Dear Readers,
October has a color. You'll see it all month: pink pins on lanyards, pink ribbons on uniforms, pink ties and pink epaulettes in the flight deck, and pink wristbands on the wrists of the people working your galley. Crews have made Breast Cancer Awareness Month their own for years, and it's one of the things I love about this industry. We show up for each other in a way you can see from across the terminal.
This one is personal for me. My mom had breast cancer, and we lost her in 2019. Anyone who has been through it with someone they love knows how the disease rearranges everything. The calendar fills with appointments, the phone calls take on a different weight, and you learn how much you can carry when you have to.
Our schedules don't make any of this easier. We bid a month at a time, and a diagnosis doesn't wait for a good month. Every crewmember has had to be somewhere else when home felt like the only place that mattered.
So here's my ask this month. Book the screening. We'd never skip a recurrent or let a medical lapse, so treat this the same way: it's a date on the calendar. That goes for the men, too. It's less common, but men get breast cancer, and in a profession where most of the flight decks are still male, that's worth hearing. Then ask the people you love to schedule theirs.
If you're in the fight right now, or standing next to someone who is, this whole industry is in your corner. Wear the pink proudly this month.
Thank you, as always, for trusting us to be part of your career.
Fly Safe,
Craig Pieper
