Meeting the High Standards of Success and Accomplishment
The FAA’s Stephen Dickerson recalls his service in the Marine Corps and the lessons he carries with him to this day.
Stephen Dickerson retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2018 after 23 years. During that time he was deployed to the Middle East six times and spent nearly three years of his life fighting on behalf of the Unites States and its allies. He joined the FAA’s Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention in 2018. In this interview, he discusses his military experience, how it has influenced his FAA career, and the meaning of military service and Veterans Day to him.
What led you to join the military in general, and the Marine Corps specifically?
Well, like for so many people, the military was a way to help afford a higher education. I began down the path of becoming a Navy officer, but the Marines I interacted with made an incredibly positive impression on me. Without spending too much time on the fun details of undergraduate life in Austin, Texas, after a couple of years I decided it was best to focus on academics and not on ROTC. But in less than a year I realized how much I missed the comradery, the sense of purpose, the drive to excel, and devotion to higher purpose. I knew that if I were to re-join in attempts to become a military officer, it would be through the Marine Corps. I stopped by the local Marine Officer Selection Office and the rest is history.
You trained on and flew the Sikorsky CH-53E in the Corps. Was that your first choice, or did you want to fly another piece of equipment?
Yes, this was my first choice. All naval aviators begin by training in single-engine, fixed-wing aircraft. There was a flight early on in my training where the weather was closing in toward the end of the flight and the instructor decided to fly us home at a relatively low altitude, at least in fixed-wing speak. There was something very exhilarating about the terrain being so close to me.
So training progressed, and we’ll skip ahead to where I selected my platform upon graduating from helicopter training. This was the mid-to-late 1990s and the world was a bit of a different place. I naively thought that big shooting wars were a thing of the past and that the excitement for my foreseeable future would be doing non-combatant evacuations, relief missions, or specialty missions like tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel — all the bread and butter of the CH-53E operations at that time. And besides, if two engines are better than one, then three engines are even better than two! Of course, we all know now that the world did not turn out that way.
You’ve spent the better part of three years deployed to the Middle East. What roles did your unit play in those deployments?
I was assigned to a variety of units during the deployments. In 2002, I was an individual augment to a U.S. Army brigade headquarters in Afghanistan, which supported the joint coalition headquarters. I was leading an office which coordinated visiting dignitaries to the theater, a strange job for a helicopter pilot, but very interesting! For a couple of deployments I was an unmanned aerial vehicle mission commander in Iraq, where we provided intelligence and surveillance. I liken it to being police “walking a beat” with hours upon hours of observing patterns of behavior for certain individuals and areas, vehicle tracking, and such.
But we also did such things as scanning ahead of convoys trying to see any signs of potential improvised explosive devices, or observing an area and relaying what we would see “around the corner” to units on the ground. And of course, the bulk of my deployments were flying the CH-53E, providing assault support — moving heavy items, cargo and personnel around Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa.
What’s your most vivid memories from those deployments?
Well, first would have to be the incredible people I deployed with. The trust, professionalism, and dedication to serving a larger cause are hard to describe. Next would have to be the weather. Except when in Africa, I always found myself in the sandy places during summer months, and the heat was a new experience, even for someone who grew up in Louisiana.
But another takeaway memory was the change from year to year. I think that back here in the U.S. we had an impression that the situation was always the same over there. But I found that every summer was a different threat environment, a different political climate for the region, and different twists on how that impacted our day-to-day operations.
You were deployed at times to forward operating bases. What was the most dangerous scenario(s) you found yourself in?
The weather and sand were a constant danger. The high heat was always there, and in Afghanistan the mountainous terrain added an additional factor to the threat. Proper mission planning was critical.
Then it would really get interesting when the winds picked up and very fine sand would get blown into the air. Light winds would create something like a tan-colored fog that doesn’t burn off and would last for days, sometimes weeks. Trying to fly in that without robust navigational aids was challenging. Low-level flight and landing to a specific spot in an aircraft with nothing more than basic flight instruments was where effective crew coordination was a paramount requirement.
Also, because weather reporting wasn’t very accurate — if available at all in the more far-flung locations — the weather was sometimes different than where we had launched from. The visibility would slowly reduce and soon you could find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. Flying a couple hundred feet over flat, featureless desert terrain at night in low-light conditions, in a sandstorm, definitely ranks up high on my list of things that leave a lasting memory.
In between deployments, you attended the U.S. Navy & Marine Corps School of Aviation Safety and trained as an aviation safety officer (ASO). What led you to that tour of duty and what did you learn from it?
That training was really just a matter of timing and needs of the unit I was being assigned to, but it was one of the most impactful things that happened to me. The School of Aviation Safety teaches accident investigation and subsequent report writing, but with an eye toward the factors that lead to accidents and how we can try to prevent them at the individual unit level.
The lessons learned changed my approach to flying and risk management. I found myself re-thinking and absorbing those lessons for many years. For example, about four years after the training I was teaching night vision goggle flying to other pilots in the squadron, including external cargo lift missions in desert conditions outside Yuma, Ariz. I started thinking about sleep data that had been presented in my ASO training: sure, I could fly and “safely” conduct the mission off of six, seven or so hours of actual sleep. But I would be a better instructor if I had closer to eight hours of sleep.
So the training years prior helped me to realize that “safety” isn’t a yes/no situation, but rather is a tool for improving mission — or business — effectiveness and capability.
One of the most rewarding assignments of my years in the military was when I returned to the School of Aviation Safety to pass on my own lessons learned and to train future aviation safety officers.
How difficult was it to retire from the Marine Corps after all those years?
I have to admit, it wasn’t too terribly difficult. I was incredibly fortunate to have had 23 years of amazing experiences with great people. I knew the time was coming to move to another phase of life and I had spent years preparing accordingly. I do still find myself missing the mission at times, and I get pretty misty-eyed when I see or hear a -53E fly by. It was such a great aircraft to fly.
How did you end up working for the FAA?
Well, some self-reflection of job skills and past successes led to the decision that continuing my relationship with aviation safety was where I might have the most job satisfaction and be a benefit to others. Once again, timing worked in my favor, and as I began the process of retiring from active duty there was an opening that seemed tailor-made for someone with my background. That led me to the Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention.
What lessons from your military days have you been able to apply to your work at the FAA?
People are what make the Marine Corps successful, and the same applies to the FAA. How we communicate with each other, and most importantly, how we demonstrate respect for one another is a key to success.
Something else from my military days that has been helpful has been empathy for trying to understand the transition in mindset to adopt a safety management systems-approach to aviation safety, particularly outside the commercial air carriers. I was teaching at the School of Aviation Safety when Naval Aviation began adopting this change to what had been the Naval Aviation Safety Program. This required a bit of study to begin understanding, “What does this mean, overall? How does this affect individual unit level activities?”
Which has more acronyms, the FAA or the military?
That’s a tough one. Probably military, because it’s so much larger. My final tour was in the Pentagon, and I found that context was key. It was getting to the point that the same acronyms have multiple meanings, so you need to make sure you have context when coming across an acronym. Let’s hope the FAA doesn’t get to that point.
As Veterans Day approaches, could you reflect on your military service, and what the day means to you?
I’m very thankful for the opportunity to serve in the Marine Corps, for the opportunities it gave me to grow as a person, to learn about the world, to serve something greater than myself, and most of all, to meet and work with some of the finest people in our country. I’m very thankful for the many veterans that served before me. They set the standards of success and accomplishment high, and all we could do in my time was hope that we made them proud.
