Originally Posted by Kingbird87

I fly the A320 for another carrier and heard of the miraculous event prior to departure to LGA that same afternoon. I have thought of scarcely anything else since. As we arrived over the Hudson that evening, lights were illuminating the recovery as I stole a glimpse at the aircraft. I thought back many years, to the evening of September 3, 1983. I was the copilot of Air Force Rescue 95822, and we had arrived on scene as the first aircraft to the scene of the shootdown of KAL 007. The lights on the water, the gravity of the situation, took me back to that time, and I realized that Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III had filled me again with the awe and wonder that brought me into this wonderful profession. When I was a young cadet, he was the young Lieutenant flying F-4's that I aspired to be like, every facet of this man's career has been devoted to the refinement of the profession, and I have spent the last few days again filled with awe and wonder. We all know the technical intricacies of our aircraft, the procedures we have been trained in, and the precedents of those events that have been investigated.
This was "The Event", that we all have lived with tucked beneath our facades. And in that moment, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III knew what he had. His altitude and low airspeed, the futility of a restart, and the fact that his energy would not allow him to make Teterboro or return to LaGuardia. It is the very general term "judgment", and his judgment included all of those forty remarkable years flying and accumulating "judgment". He was on the "perch" with a T-38, doing a high key flameout landing with an F-4, computing a visual descent point by instant glance, and using his glider training to finesse the course of events that he chose. And he chose the course, and it was magnificent. And although I am not that much younger than "Sully", I am filled with "Awe and Wonder", and like the young man I was, accept that I still can do a lot more to try to measure up to his standard. Thank you Captain Sullenberger, for exemplifying my chosen profession in the most shining light. Thank you for being ready, when the darkest and most private hell that we all keep within us, emerged. And thank you most of all, for the "Awe and Wonder", that around the world, will inspire another generation of talent to infuse our profession.