The Gift by Mike Trahan

“The story of a man who knew, at a very young age, what he wanted to do with his life.”

Mike Trahan has written a book that really does something quite strange. It used to be a fact that a memoir would be a written account of the life of someone with a series of stories to tell. In modern times, post-1990 I mean, the memoir genre has been hijacked by every celebrity, near-miss pop star and TV personality in town. What has happened to stories of men who struggled against the odds to get to where they wanted to be?

Mike Trahan is what happened.

Now, that sounds a little dramatic– I grant you, I am rather dramatic. I got my copy of this book and I sat down expecting an interesting tale of a guy from Texas who got his wings and coped with life. What I actually found was the history of a time, a place, a family and the struggles and problems a family faced. Mike writes with striking honesty about his life– his father and his mother who raised him on a small farm over in West Orange, Texas. The man who would become Captain Mike Trahan started as just ordinary Mike who spent summers playing with his cousins and living off the land. This boy grew up poor, but never knew about poverty, because his family was so rich with love and devotion. He also left school at the beginning of eighth grade and didn’t look back. He just found another school, another route into his desired occupation. This book is not about great achievements, it’s not about fame– this book is about life, and most importantly, how you can deal with life.

Turning the pages, Mike writes as though he is telling you his stories over a beer and a smoke on a slowly closing day. You can feel the warmth of the love he has for his mother and the drive and ambition he had to reach his goal of being a pilot. You can pick any page of this book and you will learn something about Mike and in the process you will learn something about yourself. This is the real journey of life. Mike was lucky enough to know what he wanted from life– he took a fateful flight when he was fifteen and knew that he wanted to fly planes. So, Mike geared his whole life to fulfil that dream. He wouldn’t stop until he had his wings. That is the crux of the story. He didn’t sit back and say “I want to fly, but I am scared.” He looked at what needed to be done and he went straight ahead and did it. There were false roads and dead-ends of course. Mike spent two years on a football scholarship– it didn’t work out so he just changed schools and finished his education and jumped through the open window instead of banging his head on a firmly closed door. Trahan then found that he had a cyst on his tailbone– a cyst that would have made it impossible for him to join the forces. Did that stop him? You bet your ass it didn’t! He had it removed and bided his time until he could reconnect with his dream. Actually, this book isn’t really about flying or cysts or stories; this book is about finding your goal in life and creating acheivement. This book is about choices, actions, the ability to think for yourself and create your own future.

As you read The Gift you will be hooked by a book that has all the hallmarks of a touching and inspiring story. You will feel the love, the trials, the tribulations, the problems, the successes, the failures. You will discover a world that has all but disappeared now. You will hear stories of times long past; you will learn of a man who not only succeeded in his attempts, but he failed and he learnt from his failures. He didn’t give up; he didn’t say he couldn’t make it; he kept on going and going and going and going… He stood his ground and, sure, he hit the dust a few times, but Mike Trahan born in 1942 in West Orange, Texas, became Captain Mike Trahan after achieving over 600 hours of flying time whilst at college, whilst juggling his life, whilst living and breathing and striving.

For a guy like me, that’s a story I want to read. I know you will, too. Get the book and sit down and learn who the real Mike Trahan really is…and you may just learn something about yourself, too.

By Nick Wale