Air Force F-16 Pilot Finds His Calling | Ep. 21 with Guy Brilando
Do you struggle to live life with focus and passion? In this episode, Pat welcomes Guy Brilando, an Air Force F-16 pilot veteran and author. Guy defines what it means to live on purpose for a purpose and how to allow our passions to drive us.
To learn more from Guy and find his book, check out his website at guybrilando.com
Be sure to follow us to stay up to date with all the latest content! New episodes every Wednesday.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nogreyareasbook/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoGreyAreasBook/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoGreyAreas
Want to dive deeper into the story? Check out the link below!
https://linktr.ee/NoGreyAreas
Transcript
Host
You're listening to the No Gray Areas podcast with Patrick McCalla Today's guest is Guy Brilando, an Air Force F-16 pilot, veteran and guy defines what it means to live on purpose for a purpose and how to allow our passions to drive us.
::Host
Let's dive in.
::Patrick McCalla
Guy Brilando, we've known each other now for over a decade, I think, right? Yup. We had to have you on this podcast because you have lived an interesting life, fascinating life and inspiring life. And a lot of ways we're going to get to this in a moment.
::Patrick McCalla
But you had a really interesting experience when you were a fighter pilot having to eject. We want to get to that a little bit. But first we got to unpack a little bit of your story. So where were you born?
::Guy Brilando
I was born in Niles, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.
::Patrick McCalla
OK, so you were a Chicago boy? Yeah, right, right. Cubbies, cubbies, cubbies.
::Speaker 4
OK?
::Patrick McCalla
So you you know what it feels like to not win for a long time?
::Speaker 4
That's right.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, perseverance is a key. That's true to success.
::Patrick McCalla
That's true. So, so you was that all your growing up years in Chicago?
::Guy Brilando
Yes. 21 years.
::Patrick McCalla
21 years. OK, so you end up well, first of all, you I've I recognize this just from your post, man. You had a dad that was your hero, wasn't he? In a lot of ways?
::Guy Brilando
Absolutely.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah. And I always connected with your post about your dad because he worked for Schwinn Bicycle Company.
::Guy Brilando
So, yeah, my dad grew up on the south side of Chicago and his parents were immigrants. He was first generation here.
::Patrick McCalla
From.
::Guy Brilando
From Italy.
::Patrick McCalla
OK.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. And he's just a really neat guy. And his and it wasn't a very outgoing type of personality, but yes, he was OK and he fell into bicycle racing and his brother, Joe really encouraged him along the ways.
::Guy Brilando
He never had a real coach or anything like that. He would speed skate in the wintertime, which he actually enjoyed that even more, but he would do racing for that. But he would. He started into the bicycle racing.
::Guy Brilando
And Joe worked. His brother, Joe, worked for Schwinn bicycles. Back then, everything on the Paramount bicycle was hand-painted. And Joe was the guy that did all that. He did all the hand painting on all the Schwinn bicycles way back when my dad, when.
::Patrick McCalla
I really wanted to paramount when I raced, I raced Schwinn as if I told.
::Guy Brilando
You I might have one for.
::Speaker 4
Yeah, I love.
::Patrick McCalla
That bike. That was the one I wanted back when I was racing.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. So he went on to the Olympics. 48 and 52, really? So two time Olympian, he didn't win a medal per se. But I mean, still, it's a quite an achievement. Yeah, to be able to do that without a coach or anything, he did it all on his own.
::Guy Brilando
He was at that time, bicycle racing was very, very popular sports in the United States, kind of like maybe not maybe as big as football basketball, but it was a very big sport and people followed it and especially the newspapers.
::Guy Brilando
My dad was number one and he was the first inductee, one of the first inductees in a bicycle hall of Fame when they started that up. So he's just he's very well known in the bicycle industry. In fact, at his funeral a couple of years ago, some of the guys that knew him really well came up to
::Guy Brilando
us. And in his time, you know, the the Shimano, which is very big in bicycles. Anybody out there that knows anything or bicycles is heard of Shimano. And they told me that the one Shimano brother. Ran the business, and the other one was the engineer, and my dad would constantly tell him, Hey, you need to do this
::Guy Brilando
and to do that. And basically taught the commandos what they know about Shimano building.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, of the.
::Guy Brilando
Different bicycle.
::Patrick McCalla
Boats were some of my bike parts on my racing bike.
::Guy Brilando
Today. I just bought a mountain bike and it's got Shimano all over.
::Patrick McCalla
So I didn't even know that was like a family. OK? And so their dad was part of that.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. And so the Shimano brothers, they brought over a whole entire film crew where we were, but I was still young. I was probably about twelve years old or so, and they did a whole documentary on my dad and filmed us and all that.
::Guy Brilando
So. Wow. It's my dad is my dad is very well respected. Or, you know, he's passed now, but was very well respected in the bicycle world.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah. OK, so you grow up there? Good family, right? Great family. We had a great.
::Guy Brilando
one, sister.
::Patrick McCalla
Older sister, one older sister. And then did you go into the Air Force right out of high school or what was your journey?
::Guy Brilando
I was lost. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was I kind of hung around with some, you know, if you remember the greasers, if you will, we call ourselves a different name, but that's who I was.
::Guy Brilando
I mean, we went out look for fights with the jocks, the athletic guys and stuff like that, even though I ran track at an associate myself with that. And so I made myself with the tanker jacket, white t shirt and engineer boots.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, that was my motto in high school, right? And anyhow, so it's a different breed now, but I knew I wanted something more because in the summertime you.
::Patrick McCalla
Wanted something more than fighting with the jocks.
::Guy Brilando
Exactly when I was in high school in the summertime, I worked at a warehouse, a book publishing place. And one thing that that taught me was that I did not want a job where I was going to be indoors all the time.
::Guy Brilando
I needed something where I was going to be outside. I had a love for the stars. I had built my own telescope, spent a lot of time at the planetarium down there in Chicago, and the love of the stars is my big thing.
::Guy Brilando
So I right after high school not knowing what I wanted to do. I did a community college and I started studying physics because I wanted to go in to become an astrophysicist. And then third.
::Patrick McCalla
Year, that's quite a jump from like fighting with science to wanting to be an astrophysicist.
::Guy Brilando
Well, I was fortunate in that I didn't really have to study and I still got A's. I was one of those kind of kids. Yeah, and I was very fortunate and I didn't realize it at the time, of course, you know, but I my first and second year of college, I started realizing I wasn't going to be
::Guy Brilando
able to handle the math because I didn't have the study habits is too abstract for me. The calculus and stuff I needed. I couldn't put hands and.
::Patrick McCalla
Touch.
::Guy Brilando
You know? Yeah. So it was too abstract for me, and I started getting lost and my dad recognized that, and he came to me one day and asked me if I wanted to learn to fly. And I did.
::Guy Brilando
So I started flying. But then he came to me and he said, Hey, would you like to go down to Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach and to check out the school? And it was a dream come true. And so we went down to Florida, checked out the school, and while we were there, I kind of nudged him.
::Guy Brilando
My dad is, I think I'd like to check out the ROTC and he goes, what? Because he served in World War two? But we're now a military family at all. Yeah. And we went in there, sat down with Lieutenant Colonel John B Tremlett.
::Guy Brilando
I'll never forget it. 30 minutes walked out underneath the Florida sunshine. My dad's like, you don't have anything to do with that, do you? I said, Yeah, dad, I think I do. The only thing I'm concerned about is having to cut my hair.
::Speaker 4
Great hair, the girls, you know?
::Guy Brilando
And so I joined. That's how I got into the military. So I was 24. I was a little bit later.
::Patrick McCalla
OK, so you go into the Air Force? Yeah, right. And then did you you went in to be a pilot. You wanted to be a pilot. But I.
::Guy Brilando
Did go into.
::Patrick McCalla
The mostly by Air Force to be a pilot, and most don't get to be pilots.
::Guy Brilando
Exactly. Yeah. I ended up I found my calling truly because like I was saying, I was lost and then I walked into ROTC detachment. Something just resonated deep within me and I really excelled at it. We were the largest all volunteer detachment at that time was over 500 cadets and and three I had to do another three
::Guy Brilando
years of college. I had six years of college. I'm not all that.
::Speaker 4
Bright.
::Guy Brilando
And they wouldn't accept my credit hours anyhow. So but my third year I became detachment commander, which is a big honor. And then they not only gave me urinated joint jet pilot training and jumped, which is the Premiere pilot training base in America, where they send all the top euro natal countries euro countries to their their top
::Guy Brilando
students there as well. They also gave me a regular commission, so there's only a handful of those given out a year to ROTC. Reserve Officer Training Command means you get commission is a reserved officer. Yeah, an officer with you in the reserves.
::Guy Brilando
And I got a regular commission out of that, so I just really, truly found my calling.
::Patrick McCalla
Isn't it fascinating how life works like, you know, your dad is just he comes to and he's like, Hey, why don't we go check this out, right? And that takes you in a direction that, like you were, you were made for, right?
::Patrick McCalla
Right, God, it wouldn't.
::Guy Brilando
Have happened without my dad. So he is my hero.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, sure. Wow. Wow. So you end up flying F-16, correct? So I have to ask because most of the listeners, including me, what that's got to be a thrill like that. That's that's on my bucket list. If I could get in the cockpit of a.
::Patrick McCalla
Fighter jet and see what that feels like, that's got to be incredible.
::Guy Brilando
You know, as you're saying that what comes to mind is when you see a fighter, if you have if you've never seen it, you know, I try to. But if you ever seen a fighter go by and how loud it is.
::Guy Brilando
Right? But when you're in the cockpit, it's very quiet. You don't hear that noise, you know, and you got earplugs in. You got a headset on, helmet on. And so it's very quiet. So it's almost surreal from that perspective.
::Guy Brilando
And, you know, most of the times we're on a mission, so we don't have a chance to really enjoy it, you know, but every once in a while, you'll get one of those times where you get to take an airplane out.
::Guy Brilando
And I was a functional check flight pilot, so they would basically be the first one to fly that thing after some major repairs. Not sure if it's going to work properly or not.
::Patrick McCalla
Well, that sounds like fun.
::Guy Brilando
I loved it. And on a couple of those, I got to really play around with the airplane and experience what that thing could do and just on its own and just really get into the groove of it and just feel it.
::Guy Brilando
And the plane really does become a part of you. It's like, you're not. You don't think of yourself as a pilot. When you're flying the airplane, you're thinking about the mission and you just got this this plane that's you're carrying along.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. You know, we say you strapped the jet on. You don't strap into the that you strap the jet on, and that's kind of the mindset. Wow. It's an amazing experience. I wish everybody could experience.
::Patrick McCalla
Oh man. I think a lot of people would love to experience it, although most, most can't really handle it right. When they really get in it, you guys start turning those like whatever they call, what do they call them?
::Patrick McCalla
Like G-force, G-force? Yeah. Yeah.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, we did a lot of incentive flights for the for the maintainers and, you know, airmen of the quarter, those types of things as a reward, we take them up and give them a flight. And those are some of the most memorable experiences, truly, because, you know, like you, you know, if I was to take you up
::Guy Brilando
in an airplane, it's something you will never, ever forget.
::Patrick McCalla
It's like a once in a lifetime experience.
::Guy Brilando
So being able to do that is it was really a lot of fun.
::Patrick McCalla
So those were some of your favorite experiences of flying the jets is when you would take one out someone's worked on the mechanics to work on it. You have to take it out, make sure it's running well and you're going and just getting to play with it a little bit right.
::Patrick McCalla
And yeah, and you're not on a mission, so to speak.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, those are just some of the where you really get a chance to appreciate what you're doing. But on a day to day basis, it's it's all about the mission. And some of the most memorable missions are one where they're in very large packages, where there's 50 100 airplanes out there.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, and you're a part of that. And it's just amazing the amount of brainpower that's extrapolated and that to make all that happen is just it's amazing. It's it's that part of being a fighter pilot. Most people will never understand the flying.
::Guy Brilando
They can kind of, you know, I can imagine what that's like, but understanding what goes on behind to make that all happen, it's a whole nother story. Yeah.
::Patrick McCalla
What do you mean by that? Like, it's a whole nother story. Like, most people wouldn't get that. Like the complexities of.
::Guy Brilando
Complexity, OK, the the amount of mission planning, for instance, if you're doing a complex mission like that, like for once one time we I got picked to lead a package against a US Air Force carrier group in the Adriatic as a practice mission, right?
::Guy Brilando
That was two months of planning for an hour and a half long mission.
::Patrick McCalla
OK?
::Guy Brilando
And I didn't even get to to complete it because just as I was getting ready to start my attack on the carrier group on leading this whole package of airplanes behind me, my airplane really went bad and went in the wrong direction, really bad.
::Guy Brilando
And I had to break off and me and my wingman were 200 miles offshore and my were an electric jet because everything's electrically powered. And I started losing all my electrics. Everything started going. And this is after the ejection in Korea.
::Guy Brilando
Now we're in Italy and we're flying back. We're trying to figure out what's going on with this airplane. We can't figure out what's going on and gone through the whole checklist. Now we're just we're just sitting there for another 30 minutes trying to get to shore.
::Guy Brilando
And my my wingman goes, Hey, guy, Pepe, Reina Pepe, what? You know, I've seen this once before. I'm like, Yeah, he goes, It was a fire and I go, Shut up. I know. And sure enough, it burnt through three of the four wire bundles for the flight controls.
::Guy Brilando
So by the time I landed, if it had been a little bit longer, I would have had to eject a second time. So.
::Patrick McCalla
OK, so you brought this.
::Guy Brilando
A lot of.
::Patrick McCalla
Complexity. Oh yeah, yeah, I can imagine. And you were in for 20, 20 some years, right? Yeah.
::Guy Brilando
A little over 20 years. Little over.
::Patrick McCalla
20 years. You probably flew a lot of missions. I did.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. Well, if I had over 200 combat hours. But, you know, I don't know how many total missions I had when I retired. I was one of the top 100 for all time of 16 hours, so I had a lot of experience in the airplane.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not pales in comparison with some of the guys have now. But at that time it was pretty. It was pretty significant. Yeah.
::Patrick McCalla
So we were talking earlier. You, you went. Once you get out of training and everything, you go to Korea for a little while, then you go to Germany for a little while, right? Where you meet your wife, who you just celebrated 30 years with, congratulations.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, and then you go to Italy, right? You're in Italy, where after that.
::Guy Brilando
Phenix. So we were in Phenix for another ten years. Finished up my military career and then stepped over to Southwest Airlines.
::Patrick McCalla
OK, so we're going to we're going to come back to the ejection story.
::Speaker 4
OK with.
::Patrick McCalla
You. Then you go to Southwest Airlines and I suspect of flying a jet and flying what you were. What what? What did you fly in Southwest? What are they?
::Guy Brilando
They 737.
::Patrick McCalla
The F-16, the 737. A little different.
::Guy Brilando
Very different.
::Speaker 4
Yeah, it's.
::Guy Brilando
A totally different.
::Patrick McCalla
Little boring compared to the F-16.
::Guy Brilando
Well, you know, the easiest analogy would be like going from a Formula one race car to driving a bus. And it's truly what it is, and it's different, but it's still challenging in its own right. So that's what you do.
::Guy Brilando
You look at the challenges because if you're not pushing yourself, if you're not trying to better yourself, then you start ticking and ticking is not a good place to be mentally. So you find the new challenges in life and flying in a 737 is a totally new ballgame.
::Guy Brilando
From flying the F-16. I had a lot of flying experience, but now I'm in a new whole new ballgame. And so I have to learn that ball game to play it right and to and to be very safe in that environment and to keep the passengers happy back there.
::Guy Brilando
You know, they don't like a rough pilot for sure, and they don't want yanking and banking. They want to make sure their coffee doesn't spill.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah. Which, which is quite a bit different than what you were doing. Have F-16s, right? Yeah. So let's go back to this. So you're in Korea. And the reason that I bring this up is I saw you post this a couple of times a couple of years.
::Patrick McCalla
We're friends. We've been friends for over a decade, like I said, and I see your stuff on social media, but you talk about that was a kind of a life changing moment for you. So tell us a little bit about what led up to that.
::Patrick McCalla
What happened? You had to eject. Yeah, you almost died, right?
::Guy Brilando
So we were all I could have could have gone wrong. Very much so. Thankfully, it didn't. I have another friend to Scott O'Grady, and his ejection story is pretty amazing. He injected in the combat area of Bosnia when we were fighting there, and his whole how he speaks about his finding his faith even more deeper during that
::Guy Brilando
experience is amazing. But for mine to set it up? Yeah. I had had a long battle trying to find Jesus in my heart, and I didn't really understand it all. And that's a hole I would open up a can of worms, but when I moved to Korea.
::Guy Brilando
During that period of time, I was getting closer, I didn't have one of these aha moments for, I'm a believer, I got Jesus in my heart. That's not how it went for me, it was this law passed us.
::Patrick McCalla
And you're near like mid twenties, late twenties.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, I was 27.
::Patrick McCalla
I think, OK.
::Guy Brilando
And but I hooked up with this guy. We call him cherry and cherry, and I would go to church every Sunday, and I was all of a sudden there was one Sunday where I really just like, You know what?
::Guy Brilando
I got Christ in my heart. And I felt it felt different. You know, it's just one of those things just felt different. I know how to explain it anyhow. So I'm on this mission. This is a very large exercise in Korea.
::Guy Brilando
It's called Fall Eagle, the US Marines, Army, Air Force. The Navy is involved in it, the Korean Air Force and Navy and everybody's involved.
::Speaker 4
Talk about complexity. Yeah, talk about complexity.
::Guy Brilando
And it's a whole week long scenario of playing with chem weapons and everything else you got to where all the chem gear and it was a mess. Anyhow, we're in a very large package and in our typical or in our particular group, there is eight of six teams.
::Guy Brilando
So there's a little lead package of four and then a second package of four. And I'm number eight in this entire chain. And we go out and we are flying this mission. We got bombs on board. We're we're fighting our way in and then you bomb the target and then you fight your way out and we have
::Guy Brilando
air support that's up above. That's also trying to fend off the enemy. So we don't want to engage when we want to get to the target. But if we have to engage, we do so again. A lot of complexities.
::Guy Brilando
A lot of briefing goes into all that. Hmm. Well, we're flying this low level or 500 feet going 500,550 miles an hour or so. And we're mountainous terrain. So you're kind of, you know, following the mountains around anyhow, we do a 90 degree turn and I roll out of that 90 degree turn and boom.
::Guy Brilando
the time I retired with over: ::Guy Brilando
And the very first thing that goes in my mind is that my engine reverted to its secondary mode, and I don't know why I thought that, but that's just what hit my head and came to my mind and I looked down the instrument engine instruments, my engine still running.
::Guy Brilando
We only got one right it a single seat, single engine fighter. And we're so I'm happy my engines running right. So I start climbing away from the ground and I zip off a radio call. I won't go into all the depths of the story because it's very interesting when we talk about communication and how important communication is
::Guy Brilando
, whether it's kids with their parents, parents with their kids in schools, whatever, you know. Yeah, at work, whatever it may be, communication is huge and this is it. And that's what I go into great detail in my book about because there's a lot of lessons to be learned from this.
::Guy Brilando
But anyhow, I zip off a radio call that I've got a problem and I start climbing away from the ground while the my flight lead number three and our four ship. He is the wing commander for the base at line, which is like head cheese.
::Guy Brilando
He's like the president of the base, right? He controls everything and we had flown a lot together. Anyhow, he's thinking it's the guy in front of them with the problem because I never use my call sign communication. The guy in front of us, his radio died, didn't know it, so he doesn't even know any of this is
::Guy Brilando
going on there. Also, because this is a major exercise.
::Patrick McCalla
And this is all happening at 500 miles an hour, you said.
::Speaker 4
Yeah.
::Guy Brilando
500 feet, I mean, at 500 feet. When you give you an idea, if you over bank, you got about three or four or five seconds before you impact the ground. If you make a mistake.
::Patrick McCalla
So that speed in that high.
::Guy Brilando
Speed and high. Yeah. So anyhow, so there's a lot of. A lot of confusion going on right now, and I'm climbing away from the ground and I'm trying to get my engine restarted and then the engine completely quit and I'm trying to get it restarted, it's not getting restarted.
::Guy Brilando
Meanwhile, I think my flight leaders with me and he's not, he's chasing down number two, it's ahead of them. And I eventually get to the point where I trust and I start a glide down and not going to get this thing started.
::Guy Brilando
I start to see the mountains rising in the canopy in front of me, like, holy crap, I'm really happy to get out of this thing. And so I zip off a radio call. I'm getting out, I'm getting out, and I get myself in this great body position, which and the F-16, the seat reclines 30 degrees and there's
::Guy Brilando
e handle because it's about a: ::Guy Brilando
Well, the junction handles between the legs and I pull the handle so fast and so hard, I actually pull myself off of the seat. So now my back is curved and which is not a good thing, but I pull the handle and nothing happens.
::Guy Brilando
And I'm like, Oh, this isn't good.
::Patrick McCalla
So 500 miles an hour, well, now you're going to start.
::Guy Brilando
Down on 200 ballots.
::Patrick McCalla
You try to eject, but it doesn't work.
::Guy Brilando
Well, no, it worked. But what happened is I got what's called temporal distortion. Everything's slowed down. So you know what is time? That's a whole nother conversation. What is time right? We think of time at a 24 hour clock because we've been programed by the Sun, but that's not what time really is.
::Guy Brilando
Anyhow, I pull the handle. Nothing happens in my mind. And then all of a sudden I hear a pop and I can see the canopy slowly start flying away in front of me, and then I start to get this gentle breeze on my face.
::Guy Brilando
And then because I pull myself so hard, I'm actually looking down and I can see this black billowing fire all over my feet. And I remember thinking to myself, literally at this pace, I go, Oh my gosh, my feet are going to burn because I saw this fire all around and then I get the kick in the
::Guy Brilando
pants and I start going up the rail and I'm like, OK, now my back is bent. That's not good, so I force my back straight again and go up. I clear the aircraft and then everything goes real time from there.
::Guy Brilando
All that happened from the time I pulled the handle to went real. Time was less than two tenths of a second.
::Patrick McCalla
But I hear it play.
::Guy Brilando
Its frame by frame by frame.
::Patrick McCalla
Wow. Select that the cockpit is like going off slow motion. You're slowly coming out of it and all of that. Yeah, wow.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, it was amazing. And then I go up and I get into the parachute. I got twisted, right? Well, two guys had ejected during the time I was there before me. When the timer was there in Korea. Both of them said the neatest thing was watching the airplane without a canopy flying to the ground.
::Guy Brilando
So of course it's going through my head. I got to see my airplane fly into the mountain, right? So because I'm in mountainous terrain and I get twisted risers, I which is anyhow, it's a slight malfunction. I get that on done and I look up just to see the black smoke coming from the side of the Mount
::Guy Brilando
. So I. So you missed. I missed the show.
::Patrick McCalla
You missed the show anyhow.
::Guy Brilando
So yeah, but everything else from there forward worked out pretty well.
::Patrick McCalla
So yeah, well, I love that picture of you where you're standing next to your burnt plane like it's all burnt up. And yeah, yeah. So how did that experience? I mean, that's an experience that few people are ever going to have.
::Patrick McCalla
Obviously, you talk about how that was almost life transforming in some ways. How did that? How did that start?
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, because you're like, OK, I've just gotten a new life. I just gotten a new second chance at life because there's been a lot of guys that haven't made it and a lot of friends. I've lost more friends.
::Guy Brilando
I got fingers and toes. And it gives you a whole new perspective on life. And I said, I will never. Live without gratitude towards having another day to live, and so it did change my perspective totally. And I was so thankful that I had found Christ in my heart by that point because I knew it was about
::Guy Brilando
something bigger than me at that point. And if I hadn't made it, I knew I was going to be OK. Yeah, because I was saved. Yeah, and that is a very good place to be now. You know, so but yeah, it did it.
::Guy Brilando
It was. I could go on and on with the story about it, but I know there's other things going on to talk to you.
::Patrick McCalla
I hear you saying that it was it was something that you were good either way, because of your faith. You knew you were good either way, if that was your last day.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, I was ternary at peace with it all. In fact, there was no fear. Fear did not enter the into the thought process once throughout that entire deal. The place where fear did enter was in that flight, back to over the Adriatic, back on my my my women's telling me, Yeah, it's probably a fire going on inside
::Guy Brilando
your airplane. That was fear because there was nothing I could do. Yeah, you know, I didn't have. All I had was time to think about it in the ejection sequence. I was on a mission trying to figure out what was going on in my airplane.
::Guy Brilando
Now it's time to get out. OK, I'll get out. Yeah. You know.
::Patrick McCalla
All your training kicked in.
::Guy Brilando
Training kicked in. Yeah, but I was also at peace with it all, you know, and even in the Adriatic scenario that if things had gone wrong, I knew I was going to be OK because I had something else.
::Patrick McCalla
You know, one of the things I've noticed about you guys in the ten plus years that when we see each other, every once in a while is you live that way now like you do live like each day is a gift.
::Patrick McCalla
And yes, that was a moment in your life where you really learned that right now, how many years ago was that the ejection?
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. When was that: ::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah, it was a while ago. Yeah. But that you started to look at like every day is a gift today as a gift. And it's such a great reminder for all of us listeners. It's a great reminder because I think a lot of times we start rolling through life and we got our To-Do list right?
::Patrick McCalla
And you start planning out what, you know, three months or six months or something, and you forget to really live in the moment.
::Guy Brilando
Especially when a lot of bad things are happening to you, right? And it's really easy to get into victim mode and why me type mode and I can always think back to that and go, Hey, yeah, wake up.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah, yeah, life is a gift. Well, part of what we talk about on this No Gray Areas podcast is that that live on purpose for a purpose. And I think that was one time in your life where you really started doing that, but you've been you in that 30 year sense that you've really done that well
::Patrick McCalla
, living on purpose for a purpose. Why? Why is that important to you? Like, I've seen you as someone who seems to live with focus, someone who's like, I got one life. I don't want to waste it. Some of that comes from your faith, right?
::Patrick McCalla
But but why is it that you live that way?
::Guy Brilando
You know, I don't know how to exactly answer that. But what I can say is my dad was my model and one of the things that he didn't like. I said he was kind of a quiet guy in a lot of ways, but one of the things that he was his biggest pet peeve was if you're going
::Guy Brilando
to do something, do your very best at it. I don't care if it was mowing the lawn or cleaning the gutters or whatever the chore may have been. He instilled in me to always do my very best, regardless of what it was.
::Guy Brilando
And that really stuck with me. And I guess that's kind of what it is, you know? So if a new interest or something piqued my interest and I'm going to take it on, then I want to do my very best.
::Guy Brilando
I don't have to be the best, but I have to be the very best that I know I can do. And anything short of that is cheating myself. I don't care about what other people think about me or what the outside world is seeing it.
::Guy Brilando
You know, I hear the words of my dad saying, Do your very best.
::Patrick McCalla
Wow. So what a gift.
::Guy Brilando
What a philosophy.
::Patrick McCalla
What a gift that is. I mean, what, what? What an amazing gift you. No wonder he's one of your heroes, for sure. So how do you do that, though? So I get the why? Maybe it's something that your dad instilled you in you.
::Patrick McCalla
But but how do you do it like when you start thinking practically how you live on purpose for a purpose or practically how you try to do your best? What are some things that you do?
::Guy Brilando
I think about the vision that I want to see at the end of whatever that is. And I love that vision to pull me. It's one of the things that Tony Robbins will talk about a lot. You know, you have a vision of so strong that pulls you towards it and not knowing Tony Robbins when I was
::Guy Brilando
growing up or during all of this, I can tell you that that's a lot of what it was. I would find something that stirred the passion within me. So it's not something I think about. It's just something that that is because I allow that passion.
::Guy Brilando
I find something I'm passionate about, and I love that passion to drive me. Just like when I fell in the military, it was like I didn't go out, set out to be the top cadet. In the end, the detachment, I just did my very best each.
::Patrick McCalla
Day vision and driving.
::Guy Brilando
The vision of being in an F-16 fighter pilot is what that vision down the road is. What had me do my very best every day because I know what I want, what the end game is, you know, whatever that may be.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah, so that's the only way I can really answer that question.
::Patrick McCalla
So practically, like you're saying, if someone wanted to get into something, whatever it is like, maybe they want to start riding horses and they never ridden horses before. But they have that passion, you're saying. Put that that vision of like like they're almost imagining themselves at some point, like riding a horse and they're thinking.
::Patrick McCalla
And that's what that should. That should drive them right? Is that one of the things that you've done? Exactly.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. Yeah, that is it. I mean, if you want to be an artist, you want to be a painter, you want to be a videographer, you want to go into the movie, you want to be an actor. Whatever it is, you got to picture it in your mind's eye first.
::Guy Brilando
The end game of what you want and I mean all the greats throughout the years, you Jesus will tell you the same thing. It's not. It's not. It's not secret. It's everybody. If you seek it, you will find those answers written in many, many books.
::Patrick McCalla
Oh yeah, yeah. The Bible even talks about, you know, they'll perish without a vision. And it's right. Yeah, it just doesn't. So another thing that we talk about on this podcast often is the importance of choices. This is around a guy.
::Patrick McCalla
No gray areas. Joseph Gagliano story and he made some, some poor choices in his early twenties, and he's passionate now about helping people understand, especially young people, the importance of choices. You've seen that for sure. Where? Where do you see the importance of that?
::Patrick McCalla
And you're also passionate about that on seeing, in fact, you were telling me, that's one of the reasons you wrote your book. That's right. You want to see young people understand the power of choice. Speaking of that, a little bit.
::Guy Brilando
We'll go back to when I was working in warehouses during the the summertime to school, right? But that was a decision that I made during that time that I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to be in.
::Patrick McCalla
You wanted to be outside. Yeah.
::Guy Brilando
And I knew that I was not going to be indoors. I needed a job or I was going to see the Sun during the day because it was so important to me. So there you go. There casted the vision.
::Guy Brilando
I had no idea what the path was going to be, but I knew what I didn't want, which is kind of reverse psychology, I guess. But I I didn't know exactly where I was headed, but I knew what I did want and when that whole thing with the ROTC and flying fell into my lap, that that brought
::Guy Brilando
me to seeing that vision become a reality. You know.
::Patrick McCalla
You know, just really quickly, let me interrupt and say what? What's what's fascinating about that is you made a decision on something you didn't want. You had no idea where it's going to lead you. You wanted to see the Sun.
::Patrick McCalla
Little did you know you were going to see the Sun out of a cockpit at Mark three or whatever, you know, amazing. But it still started with the.
::Guy Brilando
Decisions, right? Yeah. So those are choices that you make. There's a lot of choices, bad choices I made along the line the time to. And one of the things I also talk about in this book is that I think from a parenting standpoint that if you have open communication with your kids and they know you love them
::Guy Brilando
unconditionally, they'll figure the rest out. And that is one of the things that I was very fortunate enough with. My parents wouldn't even want. I messed up did. Things are really bad and I did a lot of bad things because of the group I hung around with.
::Guy Brilando
I always felt comfortable that I could go to my parents with anything and tell them the truth of what had happened, what I did, why I did what I did. Poor decision and they wouldn't beat me up for it, you know, and they would listen to me and then they would discipline, you know, maybe I was grounded
::Guy Brilando
. Maybe this happened or that happened to include being arrested and various things. So I mean that just, you know, breaking a window. I mean, I did some pretty not such upstanding individual things. And so the choices we make can have long term detrimental of things.
::Guy Brilando
I almost didn't get into the military because I had too many traffic tickets. So I mean, when I was a teenager, I didn't care about traffic tickets. I paid the fine and you know, I'll go get another one.
::Guy Brilando
I didn't care. But if I had had one more traffic ticket, my whole military career never would have happened.
::Speaker 4
Wow.
::Guy Brilando
So you talk about decisions? Yeah. Right. And one of those cops had let me off. There was one time where he probably should have give me a ticket, and he didn't because he had he understood the story behind it.
::Guy Brilando
But if I had gotten that ticket, I wouldn't have been in the military. So you think about you go back through your life when you go back in perspective in the past and you think about some of those choices that you made.
::Guy Brilando
And it could again one way or the other. And I'm very fortunate. That's why I tell people all the time I've lived a very blessed life because things have worked in my favor, even when I didn't understand it and I didn't understand why this happened in my life, even if it was a very bad thing like, Oh
::Guy Brilando
Lord, you know? But maybe it turned out for the better.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah.
::Guy Brilando
Because it drove me to where I am today, and today is a very good place.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, what it man, you're I can see again why your dad was your hero or your parents. We heard what a gift they gave you. My wife and I talked about that when our kids were little to what you had just mentioned.
::Patrick McCalla
We said, If there's one thing, there's only one thing our kids will absolutely know when they walk out of our home at 18 and move on. If that was your age, you know when. But but it would be that no matter what happens, no matter what they do, that that they will always have a mom and dad
::Patrick McCalla
that will love them. And that goes a long ways, right? And that doesn't mean that they're like, you even said there was still discipline involved. Your dad like he's saying, Hey, I'm still going to love you. But now there's consequences, right?
::Patrick McCalla
And that was one of the things you learn then about choices. Even though you're making some poor ones in those in those years, you were still learning subtly the importance of choices right now.
::Guy Brilando
Oh yeah.
::Patrick McCalla
The negative consequences of it.
::Guy Brilando
Well, I would. Uh. I mean, you don't do this anymore. But back when I was growing up, back in the sixties, early seventies, the parents would often, you know, paddle. Yeah. And I had these little wooden paddles and I would paddle right now.
::Guy Brilando
And I got I grew.
::Patrick McCalla
Up that way.
::Guy Brilando
I got the paddle a lot. And so this one time I knew I had done something really bad and I knew I was going to have to tell my mom about it, right? And so I went in ahead of time, got the paddle on.
::Guy Brilando
I saw it in half, put it back in the cabinet, told my mom the story. She went in to get the panel and she just started laughing. Yeah, and it was a great it was a great moment, but it was.
::Guy Brilando
I don't know how to explain it. It was just a it was a revelation of love. It was what it really was.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, man, what a fascinating life you've had. And for me. Personally, you've been so inspiring, I know you are to a lot of people. Tell us a little bit about your book and if someone wanted to follow you or to figure out how to get the book connect with you, what would they do that
::Patrick McCalla
? How would they do?
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. So the book came from, well, it's called Discovering Your Authentic Truth. The book came from me being lost again. So I was lost right after high school and beginning a college, and then I was lost again after I left the military and flying for Southwest.
::Guy Brilando
I mean, most people that go to the airlines, this sort of lifelong dream right to get to the airlines, I'm here. I am flying with the airlines, one of the better ones in the country, and I'm feeling lost.
::Guy Brilando
And like, what's going on? And long story short, I connected with a lady that I had seen long before at a seminar, and I seek her out and she put me on this path that helped me find myself again.
::Guy Brilando
And what it really was was an identity crisis. And because for all those years that I was flying the fighter.
::Patrick McCalla
You were a fighter pilot. Yeah, that was your identity.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. So people would ask me, What do you do for a living? I'm a fighter pilots, not what I do. It's who I am. And I didn't put that connection together until I went through this process with this lady.
::Guy Brilando
And all of a sudden I realized that that's not who I am, right? Who I am as my spirit, my soul, my and my essence, right. And everything else is what you do. But that I am a fighter pilot kept me alive.
::Guy Brilando
So it served a very valid purpose, right? So now I'm no longer a fighter pilot. I'm a commercial airline bus driver. And so I had I was lost and there were some other things that were going on in there.
::Guy Brilando
Anyhow, I found myself through that. I went through all the courses. I got master certified with her and I started helping people on the side and these people started seeking me out. You know, you talk about how two things happen in this world.
::Guy Brilando
I never set out to do this. Yeah. And they started coming to me and I found I was very effective in helping guiding them to overcome their challenges. Whatever it was, from narcissistic husbands to suicide to various things, I said, You know what?
::Guy Brilando
I've always kind of want to write a book. People have always told me I should write a book because of my writing. And I said, Now I've got material to write a book. And so I sat down to write, it was a very interesting process.
::Guy Brilando
I start to finish for the project was only a year, which is I come to find out. It's pretty quick, but I wrote all the material in about 23 months and then it was just editing, editing and trying to figure out how to make it all fit.
::Guy Brilando
And I'm very happy with it's an Amazon bestseller, and it's helped a lot of people that I haven't worked with personally and transformational issues. But just by through reading the book, they have found New Hope in themselves. They found themselves, they understand themselves and how to interact with their spouse or their kids, or whatever it may be
::Patrick McCalla
. Yeah, yeah. Great book. I have a signed copy. Yes, actually. Thank you very much. And yeah, I loved. It's very, very good. Great material. So we do this thing. It's kind of a fun way to end our podcasts.
::Patrick McCalla
I asked our guests to give me two truths and a lie so that it's ironic because we're on this no gray areas. We're talking about the importance of choice and integrity, and here I am asking you to lie, but it's a fun way.
::Patrick McCalla
Guest, I have listened to you for a little while. We know a little bit about Guy. But let me see if I can if the guest can figure it out. So give us two truths and a lie, and let me see if I can figure out a lie.
::Guy Brilando
I can write a seven foot unicycle. I was actually a junior racecar driver. OK. And I absolutely love the beach.
::Patrick McCalla
OK, now that I get to cheat a little bit on this one. So the listeners don't know you as well as I do. I know the truth is the beach.
::Speaker 4
I know you.
::Patrick McCalla
Love the beach. In fact, like one of the best beaches in the world, according to you, would be Am I right? Bellow's Beach or Helos.
::Guy Brilando
Beach in Oahu? Yeah, private beach. It's awesome.
::Patrick McCalla
I've been there. It's in the Air Force, right? Yeah. In my studies in the Marine Corps, she was stationed there, so he got me on the beach after you told me so much about it and I went there, I'm like, I can see, so I know that's the truth.
::Patrick McCalla
So now I'm between OK, the seven foot unicycle and the junior racecar driver. I'm going to say, since your dad worked with bikes and race, I'm so you can ride the unicycle. Is that true? It's true. OK, I got it.
::Patrick McCalla
I got it. OK, so you did not. You were not a junior race.
::Guy Brilando
I wanted to be.
::Patrick McCalla
Which could it would would fit, certainly with someone like you that ended up flying jet airplanes. But I.
::Guy Brilando
Wanted to.
::Patrick McCalla
Yeah. Well, that makes sense, too, that you had so many speeding tickets then. Yeah. Guys, thank you so much for taking the time. Really, really appreciate it. You are inspiring to a lot. I hope people go out and pick up your book and read it.
::Patrick McCalla
It will definitely help them. So thank.
::Guy Brilando
Yeah. If they want to find me just by first and last name guide Rolando Dot Guide To learn more about the book, you can send me an email. Yeah, find me on Facebook. Whatever.
::Patrick McCalla
Good guy. Berland Dotcom. Thanks, guy. Appreciate it.
::Guy Brilando
Absolutely. Thank you.
::Host
Thanks for listening to the No Gray Areas podcast to dove deeper into the story. Be sure to subscribe. Follow us on social media in check out no gray areas dot com.
