BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“On Okinawa, it took a long time for mail and Partner materials from KCM to reach us,” Pete says. “We got the BVOV magazine and Jen got to listen to the broadcast while I flew. We didn’t have cable TV. While we were stationed there, our many deployments literally meant I flew around the world in an F-15, which is a twin-engine fighter with no bathroom. Our squadron flew from Okinawa to Alaska, to Portugal and on to Turkey. Then we flew from Okinawa in the East China Sea, around the South China Sea to Singapore and on to Saudi Arabia. “Days before 9/11, I ran a combat air intercept and got to fly over Mount Ararat. I locked an Iraqi aircraft that was sent to shoot down one of our planes. I was a few seconds from firing when the enemy pilot decided to retreat. Instead of shooting at our plane, he turned away. We all lived that day and I was completing my calling!” On Sept. 11, 2001, while flying combat sorties out of Turkey, Pete received an email from Jen, who was in Okinawa, on their slow dial-up: “Babe, I love you. Things are good. Anna’s birthday was great. We’re praying for you. BTW, America was just attacked...Okinawa under typhoon alert.... I’m getting cable.” A Great Fall Following this assignment at Kadena Air Base in Japan, Pete was chosen to attend a new master’s degree program in Monterey, Calif. He studied international relations and nuclear proliferation/counterproliferation, which involves knowledge of nuclear materials between nations. He wrote his thesis on Israel’s counterproliferation action and strike on Iraq. He traveled to Israel on research and the Institute for National Security Studies published his thesis as a book, "Israel’s Attack on Osirak: A Model for Future Preventative Strikes." “I take Jen on a honeymoon once each year,” Pete explains. “At the end of one of our trips, we visited KCM and attended a Bible study at EMIC. When they learned that I was a pilot, we were taken to the TV studio where we met Papa Kenneth and Bill Winston. They were filming, so the meeting was brief, but it was a great blessing.” Having finished his master’s degree, he was selected for another flying job. Things were great for the growing family. Pete and Jen’s second child, Zachariah, had been born in Okinawa. Now, in 2004, Jen was pregnant with another daughter, Julia. Over Christmas, Pete visited his mom, Karen, in Tennessee. While Pete was a fighter pilot, Karen was a powerful prayer warrior. The two were having coffee on Saturday morning when Karen blinked back tears. “Son, this is hard for me to say,” she began. “The Lord showed me that you’re going to have a great fall. It’s going to be hard on you. But remember that God has a plan for you. Don’t give up.” “Three months later, on March 25, 2005, I was flying at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas,” Pete remembers. “By now, Jen was six months pregnant. The Air Force was fielding F-22s, which are phenomenal airplanes. The F-15s I flew are bad boys in combat. We’ve never lost one in battle. The score is 105 to zero. The F-22 is the next generation air fighter, and we had to do operational tests to prove it could be a good replacement for our Air Force’s air-to-air needs. BVOV : 15

• Cover