Olympics Update -- Simone Biles -- August 1, 2024

Locator: 48287SPORTS.

This is an incredible story.

None of us have any idea how Simone Biles recovered.

But, my hunch: she had a formidable and dedicated psychologist. 

Decades ago, a very, very close colleague and I came together at the USAF F-15 base in Bitburg, Germany.

I was a flight surgeon, early in my career and willing to try anything, and learning fast. She was, I even remember her name after all these years,  a "Dr T---, "a seasoned psychologist who, for whatever reasons, left the civilian world to join the military. Her first assignment was as a staff psychologist at Bitburg Air Base. 

She entered the service as a major, an O-3, and being a bit older than most of us, she seemed a little bit out of her element. Actually, she probably wasn't. It was, instead, our white male prejudices, but be that as it may.

I was also, if I recall correctly, a major, an O-3.

If fighter pilots don't "accept" flight surgeons, I don't know the word to describe the feelings  they have about psychologists in their fighter ops. I'm sure she was ignored.

But "our" job was to ensure that fighter pilots were healthy -- physically and mentally -- when they stepped to their jets. We had a personal stake in this: we actively flew with them in the backseat of two-seat F-15s, of which there was one assigned for every seven standard single-seater F-15s in a typical squadron.

The two of us, the psychologist and I, developed a "mental health" course for the fighters. Of course, we didn't call it that. I forget what we called it and I forget how we were able to foist it on the fighter pilots in the first place (maybe more on that later), but we did. On a monthly basis, the two of us put on a "dog-and-pony" show for the "warriors at the tip of the sword" to discuss the mental health of fighter pilots. 

Pretty mundane stuff.

Sometime during that first year, the psychologist let me in on a "case"of which only she and her fighter-pilot patient (and I assume his squadron commander) were aware.

The fighter pilot was one of the top in his class. He had been assigned to Bitburg a. year or so earlier, doing as well or better than most of his colleagues. Only the best of the best F-15 fighter pilots were assigned to Bitburg AB.

Often, F-15s would take off simultaneously, wingtip-to-wingtip. Quite a site. And quite remarkable in its own right -- barreling down a runway reaching a 130 mph or so before rotating, wingtip-to-wingtip. 

One day, without warning, the pilot in question was unable to release his brakes to begin rolling, to begin the take-off sequence. He froze. It was as if a "giant hand" was holding his jet back and another hand was holding his throttle hand back. 

All he could do was taxi back to his TAB-V.  I have no idea what was going on frrom the time he froze to the time he began his taxi back. My hunch he concocted some story about a maintenance issue. 

But then it happened again and again. 

At some point, his squadron commander realized something else must be going on and -- huge credit to his insight -- he sought out the flight psychologist. Due to patient confidentiality issues and the sensitivity of the whole situation, the psychologist never let me "in" on this.

She must have worked with this pilot for six to eight months. I heard about it, probably at the four-month mark, and thought it was a "lost cause." And I was shallow enough now to understand the significance and importance of what she was doing.

At around six to eight months, the fighter pilot transitioned back to regular flying and fighting. 

I've long lost touch with all the players in this story. But this "story" certainly rhymes with the Simone Biles story.