{"id":3664,"date":"2010-02-08T00:50:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T08:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2010-02-08T00:25:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T08:25:08","slug":"usafa-grads-fighter-pilots-christians-pilot-shuttle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/08\/usafa-grads-fighter-pilots-christians-pilot-shuttle\/","title":{"rendered":"USAFA Grads, Fighter Pilots, Christians Pilot Space Shuttle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Air Force was proud to point out<\/a> that\u00a0Colonel Terry Virts Jr<\/a>, a 1989 graduate of the US Air Force Academy, was the pilot for the Endeavor<\/em> STS-130 shuttle mission (originally scheduled for\u00a0February 7th, weather delayed to the 8th).\u00a0 The announcement allowed the Air Force to highlight an awesome opportunity for Airmen that may motivate them to follow in\u00a0Virts’ footsteps.\u00a0 Embry Riddle did the same thing<\/a>, as Virts is an alumnus, allowing Embry Riddle to highlight the success of its graduates and motivate others to attend its courses.\u00a0 Notably, Virts was also a fighter pilot and test pilot.<\/p>\n

He is also a Christian:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Going through events like hurricanes or the Columbia accident has really driven home the message we get in James chapter 1. I’m paraphrasing, “Don\u2019t say, ‘I will go to this city and conduct business’… but instead you should say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will I will live.'” We really can’t count on anything in this world other than God. I have a saying: “My hope is not in ___” (fill in the blank), meaning that we really do need to place our trust in God, and not in things or people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interesting development, the pilot of the next shuttle mission, STS-131 in March, is LtCol James Dutton–the top 1991 USAFA graduate and once a leading F-22 test pilot–and he, too, is a Christian, even listing membership in Officers’ Christian Fellowship<\/a> among his organizations in his NASA bio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though being an astronaut\u00a0has its challenges (Virts has been at NASA for 9 years–and this will be his first space trip), it\u00a0also has its perks.\u00a0 Virts got a cameo on Star Trek<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and was able to give\u00a0a tour to Christian musician Michael W. Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just as those who read about Virts’ and Dutton’s experiences–military fighter pilots, test pilots, and\u00a0astronauts–can be inspired to achieve similar goals, the same is true for Christians.\u00a0 Young men and women who share their faith may see\u00a0their successes in the military as\u00a0fighter and test pilots, and\u00a0their successes as NASA astronauts, and realize that they, too, can achieve those goals–even without compromising their faith, as some fear they may do in the military.<\/p>\n

These men demonstrate that it is<\/em> possible to be a faithful Christian and yet be a\u00a0military fighter pilot, test pilot,\u00a0or even NASA astronaut.\u00a0 Pursue your dreams, and live your Christian faith.\u00a0 Others have done so and been very successful.\u00a0 You can, too, and your example will inspire others to follow you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Air Force was proud to point out that\u00a0Colonel Terry Virts Jr, a 1989 graduate of the US Air Force Academy, was the pilot for the Endeavor STS-130 shuttle mission (originally scheduled for\u00a0February 7th, weather delayed to the 8th).\u00a0 The announcement allowed the Air Force to highlight an awesome opportunity for Airmen that may motivate them to follow in\u00a0Virts’ footsteps.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3],"tags":[5285,181,2,21,81,179,10,204,180,182],"class_list":["post-3664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-culture","tag-fighter-pilot","tag-james-dutton","tag-military","tag-nasa","tag-ocf","tag-officers-christian-fellowship","tag-religion","tag-space-shuttle","tag-terry-virts-jr","tag-test-pilot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}