Brig. Gen. Lansing “Lance” Pilch speaks during an Air Force Change of Command Ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

If anyone would have told me that one day I would be sitting in an airplane hangar being acknowledged and thanked by a General in the United States Air Force in front of a crowd that included congressmen, top military brass, an entire squadron of elite top gun pilots and the widow of a Medal of Honor recipient, I would have told them they should immediately seek psychiatric help. But yet, that is exactly what happened last Thursday.