They fanned out across the town, searching door to door until cornering a suspected terrorist in a two-story building. The PAO urged me to go in as well, so I squeezed in as troops took up positions at the bottom of the stairwell, ready to charge. Just then a trigger-happy Humvee gunner squeezed off a couple of .50-caliber rounds, which echoed through the building and made everyone, including me, hit the deck. It was an exciting day, and gave me a whole new appreciation of what our country's warriors endure.

Freelancing has given me the opportunity to speak with some interesting people as well. One was Bob Dole, who I interviewed for an article about erectile dysfunction. Bob’s a war hero, was a senator for decades and even ran for president, but he can be a bit cranky. That was his mood the day of our phone interview, but he eventually warmed up and gave me some great information. He was even joking with me at the end when I mentioned I’d heard that his wife Elizabeth had taken up skydiving: “Hell, I can barely jump out of bed in the morning, much less an airplane.”

I’m a huge fan of the space program, and was elated when I got a chance to talk to Eileen Collins, the first woman space shuttle pilot and commander, for a Military Officer profile. When I called at the appointed time, she was in the wrong room at the Johnson Space Center so my interview was cut short, but she was gracious enough to call me back later. That's when I found out how close she came to disaster on STS-93 in 1999.

On that flight, two of Columbia’s three main engine controllers failed shortly after launch, and engine number three developed a hydrogen leak. That nearly triggered an extremely hazardous Return-To-Launch-Site Abort (RTLS), which as Collins put it, “nobody ever
wants to do.”