Page 4 - Desert Lightning News So. AZ Edition, March 2 2018

4 March 2018 Desert Lightning News www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb
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Pilot battles brain cancer, recovery with faith
by Airman 1st Class KEITH HOLCOMB 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. — Walking into his backyard after an Easter egg hunt, Capt. Hunter Barn- hill’s hand formed a fist, holding itself with incredible and uncontrollable strength. He attempted to spread his fingers, but instead fell to the ground before his friends and his 2-year-old son, Nolan, who looked confused.
Unable to control his own body, he knew what was occurring. His friends came to his aid and helped him sit down, calmly speaking to him; and as quickly as it had started the seizure ended.
“It was more frustrating than pain- ful,” said Hunter, a 37th Flying Training Squadron instructor.
Hunter, regaining control of his body, found himself surrounded by the same friends who had just helped him. Mean- while his wife, Crystal, stepping outside at that moment, was startled at the strange sight. She knew something was off.
After Easter Sunday in 2017 the Barnhills’ lives would change forever and Hunter would face a world full of unknowns, recalled the husband and wife at their dinner table.
He went to the flight doctor who sent him
to Baptist Memorial Hospital for an MRI where the doctors found a brain tumor.
“It was kind of surreal,” Crystal said. “It was more like a bad dream. I felt like I was there and I knew it was going on but it didn’t seem real. He had come home and we ran over to the truck and I saw a pam- phlet about stress in the workplace and thought that must have been it. We were standing right at the bar in our kitchen when he told me it was a brain tumor.”
In order to get surgery he had to go to University of Alabama Birmingham Hos- pital where he was wheeled around in a wheelchair, and as he told it, felt some of the weight of the situation coming into fruition.
At the same time he was receiving photo messages from fellow instructor pilots wearing bandanas made for him, which helped take his mind off of the looming surgical procedure.
“It hit my family close to home,” said Maj. Jesse Rosal, 14th Flying Training Wing T-6 Texan II Flight Safety Officer. “Through him he made our faith stron- ger, it encouraged us and all the folks we knew to stay motivated and it was a reminder at how fragile life can be. We tried to take his mind off things as much as we could by wearing the bandanas and taking silly photos before he went into surgery.”
Because of his young age and good
Airman 1st Class Keith Holcomb
Capt. Hunter Barnhill, 37th Flying Training Squadron instructor pilot, sits on the wing of his T-6A Texan II Jan. 26 on Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. Gala- tians 2:20 is one of the first verses he had memorized after his brain surgery, and is a passage he attributes to his recovery going well. The spiritual pillar is a key com- ponent to an Airman’s resiliency and strength.
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