This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show.

And often that means telling stories of faith.

There's so many millions of people in this country. Well, faith plays an important role in their

life. Today, our own Joey Cortez brings us the story of a Marine who had, let's just say,

a surreal experience as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Here's Joey. Dick Erickson was a marine helicopter

pilot in Vietnam and would go on to start his own retail tire business. But before he became the

man he is today, he was a different man. As a student, quick to anger, Dick often got into trouble.

I was fooling with one of my friends and the principal was in and out because it was a study hall.

And we were goofing off. In Kem's the principal and he gets after me to start with. And my buddy

standing behind him, waving his hands to get me to laugh. And so here I am trying to be serious

with my principal. And so I'm trying to look around him like, hey, someone's behind you,

waving his hands at me. So finally, he turns around him like, hey, someone's behind you, make, waving his hands at me.

So finally he turns around and Marvin gets his hands down quick enough

that he didn't see his hands up.

So now he's chewing him out.

And I get into the deal and I'm waving my hands,

except when he turns around, I got my hands straight near.

And he slaps me. The next thing you know, we were on the ground. I was knocked over rows of chairs.

And I was swearing at him afterwards. Well, I completely lost it.

And in college, with the distraction of girls and booze, his grades suffered.

I got noticed two weeks into that I'm out of school for a year.

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