Everyone has had a brush with greatness, some actually happened, some were just brushes with greatness, and some almost occurred but didn't come to fruition for one reason or the other. I'm positive there are TONS of stories like this here. Please tell us your story with greatness, brushes with greatness, or greatness turned down. More than one story is OK since the harder people work the more opportunities flow. And since there is serious tonnage of those kinds of folk on the great Sigforum I would like to hear those stories.

In this context greatness can be defined any way you see it, since the term means all kinds of things to differnet people, from all walks of life and circumstances, not necessarily objective historical greatness, but using the cards that were available to you. And if we don't run out of space, a simple life of simple pleasures can be defined as greatness, since some of the most impressive and valuable human beings we've ever met were not great by any traditional historical standards.

So what's your story with greatness ?

March 1991. I’m 18 years old skiing down the hardest mogul run (double black diamond) at the resort. It’s directly under the lift for a long stretch.

I was killing it that day. People on the lift were cheering me on. Nailed every turn.

It was the perfect day, at the peak of my youth, pushing all the fear and doubt aside to just flow. I was poetry in motion.

I nail this huge catwalk jump, full daffy, and my pole hits one the poles of a person on the lift, like a high-5. I’m so high in the air I’m eye to eye with the chair lift.

I felt like Michael Jordan dunking from the top of the key.

One little moment in time I was the best.

Later that season I broke two ribs and tore my ACL. But like Al Bundy’s five touchdown game, glory lives forever.

That's pretty radical, saying hello to skiers on the lift while you fly by them. That's one of those memories that dreams are made of. Awsome.

I once spent 2 days as a personal bodyguard to Elie Wiesel. Survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Author and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Quite an experience.

Closest I can come is I was the leading scorer in our state wide championship high school state basketball tournament. Played all four games, three in the losers bracket.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I once spent 2 days as a personal bodyguard to Elie Wiesel. Survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Author and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Quite an experience.

I just read about him on Wikipedia, never knew about it. That memory is a bona fide keeper no doubt, very cool, thanks for that.

Back in the 80s my wife and I lived in the vicinity of Wickenburg, Arizona. There’s a men’s 5-day ride that leaves from Wickenburg in April and heads generally north into the Bradshaw Mountains, in the direction of Prescott. The ride has taken place for many years. It’s an elaborate affair and many of those taking part come from all over the country, and include some heavy hitters. There are roughly 250 men on the ride and I worked a couple years as a trail wrangler. Obviously, when those taking part include many men whose only exposure to horses is this ride, assistance may be needed along the trail. I would ride along within the string of horses and riders and provide assistance as necessary.

One afternoon I struck up a conversation with a rider and we talked for quite awhile. He was Dr. Bill Shankel, a thoracic surgeon, he called himself a “chest cutter.” I can’t remember if he was still living and practicing in Needles, CA at that time, but I know he bought out the practice of a retiring surgeon and moved, with his wife to one of the Hawaiian Islands.

Here’s his story as best I can recall. He was a Navy A4 pilot during the Vietnam War. His second tour to the Gulf of Tonkin was on the newly commissioned nuclear carrier, Enterprise, operating at “Yankee Station” off the coast of Vietnam. He was a LTJG and in December of 1965 was shot down during a bombing mission on a bridge over the Red River, between Hanoi and Haiphong. He was a POW for seven (7) years.

Upon his release in February of 1973, the Navy promoted him to LCDR. *I think that was standard practice for the Navy and Air Force to give those prisoners credit for those years in North Vietnamese POW camps. The Navy also asked him what he would like to do with his career, saying further that he could choose pretty much what he wanted. Bill Shankel said, “Well, I guess I’d like a fighter wing.”

His reply was, “You got it. One thing though, since your time a North Vietnam, a requirement has been instituted that you must have a college degree; you dropped out of college and joined the Navy for pilot training before you completed school; you’ll have to go back to college and complete the degree requirement.”

Bill (he told me I could call him “Bill”) thought, “Well if I have to go to college anyway, do I want just fulfill a requirement to do what I have already done?” At the time he was shot down, he had already flown over 50 combat missions and been both a division and section leader. He ended up going to med school instead, and then went on to specialize in thoracic surgery.

I was watching the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo a couple months ago and he was introduced in the arena to a warm applause from those in attendance. I imagine he’s retired from medicine now, but it brought me back to my “brush with greatness.”

I wasn’t sure if we were being asked to relate only stories of our own achievements, but this is what came to mind.

Pilot on Twin Bonanza air taxi / charter flight to pick up Bob Hope when he received honorary Dr. degree from Monmouth College in NJ.

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Bill Lear*, James Coburn, and three gorgeous actresses from one of the "Our Man Flint" movies stopped to pet my little rescue beagle girl at the Dorado airport in Puerto Rico. Mr. Lear gave me a tour of his personal airplane before they took off.

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* Well known, of course, for his airplanes, but who can chime in with one of his first products? Hint: nothing to do with aviation.

I checked, I have a brush with paint, oil, grease... Haven't found the one with greatness on it yet.

We have had these threads in the past and they are always enjoyable.

My brush with greatness, pasted from a thread from a few years ago.

When I was learning to fly back in the 1990s, I went to a meeting put on by the FAA FSDO (Flight Standards District Offices) featuring Al Haynes as a speaker.

He was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 232 which crashed in Sioux City after a major engine and flight controls failure.

I seem to recall he was really down to earth and a genuinely decent guy.

It was amazing there were any survivors at all in that incident.

Sadly he passed away a few years back.

I have a fun story on a brush with greatness. Back in the late 1990’s I was in a 9th grade social studies class. It was a memorable class because I had quite a few friends in the class and the teacher was outstanding

A few months into the class one of my friends says something like “I’m tired of all your distractions and constant jokes” directed at our peanut gallery. He then said something like “I’m not going to sit with you clowns, I want to fly jets with the Navy so I need to focus”. We all laughed after he said that.

Fast forward about 20 years. One of my friends from that class, who I have stayed in contact with over the years, sends me a link to an article. The story is about our friend who moved his seat away from our circus. He did go on to fly jets for the US NAVY and he even flew with the Blue Angels!

I came within 1 pitch (a clean single) of pitching a perfect game is a USSSA sanctioned slow pitch softball game.

I don't think I've ever done anything truly on the edge of greatness. Except maybe the one time I took an 800 yd shot with open sights and hit the 1 ft diameter gong on the first try. That was with my daughter's boyfriend and her at the range. He was suitable impressed.

I've been in close proximity to famous people a number of times.

The first time was in 1972 during the height of the Apollo space program. I was 11 yrs old and wanted to be an astronaut, just like every other boy did. The family was on vacation in Zermatt Switzerland and we rode the cable car from town up to the ski area. On the car there was the operator, us, and a couple. He was the astronaut John Glenn. I went up to him and asked if he was John Glenn. He was very gracious and chatted with me for the whole ride. He said to stop by the desk at his hotel in the evening and he would leave an autograph for me. He did better than that, he wrote a nice letter on the hotel stationery and signed it. He could easily have been completely annoyed at some kid bugging him and his wife on their vacation.

My next brush was as a 16 year old on a ski vacation in Aspen. My 17 yr old cousin and I went to the outdoor hot tub one evening. A gorgeous blond woman in a floor length fur coat came out, took off her coat to reveal a bikini, and got in with us. We were nearly speechless at first but ended up having a nice conversation for about 15 minutes. She was the famous British movie star Susanna York.

Seeing Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm in our glass conference room signing paperwork at a prior employer’s.

I was in college with Gibby Haynes, of the Butthole Surfers. He wouldn't remember me.

quote:

Originally posted by TexasScrub:
I was in college with Gibby Haynes, of the Butthole Surfers. He wouldn't remember me.

He wouldn't remember you due to all the acid, most likely.

Never a brush with greatness that I know of, but standing by my Harrier doing static display at air shows and having kids ask for my autograph felt pretty special.

My ex-employer in Phoenix may very well have been the finest man I've ever known or met in my whole life.
His name was Wayne.

I have a brother that is in second place.
Both to me are considered great people.

I met an F 4 pilot Viet Nam vet while in Phoenix , I didn't know him but would have liked too.
( He used to be a member here)

According to his den wall, he could have told campfire stories for weeks.

My contribution - A childhood friend of my brother came from a family with 11 kids, an alcoholic father, and a stay-at-home mother (by necessity). They were the poorest of the poor and didn't even have the benefit of an outdoor toilet. (All of them just went into the nearby woods.)

In those days of the 1950's, there was no local government assistance programs and the churches really didn't care unless you attended their services. The family went hungry a lot of days.

When the friend entered his freshman year in high school, he came to our house to tell my brother that he had to drop out of school and go to work because his brothers and sisters were going to starve if he didn't. He managed to make enough money to keep them fed until they left home.

Fast forward, he eventually became a heavy equipment operator, married and raised a solid family, and held a good reputation in the community until he died.

He was a man of greatness to me because he had every reason to be bitter and quit on life, but chose to overcome all that and put his siblings well-being before his own. He was always my cure for any pity parties that I might feel inclined to hold for myself while growing up with few advantages in life.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Pilot on Twin Bonanza air taxi / charter flight to pick up Bob Hope when he received honorary Dr. degree from Monmouth College in NJ.

---

Bill Lear*, James Coburn, and three gorgeous actresses from one of the "Our Man Flint" movies stopped to pet my little rescue beagle girl at the Dorado airport in Puerto Rico. Mr. Lear gave me a tour of his personal airplane before they took off.

---

* Well known, of course, for his airplanes, but who can chime in with one of his first products? Hint: nothing to do with aviation.

Lear Jet 8 track tape player for cars!