Chick Coate:  

After continuing and completing my education upon leaving WHS (which included obtaining my MBA from UGA), I entered the armed forces. Flew helicopter missions for a little over a year, primairly support missions and many search and retrieve operations which sometimes sadly ended in only recover. Was shot down and captured during the course of these activities. Spent four months being moved to different locations by my captors while being held prisoner in very bad conditions and treated like a caged animal. Using six shoe laces, used bubble gum, three paper clips, seven rubber bands, two jungle vines and three bamboo chutes, six of the seven of us being held prisoners were able to escape, eluding our captors for about two months in the jungles and rice paddies before being rescued by a forward combat team of Brits. Spent the next five months stateside in recovery and debriefing. Once I was on my feet, one of our alphabet agencies recruited me for a variety of covert, clandestine operations. For the next four years I was sent to places we weren't supposed to be. Most missions were seek and destroy with specific targets, with the remainder comprised of gathering intel data. It was all secret stuff with very little support and no government acknowledgement. Phoenix, Delta, water boarding, etc. And I'm not talking about birds, waterways or water sports. Once my foreign missions ended, I was brought back home. Various ...Expand for more