Who Would You Want Guiding Your Ship of State: Man with over 30 years of experience or Man without a Clue?

It’s just fascinating to me and says a lot about our society that an intelligent, skillful, experienced, professional, heroic, humble person is an airplane pilot and that a former drug user, current smoker, unaccomplished, inexperienced, lazy, arrogant, corrupt person of questionable intelligence is about to become the president of the United States.

 

Now, this is not a bad thing for the airline industry and, in particular, the people on US Air flight 1549 who, because they had the intelligent and experienced person piloting the plane, are still alive today. In fact, it is a wonderful thing for all involved. 

 

I can’t say the same thing about the people who live in this country, and that includes the still-living people on flight 1549, when it comes to the upcoming new POTUS.  We have a person with no experience taking the helm of our ship of state.  As I said in a previous post, On the Crest of a Wave, how a boat rides down a cresting wave can have disastrous effects, if the vessel broaches or pitchpoles.  So it is also true for the ship-of-state.  With an inexperienced person at the helm, what might be a rough, but successful ride through challenging times could turn into a downright disaster.

 

I, for one, would much rather have Chelsey Sullenberger as POTUS any day. 

 

Here is his resume:

 

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III is a captain for a major U.S. airline with over 40 years of flying experience.  A former U.S. Air Force (USAF) fighter pilot, he has served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member.  He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board  (NTSB)accident investigations.  His ALPA safety work led to the development of a  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular.  Working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists, he coauthored a paper on error inducing contexts in aviation.  He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course used at his airline and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues. 

 

Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Northern Colorado (M.A.).  He was a speaker on two panels at the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) 2007 International Conference in Deauville, France May 29-31, 2007.  He has just been named a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Some people think that it was a miracle that landed that plane safely, but I think it had more than a little to do with the person behind the wheel.  I wish I could say the same about the USA .  After January 20, we’ll need a miracle.

 

Here’s a tribute to a righteous man who has earned the title of hero.