Brian Johnson visits the USS George H.W. Bush and meets James Dickerson, a parachute rigger whose chutes deployed successfully 11 times. Johnson leads a leadership workshop for 50 senior officers overseeing 5,000 sailors, exploring how meticulous work saves lives and creates meaning.
Questions this episode answers
May 5, 2024.
20 years.
10 years.
11 times.
Three hours.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. Not too long ago, I was blessed to be connected with Captain Dave Pollard, the commanding officer of the USS George H.W. bush. I was connected to Captain Pollard by a dear friend of mine, Captain Darrell Cardone, who happens to be the commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, I was introduced to Captain Pollard the day I was doing a leadership panel with my friends, Rear Admiral Mike Manazzer, author of Learn how to Lead to Win, and Brittany Loney, CEO and founder of Elite Cognition for the ROTC cadets at the University of Loyola near Washington, D.C. now, Captain Pollard asked me if I'd like to get a tour of his aircraft carrier, the one that helped defend Ukraine at the Naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. The following day, I called my wifey to get her blessing to stay another day. She gave me an emphatic yeah, go. That'll be amazing. Which led me to telling Captain Pollard, yeah, I'd be honored to join you. We immediately booked the short flight over to Norfolk. Thanks Yana. And I got to spend four hours connecting with Captain Pollard and some of his crew, learning more about his leadership style and feeling like I just met a new lifelong friend. Shortly thereafter, Captain Pollard invited me back out to Norfolk to lead a heroic workshop with him and 50 of his top leaders responsible for the 20 different departments on his ship to empower them to fully leverage heroic for themselves and the 5,000 sailors on the carrier so they could show up as their best on the flight deck and on the home front. The trip was fantastic. Now, before our three hour workshop with his leadership team, I was blessed to connect with Captain Pollard and the commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron VFA106FRS, Commander Jason Fisheye Papadopoulos. Whole nother story about the origin of that call sign Fisheye in the playful way top gun pilots bestow call signs on one another. Now on that incredible tour, I got to learn more about the F18 pilots and their command support personnel. It was an extraordinary experience and that's what I want to talk about today. More specifically, I want to talk about one heroic guy I was blessed to meet that morning. His name is James Dick Dickerson. Now, Dick retired after serving for 20 years as a parachute rigger in the US Navy. He's been in his civilian job with the Navy for another 10 years. He and his crew decked me out in fighter pilot gear, including an Iron man like helmet that was crazy cool. While explaining the intricacies of their jobs and how they take care of the F18 pilots they serve. Now, it's hard to put into words just how powerful it was to spend time with Dick and his young team. The passion with which he told me about his commitment to doing his job with excellence will be imprinted on my soul for the rest of my life. Now, one of his jobs is to pack the parachutes that the fighter pilots may need to use in the event of an emergency mid flight ejection. Imagine that for a moment both the mid flight ejection and the guy responsible, or woman responsible for packing the parachute. He told me that every single time he does that job of packing a fighter pilot's parachute, he does it as well as he possibly can, thinking of the pilot and their family that he's responsible for protecting. Now. Literally got tears in my eyes typing that out, feeling into his heroic love for the Navy brothers he was serving. Then Dick told me that his parachutes had been used by fighter pilots ejecting from their cockpits 11 times. Every single time those men survived. The pride with which he shared this was incredibly moving. Then he told me that one of the traditions when this happens is that the pilot who survived his emergency ejection because someone like Dick did their jobs well would thank Dick with a special gift. Then he told me this story that will forever be imprinted in my heart and soul that I think serves as such a powerful example for all of us to make the connection between what we do and those we serve. So one time, after he saved a man's life because he did his job with Arete, the man's family showed up at his house to thank him. Tears. When I was even saying that, the grateful fighter pilot's young daughter told Dick, and thank you for saving my daddy's life. Imagine that. And if that doesn't give you tears in your eyes, I don't know what will. And that's today's plus one. The science is unequivocal. The happiest among us make the connection between what we are blessed to do and the people we are blessed to serve. Do you? And practically speaking, let's get a rep of moving from theory to practice to mastery on this right now. What do you do then? More importantly, who do you serve doing what you do? Think of one person who has benefited from the work you do, feel the importance of what you do. Then approach as many moments of your day today with that person and others like them in mind. Now, that is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to boost your sense of meaning and purpose and new daimonic joy in your life. Today's the day to serve profoundly. Let's go, hero.
