Back in 1993, I did a six-month deployment to Soto Cano AB in Honduras as part of the staff of JTF-Bravo. The mission was good, and I got to work with some fantastic people in the Air Force and the Army. The area around the base was beautiful, and my job (Fuels Contract Monitor) had me out and about to storage sites and remote locations all over the country.
About halfway through my deployment, a microburst struck the base. If you’ve never heard of one, it’s a column of rapidly sinking air inside a thunderstorm. It hits fast and hard and then dissipates quickly. This one lasted around ten minutes. To those of us in the middle of it, it felt like a miniature tornado dropped in and tore everything up.
The microburst rolled in at lunch on a Saturday, so, in true Air Force fashion, I grabbed my food and rode out the storm in the Food Court’s storage conex, eating BBQ ribs and washing them down with a Dr. Pepper.
A great story, right? Hang on, it’s about to take a turn for the crazy.
Once the weather cleared, an announcement came over the PA system: avoid damaged structures, ensure all personnel were accounted for, and report to work in 20 minutes. Everyone reported in on time except for one Army Captain —and oh, brother, did he have a good reason!
Aaron was a regular runner on Saturdays. He ran two miles, got cleaned up, and then went to lunch. As the microburst hit, he was just getting lathered up. The storm tore half the roof off the men’s side of the shower building, leaving Aaron huddling under the remains as the storm hit him with 50 MPH winds and rain, with only a towel and washcloth as cover.
Before he arrived, the rest of the team began telling where they were when the storm hit. Several people ducked under vehicles while most of us huddled in the middle of our Vietnam-era hootches to ride it out. Aaron walked in just before I got to talk. He related what happened, thinking he was going to get crushed under the rest of the shower building.
Then, it was my turn to speak. Aaron looked at me as his jaw dropped. Everyone was quiet, waiting for him to respond. He cleared his throat and said, “You have got to be the luckiest b@$t@rd I’ve ever met!”
I got ripped mercilessly for a whole week, but when it rained after that, Aaron made sure he was no more than ten feet away from me.
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