This past weekend Julia and I went to the Wings Over The Golden Isles air show in Brunswick, GA with a friend of hers from college and her friends family. After the airshow was over we decided to hang out there for a while and wait for the crowd traffic to die down. So, Julia and I decided to get out of the heat of the sun by moving our chairs into the shade created by the wings of the plane you see in this shot.

As we sat there, the pilot you see here, Lieutenant Commander Kris Caldwell, walked up to it and began reaching into its cockpit. I realized it must be his plane so we stood up to move, thinking he was preparing to fly on out in it. He encouraged us not to bother and said that he had to get back to the F-35 fighter jet that he was there representing for The Navy.

Yes, Kris is part of the Grim Reaper fighter squadron and has been in the United States Navy for fifteen years now. He’s not only a fighter pilot, but a fighter pilot who’s job is to fly a 121.8 million-dollar F-35 – one of the most technologically advanced – badass – planes our military flies.

Yet, he seemed to be about as down-to-earth as can be, and flies this Aviat Husky single prop plane for fun in his spare time. He owns it, and even flew it across the country to the airshow this past weekend. Surprisingly, Kris told me that it’s more fun to fly than a F-35 – but why did he opt to fly such a small cramped-up plane that’s comfortable cruising speed is only about 105 mph – all the way across the country?

Because he had proposed to his wife, Kristal, in it this past November while flying her over the Grand Canyon. She was sitting behind him in the plane’s passenger seat when he asked her to reach under her seat for something he needed: the ring he had bought to propose to her with. Kris told me that after she said yes – she leaned forward to kiss him and hit the stick in front of her sending them into a dive.

He was about to crash and burn – literally – but recovered. I can only assume that he then figured out a way to safely kiss her. They got married the next day at The Grand Canyon, and then he flew her around the country in his little plane for their Honeymoon.

Isn’t that a great story?!?!

I could stop there, say no more, and be good. But, I’ve got more. As we were standing there talking with him I noticed that on his flight suit it said “Fungus” under his name. I said, “Fungus! Is that your call sign?”

He quickly answered with, “Yeah, but it’s really not that cool of a story.”

With a call sign like “Fungus” I wanted to hear it anyway: Kris is a North Carolina country boy that enjoys the outdoors. Hunting, camping, hiking – all of it – but according to him he often manages to find his way into Poison Ivy or Poison Oak while out in it. Well, after getting it all over his face one good time, his Brothers in Arms decided that “Fungus” was the right call sign for him. What Buds!

Apparently, Kristal, Kris’s wife, was able to look past the call sign – with a great deal of skepticism I’d assume – saw the good in him – and married him anyway.

So, now I’m going to circle back to his answer to the question I asked that got this whole conversation started: What’s one bit of advice about life that you’d like the viewers of the portrait I just made of you to know?

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” he said.

I’m thinking he didn’t make his way to being a fighter pilot by having done so himself too much.

Kris, thank you for your service to our country, being so down-to-earth with us this past Saturday, and for sharing some of your story with me to share with others. Fungus as a call sign may not be that a cool of story to you, but it sure has been a fun one for me to tell here.

The B&W portrait I shared at the beginning of this post was my favorite of what I got of Kris due to it showing more of his plane. It fits the story I’ve written here about him better since so much of it is about how big of a role the plane itself has played in his life recently. But, I really liked this shot of him, too. It’s more a portrait of just him with a great expression on his face. I love the dichotomy of him wearing a military style flight suit with a patch that clearly indicates that he’s part of the famous Navy Grim Reaper Fighter Squadron, a name that just sounds wicked, yet he’s standing in front of his small single prop private plane with a big grin on his face.