mind, I guess I alwaysknew that I was going to get
back to flying. And that waspossible, because it had already

(11:30):
been done. But, um, I think thehardest part for me mentally was
just how long it took, you know,for my leg to heal, and the
prosthetic, getting yourprosthesis and getting it fitted
and running. And, you know,getting the strength to push the
pedals. You know, that was all avery long process. And I just,
um, in the meantime, I got toparticipate in sports along the

(11:53):
way. And I think that was thebiggest thing that helped me
mentally because I was just sobored. And, you know, the flying
thing was just taking so longthat I kind of needed something
else to be excited about andpassionate about. And you know,
I ski race my whole life. So Iwas already kind of an athlete.
And so I felt like at first Ilost that identity a little bit,

(12:14):
you know, like, Oh, am I gonnabe an athlete still. And so
Invictus Games, and warrior Ifirst was in weird games, and
then I got to do it addictivetwice. But it was just so
amazing. And then also justbeing around other athletes. You
know, I went to my first WarriorGames only nine weeks after I
lost my leg. Oh, wow. Well,still on my crutches. And now

(12:36):
I'm around this whole communityof amazing people on there. Like
you gotta try this leg. You gotto do this to sleep at night.
And I just all of a sudden was apart of this amazing community
that I you know,

Ben Hall (12:50):
what? You compete after nine weeks?

I did. What sports?
What did you do?

So it actually was so crazy. This story is just so
crazy, guys. I didn't make anyof this stuff up. So I was in
the Rehab Centre in San AntonioBrookstone Medical Centre, and I
couldn't get my prosthetic legyet because I was waiting for my
incision to heal. So I wascrouching everywhere. And then
all I was doing every day wasworking out all day every day.

(13:20):
So I was doing. And so that'swhen I met one of the Air Force
coaches, she was an PT as wellfor Warrior Games. And she came
into the gym to get one of ourinto the rehab, 71 of her
prosthetic legs worked on andshe saw me working out and so
she said, Hey, do you knowanything about warrior sports?
And I said no. And she shebasically recruited me on the

(13:41):
spot. She's like, I think thisis awesome, like such great
shape. And I was pitchingeverywhere. So my arms were so
strong. And so she's like, let'swork competing in two months. Do
you want to go? Like Yeah, I do.
Also, like I told you guys, Iwas so bored. So then the really
cool thing is that first games,Warrior Games, I did everything

(14:02):
seated. So I did like the handcycle. I did wheelchair racing,
seeded shotput, and discus. Soeverything was just with my
upper body, which was alreadystrong from crunching
everywhere. And then I said tomyself, like it was really
awesome to compete that way thatfirst year so early on and get

(14:23):
basically get connected to thecommunity so early. And then I
said okay, if I ever do this,again, I'm not doing anything
seated. I'm doing everythingstanding up or running. So then
the following year when Icompeted in Orlando and
Invictus. It was amazing becauseI did all the events in track
cycling and I did everything up,right. Sounds really exciting.

I mean, community is, is a word that you've
mentioned a number of timesthere and, and honestly, then
I've been lucky to go to a lotof places and see a lot of
sports over the years, but Idon't think I've ever
experienced community likeInvictus Games. I've not been to
a Warrior Games and I don'tthink I get the opportunity to a

(15:07):
good friend of mine has he wenta couple of years ago was in
Indiana a couple years ago.
Maybe Yeah,

it was. And it's it's so neat because you know,
Invictus is just theinternational version of Warrior
Games. That's the same. It's thesame thing. And you're right.
It's just such an amazingcommunity. I remember this one
story, I'm walking. I'm atInvictus Games in Orlando, and
I'm walking back to my room. AndI competed in way too many
events. And so I was reallysore. My leg was hurting and

(15:33):
basically like limping back tomy room. And then I look next to
me and there's this Britishsoldier he has a same amputation
as me same legs, same prostheticleg, and he's also limping. Like
how this moment and we likestart talking and stuff and you
know, he was a special forcesTrue God is like, injured in

(15:56):
Iraq or, and you know, it's justlike, our stories are so
different. But like, in thismoment, we're doing the same
thing, like limping back to ourroom after all these sporting
events. So it was just so cool.

And it's just the people that get behind it as
well. I remember, obviously,Prince Harry was out there as
one of the founders of it. Butthen Michelle Obama spoke at the
opening ceremony, Joe Biden,when he was vice president Cain,
Dr. Jill Biden, Michael J. Foxwas in the audience. One night
we had NBA players and NFLplayers come in. JOHN CENA was

(16:31):
the celebrity coach of thewheelchair rugby team. Yeah, I
think it's I think it's just anopportunity for, for ordinary
people to try and give somethingback to extraordinary people.
Really, it's, yeah,

Ben Hall (16:45):
that's a brilliant combination, isn't it? Because
in the military, you've got allthat camaraderie anyway. And
then you've got all the sort ofteam aspects of the sport and
just comes together really,really well. In the in

the Team USA, has anybody gone on to do something?
I mean, obviously, you're makingit your objective now to try and
get to a winter Olympics. But inthe UK, off the back of the
first Invictus Games, there's aguy called JJ charmers. And now
he's a presenter on the BBC,which is one of our big
broadcast channels over here.
There's a guy called Dave Hensonwho won the bronze medal in the

(17:18):
200 metres for double amputeesat the at the World
Championships. Are there anycases of American athletes who,
who've gone on to do that?

Yeah, for sure.
And it's just kind of such anamazing thing. I think because
Invictus then can be a steppingstone. So I think a lot of
amputees or you know, anyonewho's injured gets into it in
their initial like, right aftertheir injury, and then they see
Oh, I can participate in sportsagain. And I can do this and
then yeah, usually, afterInvictus, there's a couple that

(17:51):
will really pursue it on thenational and the Olympic level.
And we have quite a few, atleast on the team. I can't think
of any medals but

Ben Hall (18:02):
it's amazing cuz I bet when you first lost your leg,
the first thought was, like myworlds just come tumbling down.
And now it's just actuallyopened up all these other
opportunities that you wouldnever have otherwise,

for sure.

Before we move on, because this is just turning
into a sports podcast podcast,which I'm here for, but a couple
of your old teammates. were bigin the Invictus Games, a Charlie
Walker ban natural runner, thoseboys.

Ben Hall (18:28):
Yeah, so I used to play sitting volleyball for
Great Britain. So in sittingvolleyball, back in the day, it
was one of the few sports whereyou can have mentally disabled
people. So in the squad, youcould have two minimally
disabled people. So effectively,it was you had an injury, which
causes you not to be able toplay for the Olympic team.

(18:51):
Right? So for me, I had kneereconstruction, like my knee was
just in such bad shape. It'slike, moving around the place
that I got qualified for to be amentally disabled person on the
volleyball team. And about halfthe team will probably ex
military. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Andthey had some crazy stories.

(19:13):
Well, this one guy, actually. SoCharlie Walker probably hates me
naming him on the podcast, buthe was a bomb disposal expert,
and he lost both of his legsthrough meningitis. Crazy,

that's crazy.

The way you've worked at the beginning of that
then makes it sound like had younot blown your knee out. You'd
have played for the GreatBritish Olympic volleyball team.
Is that something you're goingon record is saying or Dave, you
probably didn't mention that.
That would be better for me.

Ben Hall (19:47):
No, I wouldn't have been a Olympic quality but I
could have been, you know if Iwas a better volleyball player.

Yes. Yeah. Okay, so I'm not saying We're not going
to go back to sports. But let'sbring it back to aviation for
the time being. So, you, youtook the military route through
college? Was that always withthe view of becoming a pilot?
How did the How did the interestin in becoming a pilot first

(20:17):
strike? You

know, so I mean, I did you know even when I was a
high school senior realising Iwasn't good enough to be a
Olympic skier, I did myresearch, you know, okay, I
think this Air Force Academy hasa ski team, I think I would
enjoy Colorado. But I also, youknow, knew I didn't because some
athletes actually kind of gettricked a little bit into the

(20:40):
academies, they don't reallyrealise what they're signing on
for come to play football, andthen they show up and they have
to march and they're like, whatdid I sign up for? So I was not
one of those people, I knew whatI was signing up for. I thought
it was a very unique experiencethat I thought I would enjoy.
And I wasn't for sure if Iwanted to fly, but I knew that

(21:00):
was probably a good option. Andthen once I was at the Academy,
they do a pretty good job duringthe summers, they'll let you
tour other bases, and you'll getto shadow different career
fields. So for me, because I'm,you know, I really like being
around people. And so I thought,oh, maybe I'll want to do you
know, public affairs orpersonnel or something. But just

(21:24):
whenever I was shadowing, I waslike, No, I want to be a pilot,
like just seeing the pilots andtheir jobs. And of all the
things I shadowed, it becamepretty clear to me that I think
this is what I want to do. Andit's awesome, because I think
aviation is very similar. It'skind of a team aspect, like,
especially, you know, I kneweven you know, I thought about

(21:48):
fighters for a little bit, but Ijust loved the crew aspect. Like
I loved being around a crew,getting a mission done, and
everything changes every day.
You know, the weather isdifferent every day, the planes
are always different. And so tome, it was almost kind of like
an extension of sports, like ajob that just has a lot of the
similar aspects that I hadalways really enjoyed.

I'm interested Yeah, I've never thought of
that. But you're absolutelyright. That's the first time
I've thought of it as a teamthing, and I suppose as the
pilot, then you're just thecaptain of the team that day.

Yeah, exactly.
leading your crew, andespecially, especially in some
of the military environments,like deployed and you got
somebody who's having an offday, but you still have to get
the mission done. Or you have tokeep the crew working together
as smoothly as possible. And,yeah,

something that Ben and I often talk about, not
necessarily in aviation, butwith regards to being a pilot
is, there's not an awful lot ofrepresentation. I don't know the
statistics, but I know there arean awful lot more male pilots
than female pilots. Is thatsomething that that sort of you
encountered? Were there anyobstacles as a result of that?

No, I feel pretty lucky. I mean, the statistics
are still there. So I know atthe Academy, there was only one
in four women at the Academy. So20%. And then, as pilots, it's
one in five. But it wasn't, Inever felt any different. Like I
didn't ever feel like I had adifferent standard or any

(23:26):
discrimination or anything. Andto me, I always tell people, I
feel like I was a little easierfor me because I was always a
tomboy and into sports growingup, so I kind of was always
around the guys anyways. Sowhenever everyone would ask me
Oh, how is it? I'm like, I don'tknow, I don't really notice it.

Ben Hall (23:45):
One in five seems like quite a good ratio, relatively,
because I think in the world,it's something like one in 20

Yeah, I think so.
I think it's, um, one in five.
And that was when I was going topilot training. So I don't know
if it's fluctuated since then.

Um, what was the first plane you flew in the
military?

I flew that T six.
So a little bit, a little small,aerobatic plane. And then we fly
that for about six months. Andthen I flew the T one. It's kind
of a double engine, Beechcraftaircraft. And that's what they
fly. Everyone flies those inpilot training. And then I was
assigned the C 130, which Ispent most of my career flying c
130.

Ben Hall (24:30):
They assigned you to see 130, can you kind of choose
your preferences?

Yeah, it's kind of you can kind of choose them. So
it's a big equation. When you gothrough pilot training. It's
based on your academic testscores, your flight, your
checkride scores, then yourdaily flights, it all goes into
this big equation of how you arerated like what rank you
graduate your class in, and thenbased on what you want, so you

(24:56):
can put down all yourpreferences and then also what's
up vailable that time that yougraduate, so you couldn't be the
best in your class and say Iwant to fly the F 22. And then
that week, they don't have any f20 twos and you won't get it. So
it is somewhat your preference.
A little bit of luck. And yeah,just what's available.

Ben Hall (25:17):
And your baby is, is the Hercules. Yep.

Nice. Do you do you enjoy flying it? I mean, I know,
that might sound like aridiculous question. But for
some people, it's just a job.
And for some people, it's morethan that. So do you enjoy
flying the sea?

Yes. So I love flying the ceiling. 30. I
actually so autopilot training,I put the C 17. First, just
because the C 17 had betterlocations better basis. And I
put this you on 32nd because Iliked the flying the mission
better. So it's funny becauseeven when I put those I knew I
was putting c 17. First forlocations, c 31/32 for the

(25:54):
flying. And now I just I'm sorelieved that I got sort of my
second choice because the flyingis just so fun. And you can make
any any, you know, locationschange anyways.

So what does a day or a week or a month look like
as a 730 pilot for you.

So the other great thing that I didn't even know
when I put in my list, but Iactually was assigned rescue c
130s. So specifically in thesearch and rescue mission, which
is really, really cool for C 130pilots. So I refill helicopters
in the air. And then we work alot with the PJ's that jump out

(26:34):
in the back. And we also workwith Cb 22 anything we can
refuel anything. So it's

Ben Hall (26:42):
just it's where refuel helicopters. I didn't even know
anything.

Yep. Only the 30s can do it. Because of because
we're props you know, so we cangenerate our own lifts so we can
fly really, really slow. So wewe refuel the helicopters only
five knots above stall speed.

Ben Hall (27:01):
Really so like what kind of speed

105 usually so slower than we land we land at
like 130 knots, but we refuel at105

Ben Hall (27:10):
of hex uncomfortable,

but we can also fly like two, we usually fly
around like 220 knots. So it'slike such a cool job mission
because the reason that we haveC 130s is even in say
Afghanistan, Iraq, you know,somebody gets shot down or
they're injured and it's reallyfar away. The helicopters don't
have the range to get far away.
So that's what they have to seeon 30. So we'll go we're kind of

(27:34):
the redheaded stepchildren ofrescue and that we do all the
work but we don't get anycredit. Because whenever you see
rescues, you see the helicopterand the person being pulled up
with the PJs but what they knowand to says is like there was
hours of work by the sea 1/31like we go out we find the
person that's downed, we radioback we tell helicopters to come

(27:57):
we refuel them so they can gothat far. Then they do the
rescue then we refill them back.

Ben Hall (28:06):
So all the heavy lifting and the other people get
really boring. Yeah. PJ'sbecause in England that is
pyjamas?

Oh, yeah. Sorry.
pararescue jumpers. Got it.
Sorry. I should. Yeah, they'rethe guys that jump out of the
back or go on helicopter andpull the guys up from the
ground.

I am so glad we got into this. That is so cool. So I
just picture like the F 22 islike the sports car with the big
exhaust and the spoiler itdoesn't need. And you guys are
like the sort of old Cadillacconvertible that you can just
sort of sit back. And doesn'tmatter what you do. It's loads

(28:47):
cooler than it looks. an exam.
Yeah.

Ben Hall (28:51):
Have you been operational in it?

Yes. So I have done I have been lucky enough to
do both a couple of rescues inAfghanistan, one in Italy, in
the deployed environment. Andthen I've done a couple of
rescues back home station. Solast fall. One of the coolest
missions missions I've ever donewas a Mexican fishing boat. It

(29:18):
was 1200 miles off the coast ofthe Pacific off of California.
And they had a crane collapse onboard the fishing boat and it
hit one guy in the head andanother guy in the leg. And all
they had on board was basicallya first aid kit. So they radioed
like a distress call. TheMexican military didn't have any

(29:40):
capability to get it was too faraway. It was basically two and a
half days from shore. And theywere worried with the fishermen
with a head injury that hewouldn't make it two and a half
days. And so then they also askthe Coast Guard and the Coast
Guard. Head art was alreadyanother missions at the time and
they didn't think they could getout that far. Either. So then
our unit and I was in Arizona atthe time, we got approval to go

(30:05):
on the mission. So we flew theday flight flew like six hours
in the middle of the ocean, airdrops the pair rescue jumpers
into the water they got on theboat and like took care of the
two patients, medically becausethey're all like trained medics,
and then I was on the flightthat night. So it was supposed

(30:26):
to be just a normal Tuesdaynight training flight. And so
then we got retest, because theydidn't they needed more
medicine, and more blood for thepatient with the head injury.
And so then we basically theNight Flight, my flight we flew
also five hours, middle of theocean at night honour, every G's

(30:48):
dropped down, airdrop, this tinylittle Pelican case of blood to
raise the pair SP jumpers, andthen they got it. And they they
basically. So that was what myrole in that mission was. And
they took care of him for thetwo days until they got to land.
Then the Mexican military tookover. And then another c 130.

(31:11):
Flight not mine, but for my unitwent landed in Mexico picked
everybody up and came back home.

What a gig. Oh My Goodness me.

Ben Hall (31:25):
And you're an expert accidents at sea as well on you.
So.

Unknown (31:29):
Yeah.

Yeah. It's kind of ironic. Yeah. When you think

so. That is that is absolutely astonishing. Well,
you've you've brought it up. Youbrought it up, Ben. So I suppose
we should talk about it. And youyou do have a missing leg? Yep.
Oh, part part there have? I'msure you've told the story. So

(31:55):
so many times, but you mind sortof telling. Okay, cool. The
floor is yours.

Yeah, so kind of like we were talking about
earlier with your buddy who hasExplosive Ordnance that lost his
legs. Another way I had actuallyjust gotten back from my
deployment in Afghanistan. SoI'd gotten back from a
deployment there and I was onvacation with friends. I was in
Destin, Florida. And I waspaddleboarding in this little
protected Cove and I a boatswerved into that area, and hit

(32:29):
me. So I saw them coming. I wasstanding on my paddleboard and I
and I had just gotten dark. So Ihad a large flashlight with me.
And so I waved it at them andwas like, okay, they're gonna
see me, they're gonna go aroundme. And then I realised like,
oh, they're not going around me,it took me maybe a second to

(32:50):
realise that. So I jumped off mypaddleboard to like, get away.
And then I got hit, I waswearing like a sweatshirt over
my swimsuit, because it was kindof chilly. And I remember the
sensation of my sweater gettingwet. Like, you know, when you
jump in the water and yourclothes get wet. And then I got
hit in my shoulder with thefront of the boat. And then I

(33:12):
pushed off the bottom on theboat and I swam down. So it's
really cool. Because to me, thatwas the first miracle. Or you
know, God, I think are myguardian angel. Because there's
no way I had time to think that.
And had I not swim down after Igot hit in the shoulder, my
entire body was gonna go throughthe propeller at the end of the
boat. Because I pushed off andswim down. The propeller just

(33:33):
struck my right leg.
So down,no, I know, this is why I'm
telling you. God had a plan forme because there's no way I
know, whoever It's not like Inever thought of that scenario
before. Like, I don't know, Iswim down. So I swam down, which
is really cool. I don't know howI did that. And it made a weird

(33:57):
sound. It didn't hurt oranything. And so I surface and I
was with my friend at the time,Tim, and he was standing right
next to me on his board. Hejumped off the other direction.
So he's like, swinging up to thesurface. He's like, are you
okay? Are you okay? I'm like,Yeah, I'm fine. Like that tone
of voice. And then he swam overto me and that's when we saw

(34:22):
like, I saw part of the bonesticking out on my leg. I
realise Oh, maybe, maybe I'm notbehind this. And so he was
wearing a long sleeve t shirt.
We took it off, he took it offand we wrapped it around my leg
and sort of a tourniquet and theboat that hit me never stopped.

(34:43):
So it kept going. And then thenext like miracle is I don't
even remember thinking thisbecause we were in this like
protected little Cove wherethere was never any boat traffic
unless you lived there which ismy best friend's it was actually
at their house. There's onlylike 100 yards from their dock.
So, you know, it was likebasically their backyard. I had
honestly paddleboard there like100 times before. The only boats

(35:07):
that were ever in the cove wasif you lived there, which we
knew everyone that lived thereanyways. So then I'm looking
around for my board, I don't seeit because I jumped off of it.
And about a quarter mile, likehalf mile away, there was a
bridge, where there was all thisboat traffic under the bridge.
And so I was like, oh, there's afishing boat over there, I

(35:29):
should signal to that fishingboat. So I got up. I like looked
down. And my flashlight wasstill on my right hand. So I was
like the next miracle, like Ihad my flashlight in my hand
wave at them. But now I've like,jumped away, got hit, like swam
down. And then now I need myflashlight again, it's still in
my hand. So I see most of them,they came over right away. And

(35:52):
they had actually seen ithappen. So they saw it happen.
And so they were already comingto me anyways. But since I had
the flashlight and could signalthem, they were you know, they
knew exactly where I was. Sothey came they got me in the
back of the boat. Awesome coupleRobert M shell. And they and I
laid on the back that a coolerso I was laying on the cooler

(36:13):
and my. So we apply a tourniquetto my leg with the T shirt. But
it still wasn't tight enough. SoI was still losing blood really
rapidly. And so we use theirfishing net, we use the handle
to like crank down the T shirtto tie it to like get the blood
bleeding to stop. So we estimatethis. Yeah, we asked me this

(36:35):
whole thing happened in aboutthree minutes from the time that
I like was standing on the boarduntil being in the back of their
fishing boat. So all very, veryfast. But I lost about 65 to 70%
of my blood in that threeminutes. So I just think it's so
I mean I speak of it'spositively because I like you

(36:57):
know, another 30 seconds or likeany one of the things that
happened, had they happened in adifferent way. I wouldn't be
here talking to you guys today.

Ben Hall (37:08):
So he you just drove off. Yeah, I mean, there's no
real way you could not noticethat right?

I mean, I'll never know. So I'll never know.

I like I don't think it would do you any good
to think about it either, wouldit?

Well, so I was actually very interesting. My
son Tim, who was with me and mybest friends were there. There
was a police investigation. So Iwent on for about six months. So
the police were actually prettyamazing. They went to all the
marinas that very night theyinspected propellers for the
next couple months, they went tohotels and got footage from

(37:47):
anything that was pointingtowards the water. So it's like
a very intense investigation andmy friends, my best friends
because it was basically theirhouse. So they kind of had some
PTSD over the event because theyyou know, I lost my leg in their
backyard. And then Tim was withme, of course did and so they
were always you know, gettingupdates on the case, but they

(38:10):
would always ask me like, do youwant any updates? And I I just
said no, because I was like, tome it was like, I'm like my legs
not growing back either way. Soto me I was already like,
focused on the next thing likeflying you know, Invictus like
sports all stuff because I waslike, Well, I don't know what's

(38:30):
gonna happen with investigation.
But either way, I gotta learnhow to live with one leg. So I'm
just gonna focus on that

same thing Invictus thing again, isn't it the master
of your fate, the captain ofyour soul? And you're speaking
credibly positively about it nowand you've had a smile on your
face at times when you've toldus that story. Was that? Has
that always been the case?

I think it's a combination of factors. So I
have always been like, ingeneral, sort of optimistic my
callsign and my firstdeployment, the one in
Afghanistan was Optimus Prime.
Like my crew was like, wouldmake fun of me because they were
like, Chrissy, you're gonna saylike, Oh, I'm so excited. And

(39:18):
that could be just that there'sgreen beans at the chow hall
today or that we did this coolmission. I'm like, Oh, you're
right. And excited abouteverything. So that is kind of
true. Like, I was always, I'vealways been that way. And then I
think to just in the hospital inthe first couple days, all the

(39:39):
doctors and nurses. Everyone wasso surprised that I lived
through that, that it was alwayslike everyone was just like,
wow, we're so happy. You'realive. We're so happy you're
alive. We can't believe you livethrough that. You know, being in
Florida. They see boatingfatalities all the time. So I
was maybe the first one that hadreally whipped through something

(40:00):
like that. So it was kind ofcool. Because their attitude
about that just kind of, youknow, transferred on to me and
like my family of like, wow,yeah, I'm not necessarily right
now sad that I lost, like, I'mjust happy to be alive. So
Originally, it was very, verypositive. I think it was more
like for me the middle of myrecovery, where I just was

(40:23):
really struggling, and it wastaking longer than I wanted. And
that's where I got depressed.
Whereas in the beginning, I wasjust so optimistic and
motivated. So it's, it's kind ofinteresting that goes easier at
the beginning and harder in themiddle. For me,

at any point, did you think about the possibility
of medical discharge whether ornot you'd be allowed to remain
in the military? How did thatcome? Like? It's just so
confusing, because some peopleseem to get discharged for
something where you'd thinkthey'd be able to stay and other
people like yourself. Yeah,

so that's a very interesting dynamic, I think at
every turn, they tried todischarge charge me. So they,
that's kind of the defaultposition. And they would even
say, like, even a couple days,after my accident, they're like,
oh, but the military is going totake care of you don't worry
when you get discharged, and I'mlike, I don't know, I'm not
going to get discharged.
Luckily, for me, I had thosefive other amputee pilots that I

(41:23):
told you guys about. And so theykind of encouraged me all along,
like, hey, people are gonnaassume you're getting out, but
we're gonna help you figure out,like, basically, they helped me
stack my medical board. So I hadto undergo two boards, one just
to stay in the airforce and oneas an officer in general, and
then the second one to getreturned to flying. So they

(41:44):
basically helped me stack it sothat they can't say no, like, if
you can pass a normal physicalfitness test, if you can do all
the runner forces, if you canget in and out of the plane. So
I had to practice like gettingout of the plane. If you can do
all that, then they can't sayno, really. So they helps me
stay positive. But everyone elseI talked to was just assuming

(42:10):
that I was getting out and evenlike little stuff like even in
the Rehab Centre at Brookside,medical centre, people would
find out, I was a pilot, andthey would say, oh, what did you
fly? And I would always correctthem. And I'd say, Well, I do
fly c 130s.

Amazing. It seems like every stage of your
recovery, I hope you don't mindme calling it your recovery.
There's always been something tosort of hold on to always
something to aim for, whetherit's, you know, the adaptive
sports, or whether it's peoplewho are trying to help you and
inspire you, or whether it'sgetting back in the plane or the

(42:50):
next mission. It just seems likeyou've always had had that thing
or those people who've justwanted to help you and wanted
you to succeed.

Yes, absolutely.
And I think sometimes evenpeople will sort of give me a
lot of credit, like I did, andI'm like, I didn't do it. I
couldn't have done any of this.
It's such a team effort. Likehad I not gotten involved in
Warrior Games and Invictus Gamesright away, I wouldn't have
known what I was capable ofdoing, you know, or if I hadn't

(43:20):
had those other five pilotmentors, I definitely wouldn't
have gotten back as fast as Idid. Just because they helped
me. They taught me the steps.
They when I was struggling withthe brakes, I called like, I
literally had this one simsimulator in the C 130. And I
kept crashing it every time Icould not get the force on the
pedals. I was kind of, yeah, Iwas kind of freaking out. And I

(43:43):
was like, I don't know, maybe Ican't do this. And the
instructors are kind of likewatching me and I'm crushing it
every time. And so I'm like, CanI take I go to the bathroom? I
need a bathroom break. So I goon the bathroom, I call every
one of the amputee pilots. LikeI'm crashing at what do I do?
And so like, you know, to havethem answered, and they said,

(44:03):
Hey, try this with your seatposition and try this technique.
And so to me, I'm like, I don'teven know what Yeah, like I saw
so much of where I am is becauseof the support I had around me
as I was going through myrecovery. I think

Ben Hall (44:21):
a lot of it was driven by your personality and your
drive though, because it'd bequite easy just to say I've lost
my leg or take a medicaldischarge, get some insurance
money and can sit on my ass forthe next 10 years. And I think
it comes from inside I mean it'sit's you that reaches out to all
of these people and you knowdecides where you want to be and

(44:42):
what your goals are.

Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. I think
for me though, too, is it wasmore it's like kind of crazy
because I knew that getting backto flying would be so hard, like
really a lot of really tough.
But I also it was like scarierto me to think Have Well, if I
don't fly, what am I gonna dothen? Like, I love flying. And I
almost didn't even realise Ithink how much I loved it until

(45:05):
I lost my leg. Because then Iwas like, you know, once it was
sort of taken away from me, Iwas like, This is what I love to
do, like, I don't want to doanything else. So as hard as it
is, and how long is it howeverlong it takes, I'm going to get
back to it, because it's moredepressing to me to think of the
ultimate alternative.

Ben Hall (45:27):
Like technical things just about how you fly. So
obviously, you've got to pressthe rudder, do you like fix your
knee?

Great question. So I it's kind of ironic, because I
think I literally fly thehardest plane possible for a
right leg amputee because of theprops and the C 130. And p
factor, we always have somepressure on the right pedal. So
I'm like, man, if I lost my leftleg, left leg way easier,

(46:00):
because every flight we keptconstant right rudder, and
that's actually anything withthe prop just because of the way
the prop spins and P factor. SoI had to build up the strength
in my residual leg. So I'm anamputee just above the knee. So
I still do have muscles in myhamstring. And so I hold my foot

(46:24):
on the pedal and I use thosemuscles, I pulled down with my
hamstring to straighten myprosthetic leg to hold the
pedal. And I originally did lockmy knee because I wasn't strong
enough. So when I first starteddoing the stimulator, I would
lock my knee. But that was nevergoing to be allowed to come back

(46:44):
to duty. Because if you thinkabout it, if I lock my right
leg, and then we need fullrudder force on the left, now my
leg is going to bind the controlforces will literally hinder us
from safely operating theopposite pedal if we need to.

Ben Hall (46:59):
So you'll mitre with your actual leg going up and
down. And that's causing theknee to bend, right?

Yes, so I am, I'll try to show you in this day as
well. So it's on the pedal and Ipulled down with my hamstring,
which strings that and then Ihold place.

Ben Hall (47:20):
Okay, next question, how do you break

a breaking, I move I take my hand off the mic. If
I'm on the throttles or theyoke, I take my hand off that
really quickly and I move myheels because like right now
it's always resting on therunner and then I move it to the
top, and then it's on the brake.

Unknown (47:36):
Okay.

So I brief like every time I do a takeoff or
landing, that's part of my briefto the other pilots, like,
you'll see me move my handmomentarily. To my foot. I'm
just moving it on the pedal. Andthen I put it back together,

Ben Hall (47:52):
hopefully breaking down the runway, because I get
that out at the best of times.

What do you say,

Ben Hall (47:57):
you get the old wobbly breaking down the runway,

sometimes. But I don't, I just had to practice
it. So So much so that it'ssmooth and quickly. And so now
it's almost like second nature,but it's taken, it's taken a
while to get there.

That's just another kind of I don't use the word
miracle, but it was in my head,I can't think of an alternative.
Because even if the amputationwas another two inches up, you
probably wouldn't have hadenough strength in the hamstring
to do what you need to do tomake it work.

Yeah, so we it's definitely true, we have one of
our MVP pilots in the Air Force,he is higher than me. So he's a
lot higher, but he's not flyingc 130s. So it is possible, even
a little bit higher, but moredifficult. So and the other
thing too is like what I tellpeople is they didn't give me

(48:53):
any breaks. So like are youknow, I had to be able to do the
most amount of pedal pressure.
So in our our books, it actuallysays up to 150 pounds of force.
And so I had to do a leg lift onthe leg machine in the gym with
150 pounds in front of theflight Doc's. The good thing is
I didn't have to do it a full 90degrees because like I'm not

(49:18):
strong enough for that. I justhad to do it as far as I would
need to on the pedal. So if youthink about that, it's like
about bend your your foot on thepedal is bent about you know,
1520 degrees and then straightto hold the pedal. So I had to
prove to them that with 150pounds, I can go this range of
bending that I would need on thepedal and I can hold it.

Ben Hall (49:43):
So I feel so inadequate at the moment because
that is the reason I currentlydon't have a medical because
I've just had an ACL revisionreconstruction like it does. And
it's exactly that I can't Ican't push hard enough at the
moment.

Well, it took me like eight months to build up
that strength, so now he knows aprocess that goes.

Yep. Ben. Ben six foot four and 220 pounds.

Yeah. Okay.

Ben Hall (50:14):
vastly better.

How long do you think until you'll be able to
better you want to you want toschedule for it?

Ben Hall (50:21):
Probably two months ish are good. I mean, I'm in no
great hurry. Am I? the aviationindustry isn't exactly buzzing
with pilot jobs at the moment.

No, it's not. It's not. Well, fingers. Fingers
crossed for you. Can you tell usabout some of those guys that
you've said the the amputeepilots who? Yeah, who helped you
back into the cockpit? Wouldthey mind you maybe naming them
and tonica great story? I

think so. So the first one was john Alvarez. He
was in 1997. He has a reallycool story. He was flying a
helicopter in Ecuador andcrashed. And actually, some of
the crew members died in thatcrash. And he was pulled out of
the water like in this by alocal and him in his engineer

(51:08):
and things slabs were saved. Andthen actually you see 130 came
in and landed there and got himout. But he ended up losing his
leg below the knee. And he gotback to flying. He actually it's
kind of interesting for him. Hewas in the Navy, and he was on
an Air Force assignment thattime. So then he because he was

(51:29):
with the Air Force unit when hecrashed. He's like, I want to
get back to flying Air Forcehelicopters. And so he's like a
very, we always tease himbecause he never actually went
underwent a medical board.
Because he basically just likewhen the Navy came asking for
him to like med board him He'slike, oh, but I'm already
deployed with Air Force unit.
And then I think the Air Forcealso just assumed the Navy did

(51:51):
one on him. So he just kind ofjust snuck through. But of
course he did. Like he had to doeverything everyone else did in
helicopter.

Ben Hall (52:03):
The Navy, the Air Force, don't listen to this
podcast.

Yeah. Now that's fine.

You will not he went on to have a great career.
And he was a commander. He did abunch of missions and then
retired. So he was the first in1997. Then we had another above
the knee in 2005. His was amission say this out loud, Ben,
but his was actually a kneesurgery that went bad. And then

(52:31):
the knee? Sorry, it's the truth.

Yeah, yeah. To correct.

Yeah. So he was the first to fly above the knee.
And his is pretty amazing.
Because he didn't have to gothrough the medical board and
nobody supported him. So hetells a story of like he made he
learned and taught himself torun in his garage on a
treadmill, he built a likeharness because he would fall so
much attached to the ceiling.

(53:02):
And so he like taught himselfhow to run. Wow. And you know,
like got back to flying when noone had really, you know, john
had done it. But John's wasvery, like, not public knowledge
until later. And so, you know,Andrew didn't necessarily know
about him. And so he got back todoing it, which was awesome. And

(53:23):
then since him, there's beenanother guy who had a motorcycle
accident, he flies you 28 andthen only one year prior to me,
and was a guy that I actuallyknew from the Air Force Academy.
So this was really cool part ofmy story. So Ryan, was in pilot
training in Texas, which iswhere I went to pilot training.
He was a year older, and he wasalso in a boating accident. And

(53:44):
he lost his leg, his leg belowthe knee. And he was able to
finish pilot trainingeventually, and I was flying c
17. So even for me when I was inthe back of the ambulance headed
to the hospital, and I still hadmy Lego still attached, but I
couldn't feel it. So I knew thatwas bad. Like, yeah, I can't
feel it. That's not good. And soin my mind, I thought, Okay,

(54:07):
this is gonna take me off theschedule for a while. I think
the schedulers are gonna beupset. But worst case, Ryan did
it, I can do it. So I wasalready kind of thinking about
him even in the ambulance, whichwas awesome,

amazing, amazing people. And are you still a
member of the amputee pilotmafia?

Yeah, I am. Yeah.
And I talked to them, we kind ofkeep in touch, you know, all the
time. And when I had my firstdeployment after losing my leg,
I asked them and they're like,you know, give, you know, you
have to consider so many otherthings. So they're like, make
sure you pack this tool and thisextra thing. And so they have,
it's been awesome. And we'veeven had a couple other pilots
not just a bunch of random likea crew chief Air Force crew

(54:52):
chief, so I helped mentor him.
And then a couple other nonmilitary pilots, I read Shout
out to me. And how do I do thebrakes? I tell them okay, here's
what you do.

How did you I mean, obviously, I can understand how
you got the call sign optimistprime. But was there a specific
incident was there? Was thereone mission where it was
bestowed upon? You

know that one there wasn't really anything
specific, but I actually have anew call sign and I'm going to
show you guys it's really cool.
Yeah, so my Optimus Prime waslike my unofficial one on my
first deployment. But now mycallsign is clockwise. My last
name being wise but it's becauseI can spin my leg around upside
down. So a twist around like aclock. And so it freaks

(55:49):
everybody out. My callsign now,which everyone knows me by is

amazing. Sorry, I'll be back with you in a
minute.

Guys, it's good because you know, this new
generation everyone with digitalclocks, they don't understand or
laugh it's hard because youknow,

yeah, they don't get it is old folk, we know what
we're talking about.

We know, a clock looks like

this might sound like a weird thing to say. But
prosthetic legs is so cool.
They're like, super cool. Howmany have you got? Have you got
like a leg for all occasions?

Yeah, so the funny thing is, I mean, I think this
was maybe a military thing, butI love humour. Like, you got to
make fun of this stuff. It justmakes it better. And so I have
currently seven legs. But theyall have names. So I'm the one I
just showed you. This is Xena.
Warrior Princess.

Ben Hall (57:01):
two legs.

Yeah, so she's x ottobock x three. And so yeah, I
named her Xena Warrior Princess.
I was like she's gonna help meget back to fine What should it
so that's mine like as well.
Yeah, it's gonna fly like yeah,like daily. Most activities.
Kind of the default leg unlessI'm doing something specific.

(57:24):
And then I have running leg isforest from the movie run.
Forrest Gump run Forrest run.
I've got Catalina for biking.
Ariel the mermaid is my ski legright now is Shredder. I have a

(57:44):
fancy looking one named Barbie.
So yeah, I just make

Ben Hall (57:50):
what is that for fancy occasions?

Yeah, she's like, looks like a real leg. Okay, but
she is mostly sits in the closetbecause it's really heavy and
not very fun to walk in. So Idon't usually wear Barbie. So
just makes it kind of fun. Youknow, I get a new leg or even
you know, as my family or myboyfriend. It's like, hey, has
anyone seen Ariel? like where'ssomeone want to carry your for

(58:16):
me. So that makes it more fun.

Ben Hall (58:18):
My wife's got a prosthetic arm. So she's got a
story where she she was on avolleyball camp. So she's
American as well. So she playedfor the USA national team.
Awesome. She's on a volleyballcamp. And she left one of her
arms in the hotel. Early gotfound by the cleaners, like
after she had left Friday. Andthen she got a phone call when

(58:40):
she was back in England saying Ithink you might have left it on.

Yeah, this is like so funny. You know, just like
yeah, there's some funny thingshappen. He's got a laugh about
it.

Yeah. That's something that I that I didn't
realise. I remember speaking toan ohmmeter years Ben, Rob
Richardson and he was telling meone of his favourite things is
watching people who aren'tamputees, getting awkward with
people who are amputees. He justused to find it hilariously
funny. And I'll be the first toadmit that was that was mean in

(59:16):
the beginning and I was at asitting volleyball event you
weren't there then it must havebeen before you were selected.
And it was kind of busy. Therewere loads of courts going on.
But there is a there is a job ora voluntary position in adaptive
sports where people who do haveprosthetics arms, legs,
whatever, they'll very oftenbefore the match, they'll get

(59:37):
put into a cart, and they'll gettaken to a safe base until the
end of the game. Well, I had aclipboard in one hand and a
microphone in the other hand,and I was announcing the team's
onto the court buzzing aroundprobably going a little bit too,
too fast, full of kineticenergy. And I wasn't looking
where I was going and I havefallen over one of these carts
full of prosthetic limbs andThere were legs everywhere on

(01:00:03):
the floor drowning in arms andlegs mortified thinking are no
70 is gonna kill me and I'velooked at and they were just a
load of sitting volleyballplayers just laughing like I've
never seen people in the intheir lives and yet they didn't
let me live it down and theygave me so much stick for it but
yeah, just just a really funnymoment again people people

(01:00:24):
making the best of the situationis great.

Christy Wise (01:00:27):
Yeah, I think so.

Dave Rogers (01:00:29):
But I think you'd probably be angry with me if I
tripped over Barbie right

now she just sits in the closet anyways.

Ben Hall (01:00:37):
I've already got an impression Bobby's not a
favourite.

Yeah, Bobby.

I did. So I deployed to Iraq in 2019. And
Barbie is she's two purposes.
She looks really nice. Looksjust like a real leg. And then
it's also my backup flying leg.
So it's just because the Xena isactually computerised, the one I
normally fly with and if thecomputer goes out or the

(01:01:01):
hydraulics go out, then itdoesn't really work very well.
So Barbie is just a mechanicalneed that will work no matter
what. So she's my backup line.
Like

Ben Hall (01:01:12):
Dave is amazed by computerised knees only.

Cool. You should get one bend your knees are
terrible. Maybe you should get acomputer.

Ben Hall (01:01:22):
I know I've thought about this. Just chop it out.
Get a bit of metal in there.

Get a good one.
Always wear shorts then.

Ben Hall (01:01:30):
Slowly

anyway. So what happens obviously you're you're
really happy with what you donow you love flying you love the
sea when 30 How much longer doyou think you'll be in the
military? And do you thinkyou'll continue as a pilot? When
the military journeys over?

Yes, yes to both questions about explain a little
bit. So I'm actually in a reallycool job right now. So I'm not
currently flying the C 130. I'mback at the Air Force Academy.
So I'm commanding a squadron ofcadets. So kind of really cool.
Like I wasn't gonna at once andnow I'm back, leaving some
cadets and then I get to fly.
The Cirrus so small singleengine plane down at the Air

(01:02:14):
Force Academy airfield teachingcadets.

Ben Hall (01:02:18):
VSR 22. Um,

I think so you're asking me,

Ben Hall (01:02:23):
like your problem.

Yeah. So you want your prop? Yeah. And it's got a
lot of civilian stos and stufffor sure. And has the parachute
if you mess it up, like for thewhole plane? Have you heard
about this? Yeah, it's cool.
It's crazy. Yes. Insane.

No way. So what if the engines go? You just pull
the ripcord? Yeah, get

in the plane goes down. You have to like jump out
or anything?

I'm not sure I trust it.

I know. I don't think any of us trusted either.
But you know, hopefully I don'thave the occasion to test it
out.

Yeah, yeah. That is one of the things you literally
never want to know if it worksor not. Does it work? Hopefully
I never find out. Please. Thankyou. So you're all right. So
you're there. You're there.
Right now you are the apprenticeturn master as it were.

Yes. So I'm doing this for three years, which I
actually really sort ofadvocated, you know, argued for
them to give me this job becauseI do love to see 130 in the
rescue mission, but just goingthrough all that losing my leg
was just really tough. Like justany even the flying the daily
flying even after I wasrequalified it was still very,

(01:03:39):
you know, rudder intensive, likehard as amputee. So after a
couple years of that, I waslike, I still love flying. I
still love it. But I need alittle bit of a break. I need an
assignment that's a little biteasier here. And I can just kind
of, you know, I want it to beback with cadets sort of like,
you know, get to lead the nextgeneration kind of get excited

(01:04:00):
about the military. Again, notthat I wasn't it's just my
journey was so tough that I waslike, I want to do something to
kind of reignite that passionand fly something a little bit
easier for three years. That'swhat I'm currently doing. And
then I'll go back to C 130s.
After this. And then I do planon doing 20 basically, by
getting this assignment with thecadets. I signed on for four

(01:04:22):
more years. And I'm already I'vealready been in 12. So I'll be
very close to 20 years by then.
So I think I'll just stick itout. But I would love to fly
commercial airlines when I'mdone.

Ben Hall (01:04:35):
And commercial airlines are not very rudder
intensive. I assure you

I know. I know.
It's so funny because so manytimes in my C 130 journey people
were like, Well, you could justswitch planes you know, it'd be
a lot easier one of my friends.
She I had just like failed aride because I was struggling
with the with the max effortlandings. And she's like, you
know, I just keep my feet on thefloorboard the whole time. Like,

(01:04:59):
don't tell

So, in my, in my very limited time speaking to
pilots and great people likeyourself, there is always the
Boeing versus Airbus discussion.
And apparently flying an Airbusis an absolute doddle. Somebody
told me that I could do with notraining. Isn't that right then?

Ben Hall (01:05:22):
Well, you're a very special mandate.

So that that's the I was going to ask you, have you
got any sort of aviationambitions, but flying commercial
is something that you'd love todo?

Yeah, so I do, you know, I've really enjoyed the
military. And I, I know, they'vesupported me a lot. And it's
been a very interesting career.
The tough thing about being amilitary pilot, though, is that,
you know, flying is only a partof your journey. So, so much of
my job is being an officer too.
And so that's why to me flyingcommercial afterwards is

(01:05:58):
exciting. Like, I just want tofly.

Ben Hall (01:06:03):
Because you've got secondary duties, haven't you?
Basically, you've got to work afull Well, yeah. Plus some where
it's like, it gets the airportan hour and a half before your
flight. You know, you do a bitof paperwork, fly a plane and
then you go for beers and golf.

I know. I can't wait for that because like as a
military pilots, like the daysyou get to fly, you're like,
yes, thank God, I'm flyingtoday. Because all the other
days you're busy doing all thisother work, so Oh, nice to

Ben Hall (01:06:29):
fly to like San Francisco and LA. We used to
have a lot of pilots bring theirskis and snowboards and go, go
into the mountains. No

way. Water life

isn't tough. It's a tough life as a pilot, you
know,

to be through if you know any instances or
examples of MPT commercialpilots.

I do actually so one of our Air Force, MBT
pilots, he got out and he fliesfor delta now. Awesome. And then
I've met or at least talked to acouple. So I think FAA is a
little bit better than themilitary. So a little bit more
forward thinking and they dothis thing where you just have

(01:07:10):
to do a, it's called a sodastatement of demonstrated
ability. So you just have to flywith some evaluator instructor
from the FAA and do kind of likewhat I did in the simulator with
the military guys just show themthat you're capable of operating
the pedals and everything.

Ben Hall (01:07:28):
Well, it makes sense.
If you can get like, a slightlyoverweight, 65 year old. You're
going to be quicker evacuatingthan they are right?

Yeah.

So three major boxes to tick on your bucket
list and complete your militaryservice with aplomb. Get to a
winter Paralympic Games and flya commercial plane.

Yeah, that's how you sounded out.

One we should probably

Ben Hall (01:07:54):
go for a gold medal when winter parent Oh,

guys I want is I don't even know. Currently, I'm
not sure what the Paralympicsare gonna happen. So we'll see
about that. But

ask ask Ben if he got Paralympic medal.

Yeah, Ben, tell us your story.

Ben Hall (01:08:09):
Okay, so in my house, I have three Paralympic medals.

I No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, that wasn't thequestion, Ben.

Ben Hall (01:08:17):
We were close. Dave.

I mean, close in so much that you were in the same
room that the metals were one.
Yeah, correct. Okay, and howmany how many Mrs. Hall got?
Yeah, she's got three. That'scool, isn't it? Yeah, she's

Ben Hall (01:08:32):
got Athens, Beijing and London. Awesome.

Yeah, really amazing. Okay, sitting sitting
volleyball

Ben is so cool.
Yeah, I I have played a littlebit I would have loved to do it
at Warrior Games or Invictus.
But I didn't do any of the teamsports because you have to like
go to camps and train with theteam and you know, back at my
base trying to get returned toflying so I couldn't take any

(01:08:59):
time off to go try to join oneof the team sports but I love
watching sitting volleyball Itis so cool.

Ben Hall (01:09:06):
Well if you ever want to play or you're close to
Oklahoma, I can hook you up

to Christie it sounds like you've got a very
full life and it turns out we'veonly really scratched the
surface because you somehow findtime to foster children as well.

haha so that is kind of cool story but I when I
was at the Air Force Academy, Iwas working I did a volunteer
event with Make A WishFoundation. So I got to meet
this really cool family. Theyhad twin daughters one had a
brain tumour and so that's whyshe was doing the Make a wish

(01:09:44):
thing with they actually came tothe academy and we are taking
them around the aeroplanes andstuff at the academy sounds
really cool. But they had alsohad besides their twin
daughters, they had 10 fosterchildren 10 so I remember 10
twin daughters. So I talked toSandy the mom. And I remember
asking her, I said, Sandy, doyou just love kids? Or why do

(01:10:07):
you do this? And she said, No,not really. She's like, I just
do it because nobody else does.
And someone has to love thesekids. And it could be me. So it
was really cool that she saidthat, that always kind of stuck
with me. And as I was movingaround base to base in the
military, I just had this sense,I had this feeling that I never

(01:10:30):
really was a part of thecommunities that I lived in. So
this was even before I lost myleg, I just felt like, Oh, I'm
just kind of nomadic, like I'mmoving all the time, I don't
really get super involved in thelocal communities of all these
places I live. And so I alwayssent her I'd wanted to be a
foster parent, I thought thatwas a cool, I just a different

(01:10:51):
thing to do. And so once I wasstationed in Georgia, I thought,
you know, I'm just gonna lookinto it, I'm just gonna see if I
can do it. And so I ended upbecoming certified as an
emergency. Or they call it likea temporary foster parent. So
only, like temporary cases. So Inever would have a kid, you

(01:11:12):
know, the longest I had someonewas was for a week, I had a
teenager for a week. Butusually, I would just have kids
for a night a weekend. And itwas really cool, because they
actually needed more temporaryfoster parents, because nobody
gets into foster parent for thetemporary. But if say, the mom
is caught with drugs in themiddle of the night at 2am, and

(01:11:34):
the police come and take thekids, like they need somewhere
to go at 2am. And so that waskind of the niche, the small job
that I would feel like theycould call me in the middle of
the night at 2am. Or it wasawesome, because they would call
me on like a Wednesday night andthey'd say, Hey, can you take an
eight year old tonight? I'd sayno, I'm flying tonight. I can't.
But then maybe the next week,I'd get that same call. And I'd

(01:11:57):
say yeah, I'll take it. So it'sjust really cool. It was just so
fun. Honestly, cut my life. Soexciting. The kids were fun. I
ride skateboards with them, Ihang out, get them pizza, you
know, and I think maybe slightlyspoiled, because I usually had

(01:12:17):
them for such a short amount oftime that I would just focus on
having fun with them. And so Ididn't really see a lot of the
discipline issues or the, youknow, I had some awkward
situations, for sure. But Ididn't have a lot of the hard
things of being a foster parent.

(01:12:38):
And so I lost my leg in Georgia.
Sorry, this was supposed to beshort, and it does not show

up. Please, please, please.

So I lost my leg in Georgia. I, you know, I let
the state foster departmentknow, hey, I'm not home, I'm not
going to be home for a while I'min Texas, undergoing my rehab.
So eight months later, when Ifinished my rehab, I went back
to Georgia, I actually calledthis Child and Family Services
sent him just saying, you know,I'm getting back into town back

(01:13:10):
and they're like, great. Theyhad been, you know, calling me
checking on me stuff. And sothen they call me like an hour
later. And they're like, yeah,so since you're back on any
chance you can take a teenagertonight. So it was like so
funny, like, literally I'mdriving back from rehab, I have
recovery. I have all myprosthetic legs in the back of

(01:13:31):
my car, I have all this clothesand stuff that I had for eight
months, I haven't even gottenback to my house in Georgia. And
I'm already getting a callsaying can you take a foster kid
tonight? And so I thought aboutit. And I was like, Yes, you
know, this is like, to me, itwas almost more of like, the
more I do the same things that Idid before I lost my leg, then

(01:13:53):
the more my life feels the samestill, like I'm not any
different. Like I'm still Krissylike, yeah, I'm Christina, one
leg, but I'm still the sameperson as I was before. And that
ended up being the biggestblessing in disguise I could
have ever imagined because I hada roommate. She was a college
student when I lost my leg. Andshe had since graduated while I

(01:14:14):
was in recovery. She graduatedand she moved out. And then all
of my best friends were deployedon a deployment that I was
supposed to be on. But I wasn'tbecause of my obviously my
recovery. So I think that firstweek, and when I was in
recovery, I was actually livingwith my sister. She came and
lived with me while I was goingthrough recovery. So I think

(01:14:37):
that first week back would havebeen so hard in Georgia because
now I'm back home. Buteverything's different. My
friends are all gone. They're ona deployment that I'm not on my
roommates gone. I'm in thishouse all by myself. I'm used to
flying being on the flyingschedule. I'm not because I
hadn't gone through any of themedical board process yet. So

(01:14:57):
I'm literally just doing like adesk job every day. So that
week, I think would have beenprobably one of the hardest
weeks of my recovery. Becauseeverything was so different. But
then because a foster teenager,every night was like, Okay, what
are we doing tonight? We'regoing to movies, okay? Tomorrow,
let's go play basketball at thepark lands. And so, so cool,

(01:15:18):
because I think it just shiftedmy mind from like, here's my
problems. Here's how my life haschanged. And then Instead, it
was all about this foster kidand like, how can I support him?
So it was just amazing

that my mom was a was a foster parent. And she's a
great woman. And God, I love herdearly. But I can't help but
feel as though it would havebeen much cooler to have a pilot
as a foster parent. than than mymom. I love you, Paula. I'm so
sorry. I've thrown you under thebus there. Now absolutely

(01:15:54):
incredible stuff. So how howlong did you did you do that
for? Are you still on on any ofthe registers to do it?

Yeah, so I did. In Georgia. I also did a little bit
in Arizona, which is my lastduty station. And then right now
in Colorado, I'm undergoing thetraining, the one thing that
sucks is that every state in theUS is different. So every time I
move, I have to get recertified. And then some of the

(01:16:22):
rules are different. So inGeorgia, it was the best for
doing that temporary stuff. Inmy other states, it hasn't been
as easy to do. So.

It sounds like it sounds a lot like being a pilot.
They're always making you jumpthrough hoops to do something,
aren't they? Yeah. So right,what have we got here? We've got
skier pilot athlete foster care,

Ben Hall (01:16:48):
while making us feel bad.

I'm sorry. I know, this is what my friends say. I
don't really I think it's I justa lot of it, I think is the
military like moving so much.
Being a foster parent was onething that made me feel a part
of the communities I was in. Soyou know, I don't know if I
would have done that. Not beingin the military. I'm not sure.

(01:17:11):
Or, you know, for me just likesports or whatever, because my
life has been some somewhat sonomadic than I do, like really
focused on my hobbies, or thethings that I love, because that
makes it feel the same no matterwhere I'm at.

Yeah. And I suppose for the, for the kids and the
teenagers that you fostered aswell. It's, it's trying to give
them that sense of belonging aswell, no matter how temporary it
is, because you know howimportant that is to you, for
you to be able to pass that onto them as well. something quite
special, isn't it?

Yes, exactly. And I had, Oh, my gosh, I had just
like, and even after those firstfew kids that I had, after I
lost my leg just kind of renewedlike this is why I do it.
Because now I'm teaching themhey, I went through some hard
things to like, you know, you'renot in foster care for no
reason. But I'm doing okay, youcan do okay. I had this little

(01:18:05):
girl, she was eight to securethis girl and she's talking to
her mom on the phone. You know,I'm letting her use my phone.
And she goes, I'm kind ofeavesdropping from the other
interesting. Miss Christy, who'swatching me mom, she has only
one way. I still like her.

I bet the kids as well. They'd speak to you in a
way and they'd ask you questionsthat some adults would probably
be scared to. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, kids just say what they think which is
really fun. Yeah.

Ben Hall (01:18:36):
I What else have I missed then? You've also miss
the fact that Christie runs anonprofit charity doing
prosthetic loop kids prostheticlegs to kids,

cause she does

Ben Hall (01:18:49):
who doesn't have a charity nowadays?

me Tell me about loving Christie.

So yeah, one so it's called one leg up on life
and it was just based on in thehospitals really cool by the
military actually put one of myfriends on official orders to
escort me and those first liketwo weeks he was doing all the
safety investigations and it wasbasically his primary military

(01:19:16):
job was to take care of me helptake care of me. So that was
just so cool. His called thefamily liaison officer the flow
so we were like, what, where'sthe flow? But it was so cool.
Like a way that the militarysupported me in the very
beginning was, you know,assigning him to my case and
like helping make sureeverything was happening nice

(01:19:37):
and smoothly. So it was youknow, less pressure on my family
because he was there. So him andmy sister who was there with me,
their phones just kept ringingoff the hooks like people are
texting and calling like all mymilitary friends, my Academy
friends from my hometown andthen even from like, the area

(01:19:58):
where I got hit Because of thatpolice investigation we talked
about earlier, like so manypeople knew about me, and we're,
you know, trying to check on me.
And so George, he's the flow,he's like, I'm just going to
make a blog. I'm going to callit one leg up on life, the site
clever name, just so that we canpost things on the blog, and
people will stop calling me. Soit's kind of really cool to

(01:20:21):
write because it was like, allof us were like, Oh, sweet,
named George, whatever, we don'tcare. I mean, it's funny. Move
on. And so basically, in thenext couple, like days and
weeks, this blog just took awhole nother not nothing we ever
expected. We had, like, 1000s ofpeople following it. And that's
kind of the first time that werealised like, hey, we've got a

(01:20:41):
lot of people supporting me andsupporting this journey I'm on
and let's do something positivewith it. And so that's when we
decided, Tim, the one who waswith me, the night of the
accident, my friend, Tim, he waslike, let's start a nonprofit.
And I want our first event to bea paddleboard race at the end of
the summer, where you got hit.

(01:21:03):
Oh.
So theyYeah, so we did that. And it was
so cool. Because it was like theway for me it was like, just as
important mentally as anythingelse, or symbolically of like,
this is where I got hit. Thiswas exactly what I was doing
when I lost my leg, but I'm notgonna let this change me. I'm
not going to be afraid of thewater and we're gonna use this

(01:21:24):
all for good. So it's reallycool. Yeah.
Wow, weso we had and it was also really
cool. Like I said, because thelocal community had been, it's
funny because no one even knewmy name or that I was an Air
Force pilot or whatever theyjust knew about the girl on the
paddleboard. And so our logo forour one nonprofit is actually a

(01:21:46):
girl on a powder word,prosthetic leg. And so we put
posters all over the area. Andso when we had our event at the
end of the summer, which wasonly a couple months later, we
had all these people come out tome me because they had heard
about the girl the paddleboardbut they never actually knew
anything about me specifically.
So I was just like, such anamazing thing. And then my

(01:22:08):
sister, she, I've talked abouther a couple times, she's
actually in the met in themedical field. So she was in
medical school at the time. Butwhen we decided to do a
nonprofit, she had worked in thehate in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, with kids through thisother organisation. So when
we're like, Hey, what do we wantto do? She was like, Well, I

(01:22:29):
know some amputees in Haiti thatneed help. So let's help them.

So have you been Have you been able to provide
prosthetic limbs for for people?
For us?

Yeah, we've gotten every year since 2016. Not since
COVID. But we've given probablyover like 40 prosthetic limbs to
amputees. And then right now,it's really cool. We actually
have a Haitian prostitutes thatwe work with in the country. So
since COVID, we've just beenable to send her money and

(01:23:03):
supplies to keep working withamputees even though we can't
travel right now.

Amazing, amazing.
And if people are listening, andthey're wondering if they can
get involved, where can theyfind out more about that? Not
for profit organisation?

Yeah, so they can just go to one leg up on
life.org.

Oh, wonderful stuff. I think that is a great
place to end this podcast.
Christy, it has been such apleasure to chat to you and get
to know you. And with all theambitions you've got left to do.
Good luck. I can't see that.
There's anything that's going tostand in your way from here.

Thank you. Yeah, I just want to have I just want to
say one, kind of like,disclaimer,

but please do.

Sort of a lot of people hear my story. And they
just focus on like, all theaccomplishments and like, Oh, my
gosh, you have a nonprofit, andyou fly and you do all this
stuff. But it was just kind oflike, this is life. And I just
did one thing at a time. Youknow, I never wanted to really
start a nonprofit. But then wehad all this support. And we're
like, why wouldn't we? You know,and I was flying. I was like, I

(01:24:08):
didn't realise how much I lovedit tells God and so I was like,
I'm gonna get back to flying. SoI think I try to just, hopefully
still relate to people like Ididn't really want or plan any
of these things. But I just amnow living my life one thing at
a time.

Regardless of the achievements, I think the
overwhelming message from thischat and I'm sure you'd agree
with me is that Christie is justa pretty good egg.

Yeah, thank you so much, guys. I will keep in
touch.

Ben Hall (01:24:40):
Thanks for listening to the pilot based podcast.
We'll be back next week withanother great guest from the
aviation industry. Don't forgetto check out our new career
platform, our pilot base.com andall the socials at pilot base
HQ. If you enjoyed this podcast,don't forget to subscribe and
write a review

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