Imagine flying 1,000 miles an hour, dodging enemy air craft, and knowing that you may never come back down alive.  Imagine the pressure and adrenaline running through you as all the blood in your face moves down to your torso and you are fighting passing out. Can you picture actually getting up there, then knowing how to do all the buttons in the cockpit, while also trying to protect your country? Could you do it? Lieutenant Colonel Mathew Sweeney could do it. And with the help of his family and the Lord, he did it well.

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In the Air Force, you have to take many tests to prove your worth and strength and determination. You have to have a certain amount of grades and strength (mental and physical). They train you mentally to handle it well if your plane crashes, and you fall into enemy territory, and you get kidnapped. They throw you into very little boxes- that you can just barely fit into and are extremely uncomfortable- to prove your mental endurance. Among other tests, there is one where you get into a G-force simulator. Which is where you get into this contraption and it spins you round and round and round- kind of like a rollercoaster. Then you start pulling G’s like you do in a fighting plane. G’s, or gravitational force equivalent, is a measurement of the acceleration felt as weight in multiples of standard gravity. The higher the G’s you pull, the heavier you feel. It pulls on your face and weighs on your chest so it makes it difficult to breathe. For most people it makes them pass out. You cannot pass out though or you will be kicked out for crashing a forty -million dollar plane. But Mathew Sweeney could do it without passing out and soon was able to go up and actually fly. These tests are not easy, but they are required to join the Air Force. 

Lt. Col. Mathew Sweeney did not get super high grades in school. He relied on his family to help him get better at his two worst subjects: math and science. He did well in history and music but suffered in those areas. He would say, “A big part of why I succeeded was because of the people who loved me.” 

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His family would teach him in the subjects that he struggled with to help him. As he would fly his plane, there were so many buttons that he needed to know about. How they worked, what they did, when to use them, and to be able to do it quickly. Most of being an Air Force pilot requires math and science, but with the buttons it takes quick fingers (like with an instrument) to be able to press them swiftly in times of trouble.  

Some of his buddies died in plane crashes because they did not pay attention in lessons, or they were not following procedures or they were not quick enough to react. It was through the people he loved who helped him that he was able to achieve his goals in life. “When you can learn to be of service to others, I don’t think there is anything you cannot do.”

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Prayer played an important role in being able to survive and to fight, to get good scores, and being able to pass hard tests. After going through most of the tests (including the G-force simulator) he had to learn to keep in sync with the guys flying planes around him; to stay in formation. When he would practice he would either fly in too fast and miss his spot in the formation and his instructor would yell at him, “Too fast! Slow down!”. Or he would go too slow and not get in his spot fast enough and would be yelled at again. “Hurry up, Sweeney! Too slow! Too slow!” 

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Just when he thought he wouldn’t be able to pass this test, he remembered a song that he had heard at church that would calm him down and steady him. “Next time I go up, I will sing, Love by Walter E. Young,” he told himself. And then he prayed about it.

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He went up, and just about when he was going to start flying into formation, he sang that song in his head, and gave all his attention to it. When he was finished he looked around and saw that he had done it perfectly! He was reminded of how much prayer works. “I always prayed about my work. I prayed about my safety and more importantly the people around me, the people who were on the ground working on my jet, the people in my flight that were flying with me and also sometimes the people I might have to fight on the ground that were shooting at me.” 

His buddies would say, “I’d rather be lucky than good.” But Mathew would also say, “His arms encircle me.”

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Mathew Sweeney was an excellent air force pilot, and he would risk his life for his country and his people. “I fly to protect the things I love, and the people I love.”