Dennis Mellen: After an exciting Air Force, airline career, Dennis suffered a career-ending heart attack while mountain biking in 2008. His book Takes More Than Heart provides motivation, education, and humor to inspire others as he describes his journey of finding new purpose in his journey towards discovering life “part 2”.

Dennis Mellen Vroom Vroom Veer Stories

Dad was a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force; went to 14 different schools including 4 different high schoolsKnew from a very young age that he wanted to fly for the Air Force; he watched F4 Phantoms launch from the end of a runwayAccepted after on his 2nd application to the Air Force Academy; Jeff worked with a Colonel that got in on his 4th tryPassed pilot training in Arizona and flew in Active Duty for 7 years; transitioned to the Air Force reserve and flew for Alaskan Airlines and the same timeRetired from the Reserves and flew for Alaskan Airlines; worked his way into a leadership position responsible for training all the pilots and instructions on one of two aircraft Rode a Mountain bike trail listed as "Difficulty: It's a bitch"; as he was climbing a hill on his bike he noticed one arm going numb; then he went unconscious; miracle number one: hikers found him and called 911; turns out Dennis had a heart condition known as a "widow maker"Shocked when the doctor told him his flying days were over; he didn't' know who he was if he wasn't a pilot; later found non-flying jobs in aviationSomeone asked him to speak; he said "what about?"; she replied how about leadership and working through adversity; the clouds parted and Dennis said: "Yeah, I can probably talk about that"Wrote the book because he had the time and not many places to go during lock down; it was a catharsis to relive the heart attack and release some of those stuck emotions.

Connections

Website Be a Bean

Takes More Than Heart: Change the Journey's Challenges into Opportunities