The Sikorsky Ch-53E Super Stallion is a beast. With three motors and seven blades the Super Stallion is used for heavy lifting throughout the navy and marine corps. She’s known as the “big bitch” throughout the service but Seven quickly dubbed her the flying icebox when he first laid eyes on her. So noted because the elongated thick body of the beast reminded him of the large white freezer that Gran kept on the back porch of the Thomasville farmhouse. Like the helicopter, the icebox was large, fat, and filled with dead weight. He couldn’t believe that after all his hard work and dedication to his newly acquired skill, he was being sentenced to pilot the equivalent of a flying semitruck. He felt a bubbling eruption brewing in his stomach. He watched from the inside as his dreams faded and disintegrated into a boring, repetitive job. He pictured himself flying cargo and supplies from ship to ship throughout the fleet. His life and career were over before it even got started. He played the scenario repeatedly in his mind and he never found an acceptable method for telling the Colonel that he was to be a glorified deliveryman.
“Listen, boy, if that’s what the navy wants, that’s what they get,” the old man told his grandson through the unstable cell phone connection. “Seven, you were chosen to fly that fridge because it takes skill and talent. Heavy cargo flights are dangerous and technical. They need the best, son; they need you.”
“You’re right, Colonel, I guess if I can fly the big bitch I can fly anything,” Seven replied in an unconvincing monologue.
It was a long, disappointing six months that led to Seven receiving his certification to fly the big bitch. He tried to embrace the Colonel’s words and keep a positive attitude about the demise of his dreams. He still experienced the sweet rumble of nervousness in his core every time he felt the thundering vibration and exploding sound of man-made flight swirling above his head. The excitement, however, would soon fade as he turned his attention to the mundane and boring tasks of delivering