Fire Birds.

As a kid I always loved helicopters and would run outside to see them when they flew over. I had seen Top Gun and Iron Eagle, and then the Apache version came out and I was hooked. I would watch that movie over and over again, and dream of becoming an Apache pilot.

I never quite reached that goal, but it wasn't for lack of effort. I joined the Army became a 15R (Apache Helicopter Repairer). I was decent at my job, was really good on the knowledge part, and that got eyes on me. I finally got my flight packet done when I got my recommendation letters when I was in Afghanistan, and sent it in. With about a month to go in my deployment I was sent out to a tiny base in the middle of nowhere to be ready to support a mission that was going to be carried out in the area over the course of a week. We got attacked and long story short I took some shrapnel from an RPG to my foot. It was fairly extensive damage as two of my bones were now non existent. Needless to say I was no longer medically qualified to fly. I was certainly disappointed at the time, watching my dreams fuck off to oblivion. However with time, I realized new dreams could be made, new goals could be attained, and I've turned out ok-ish.

Fire Birds is a terrible movie BTW, horrifically inaccurate. It is however one of those niche guilty pleasure bad movies that I just enjoy because of what it meant to me as a kid.