The President and the FAA say I am essential personnel for national security/economics and that I must continue to fly commercial jets even though the virus is impacting crews to some degree. I fly B787 for American Airlines typically to China and the far east. Those destinations are now cancelled. I then flew to Madrid and Amsterdam but they are now cancelled also. I did fly full loads of primarily US citizens out of Shanghai, Inchon, S. Korea, Madrid, and Amsterdam well into the crisis, i.e. February and March, and there were a lot of happy faces especially on the last flight out of Shanghai to Dallas. I have not worked at any level other than the local level. I have made and shipped out about 60 homemade face masks for NYC medical staff use (masks4medical). I did not learn how to sew or fly at the USAWC, but I did learn respect, understanding, humility, and cooperation in a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous environment such as we are experiencing now. Former CO HMM-774 Marine CH-46s; Former Director of Marine Corps Lessons Learned while mobilized 2003-2009; Pilot American Airlines 1990- present mobilized for Gulf 1 and Gulf 2.
Col Monte Dunard, USMCR (Ret)
Distance Class of 2004
