Just back from Catalina with Matt and his 6th grade
class after spending 3 days at the Marine Institute
at Cherry Cove.
The F-22 Raptor that crashed yesterday was
piloted by a friend of the BWD family,
Dave Cooley. Dave was an AWESOME man!!
How could you not look up to a guy who flies
at beyond Mach speed everyday--funny thing is,
he looked up to us who are on the radio everyday,
are in a room all alone with a microphone
and some fancy computers. Dave was incredible.
As a fighter pilot, he of course pressed the limits of
a $140 million dollar fighter jet but he loved his
wife well-his 3 sons-his friends and most importantly,
God. He and I used to joke around that one day he
could do my job talking to you and playing music and
I would go up and take his multi-million dollar
piece of metal to 785 miles per hour and never have
the jitters riding X-Celerator at Knotts or Goliath
at Six Flags ever again. He had a humbleness that
goes beyond words and a laugh that was majestically
contagious. I can't believe I'm even typing verbs
like, "had" and "was". He adored The Fish and his
favorite band, Jars of Clay.
Please keep his wife Sheyla and their three sons in
your prayers. Overwhelm the heavens please.
All of us who lose people we love wonder what
the heck God is thinking sometimes--we know
He is in control and that He holds us in His hand
always. The grief is real though, you know? So
know that when I play songs like, "Wish You were
here", "Finally Home", "I have been there", "Dancing
with the Angels" and the like...I'm playing them for
you, yes? But I'm also playing them for me, my family,
Sheyla and their boys and my friend who I lost yesterday,
Dave "Cools" Cooley. I'll see you again one day, Cools!
And I'll see you on the radio Friday---
BWD
