Maj. Luke A. Unrath

About Luke - 

He is first and foremost a man of God - a believer in Jesus Christ.  He strived to live his life with compassion, humility, honesty, and kindness to all.   The following verses come to mind:

Philippians 2:3-5 "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your interests, but take an interest in others, too.  You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had."

Matthew 25:40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Also, the Wisdom for life from Ecclesiastes 7.  

Luke had a great sense of humor and a great love of adventure and travel.  He loved water - the beach and ocean, waterfalls, streams... He loved space, looking at the stars and planets. He loved thrill rides and flying airplanes.  He loved all dogs.  

Luke was wise, not just book smart, but emotionally mature and a deep thinker. But he was not one to spout off; he was a listener and would only share if asked.  

Finally, Luke loved his family, with his wife holding the highest and most important role in his family life. He was romantic and thoughtful. He put her first.  He was a devoted husband, son, brother, and uncle.  He was the most reliable and caring person you would ever meet.  

God Winked

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.”   Psalm 37:23

I stood outside the 6-story brown angular building, thinking about every patient represented by the windows – a story behind every injury, every illness being treated at the Brooke Army Medical Center.  I stared at the words on the sign, wondering how my boy got here.  It was a gray and gloomy morning, much like my mood.  My son Luke was behind one of those windows.  He would recover from a freak accident involving a small motor scooter in a friend’s backyard.  His broken bones and wounds would heal; his skull fracture and concussion were not life-threatening. But his heart… Would that heal?  The one thing he thought he had was stripped away in the blink of an eye.  One moment, he is laughing with friends, celebrating the milestone of completing the first half of UPT, Undergrad Pilot Training.  The next minute, he is lying unconscious, his friends calling 911, an ambulance taking him to a local hospital, and then airlifted to a bigger and better facility in San Antonio. 

Luke was stoic; while I was wringing my hands and asking the doctors all the wrong questions, he lay quietly in his bed, silently accepting the reality of his situation.  The Air Force does not allow airmen with concussions and skull fractures to fly.  A broken wrist, maybe, but not a concussion.  What pilots do is too important – they have lives and expensive equipment resting in their hands. A long medical process can take months, if not years, to get a waiver to make an exception to this rule.  And waivers are only granted after many medical tests and exams show conclusively that complete healing has been achieved. 

In a month, Luke would be turning 26.  He had worked hard for 8 years to get to this point in his training, slogging through Aerospace Engineering courses, years of waking up early for ROTC physical training before a full day of classes, working late at night to pay his own way in the world.  Now it seemed that all that work was washed away. How could God allow this to happen? Why? To what benefit is it to take away the one thing good in a young man’s life? 

Like most young men of faith, Luke prayed for what every young man desires: a loving wife, a fulfilling career, good health, and prosperity.  Now, it looked as if the one or two items he had achieved on this list were gone.  Being in the military, stationed in a remote corner of the country, far from family, it was difficult, if not impossible, to meet the kind of Christian woman he hoped to find.  Now it would be even more unlikely.  But when everything is stripped from you and all you have left is your faith, you pray.  And that is what he did.  How God would take all the pieces and put them back together was yet to be seen, but in those first days, little did we know that God had left hints all along the way to where He was going to lead my son. 

During this time of waiting and healing, the Air Force decided to make use of his degree in Aerospace Engineering, and he was given an amazing assignment as a technical engineer at an Air Force Base in California.  While his body healed, he lived on the coast of California, learning all about the details of shooting rockets into the sky.  He was sent on trips around the country, meeting the scientists who built rockets.  He learned how they are assembled, shipped, and shot into space.  He was part of rocket launch countdowns; he witnessed amazing launches firsthand.  He saw new technology being attempted for the first time.  This assignment was so unexpected and rewarding that it allowed Luke to see his life in a new way.  He could see how easy it is for God to bring beauty from ashes.  

Luke worked hard on every assignment and gained the respect of his commanding officers.  Although he enjoyed aspects of his work and was willing to go wherever God would lead him, his desire to fly did not wane.  It only became stronger.  The experience of being airlifted in a medical helicopter was one of the few memories of his accident that the concussion did not wipe from his brain.  He would hear stories from his twin brother, a Special Ops pilot, and knew that he desired to fly missions that would possibly protect and rescue his fellow airmen.  He had achieved the medical clearance needed and was deemed completely healed and fit to fly, but the process to regain a coveted spot in pilot training would not be easy.  It would require much more than a doctor saying he could fly.  It would need letters of recommendation, various waivers, and, in the eyes of many, nothing short of a miracle.  So, Luke continued to pray, expressing his heart's desires, and asked God to direct his life's path.  And that the path would lead him to God’s will for his life and the wife God had chosen for him. 

Then one morning, his commanding officer walked by Luke’s desk and barked, “My office, now!” This tone was a bit surprising as Luke had built a good working relationship with this Commander and connected on a level of two people with a shared faith in Christ.  Luke felt that God had placed him there to give and receive emotional support from a fellow officer going through his own trials.  They had had many good conversations, and the camaraderie blessed both.  Luke walked in, and his commander said, “What is this I hear about you going back into pilot training?”  Luke was puzzled, not sure what his commander was talking about.  Then, the commander cracked a smile – and that is when Luke realized what had happened.  All the paperwork, the recommendations, the phone calls on his behalf, everything had come together perfectly, and word had come that he was being sent back to fly, learning to do the job that his heart yearned for.  Luke was sent to Mississippi, the deep south, where he would have to start completely over from the beginning. 

Now, almost 30 years old and living in Mississippi, there was another bump in the road.  Luke began to have a problem with one of his eyes.  Sometimes, he seemed to see a shadow, and the symptoms sounded ominous.  Dependable eyesight is a key part of being a pilot.  After days of exams, eye specialists, and tests, he was diagnosed with an eye condition, which, fortunately, was not serious and would correct itself in a few months.  This led to another delay – What was God doing now?  But by now Luke had completely surrendered his path and was at peace.  God wanted him here, and he waited.  While waiting, he began correspondence with a Christian girl in Alabama.  Finally, again cleared to fly, he began pilot training. Living several hours apart, Luke and the young woman would talk and write letters, and finally decided to meet. 

A little more than a year after meeting this lovely young woman, I watched my son graduate from pilot training with a license to fly both planes and helicopters. He received the difficult assignment of flying CV-22s, given only to the finest pilots.  He also asked his beautiful girlfriend, Brooke, to be his wife.  I looked back to that day when I stood in front of that sign “Brooke Army Medical Center” and realized – God winked at me that day.  Her name was right there on the sign. The helicopter that brought him to that hospital for healing, he could now fly.  God had orchestrated every detail of his life.