7 minute read
Navigating a Path to the Sky
In the fall of 1984, a slightly less-thanenthusiastic Tom McDevitt arrived in North Bridgton. This Massachusetts native was not so thrilled to find himself headed to an all-male school in the foothills of Western Maine, but like many who find their way to North Bridgton, Tom’s high school performance had not left him with the future options he had hoped for. “I remember pulling up to the school and realizing ‘I’m here. There’s no changing that. I can either embrace it or continue being not happy about it.’ I decided to embrace it.” As Tom’s year unfolded at Bridgton, it came with revelations about himself and his abilities, authentic relationships, and shared experiences that have stayed with him to this day.
For McDevitt, the structure of Bridgton garnered a variety of positive results. He recalls that the level of teacher focus and involvement was like nothing he had ever experienced, except maybe in his earliest years of school. He was pushed, held accountable, and inspired by faculty, such as Mr. Gately and others, who made things interesting and demonstrated that they truly cared. Tom was also away from home for the first time, surrounded by peers from all
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different walks of life. Not only did he find that the transition to single-sex education was less challenging than he anticipated, he also felt that this shift in focus changed the social dynamics and allowed for real and genuine friendships to form between the young men of his class.
Once he completed his Bridgton year, McDevitt went on to attend Boston College. He eventually found himself on a bit of a meandering path, a senior in college unsure of his next steps, not particularly feeling drawn to any single calling. One day, one of Tom’s friends asked him to go with him to a meeting with a Naval recruiter. His friend dreamed of being a fighter pilot. “This was the era of Top Gun,” McDevitt recalled. “We all sort of idolized that vision.” When they met with the recruiter, Tom was curious and asked a few questions. He did have a bit of a family history in aviation, as his father had operated a business based in that industry. Tom had also spent his summers growing up at a family beach house in New Hampshire located near an Air Force base. He recalls, as a child, how he loved to see the jets fly down the beach. As he spoke with the Navy recruiter and his curiosity grew, the recruiter pulled out an application folder of a high performing senior from Yale. He proceeded to tell Tom that, in essence, he wasn’t quite the caliber of recruit that would likely succeed in their program.
For McDevitt, that casual meeting was, in some ways, an important steppingstone along his path. He remembers this as a moment when a fire was lit. “I am the youngest of six Irish-Catholic siblings. I didn’t take it well when someone told me, out of hand, that I just could not do something.” The idea of a career in aviation and learning to fly had taken root, and, whether Tom knew it or not, he was starting down a path that would come to define his career.
Looking back now, the fact that he was on a path leading to a destination now seems clear, yet at the time, Tom felt he was searching for his next steps. An opportunity to visit a Coast Guard air station in Cape Cod truly began to clarify for Tom how he might achieve his goal of flying. “I was honestly not even aware until that point that the Coast Guard had an aviation program. I fell in love when I visited this air station. It was kind of part military, part firehouse. The people were great, and I realized this was what I wanted to do—to be a Coast Guard pilot.”
The path to this goal continued to prove circuitous. McDevitt, who was now two years into life after college, was rejected twice by the Coast Guard. After his third attempt to gain entry into this branch of the service, he received the call he’d been
waiting for; he had an invitation to officer candidate school and twenty-four hours to make up his mind. Tom said yes, and that decision led to a 25-year-long career with the United States Coast Guard. Through this work, Tom achieved his aviation goals, spending sixteen years flying helicopters for the Coast Guard on a variety of diverse missions and assignments.
“I just thought this was the coolest thing ever, flying helicopters. I was in the Great Lakes, in Alabama, out in California and even Alaska. The Coast Guard is very diverse. My flying ranged from search and rescue, to drug enforcement, to scientific/ environmental expeditions. The Coast Guard does a lot of different things, and I loved all of the new challenges.” Tom lived in a variety of environments throughout the United States, getting to know these parts of the country on land, and, of course, from the air. Perhaps one of his most enjoyable assignments was spending time flying polar operations in Antarctica for scientific research. “I spent several months in the research stations there flying scientists where they needed to go. You can imagine it as part mining town, part college campus, with a group of incredibly interesting people living and working there.”
During his time with the Coast Guard, McDevitt took on a variety of positions in addition to piloting, expanding his leadership capacity and learning to step up to challenges in management that he might not have otherwise ever imagined tackling. In 2017, Tom retired from the Coast Guard having acheived the rank of Full Bird Captain (OC). He attributes his success to lessons learned and instilled by his family, friends, and mentors: have faith, have perseverance, work hard, and be loyal to those things in which you believe.
Today, Tom continues to serve others and help his community through his current work as a lead pilot for Lifeflight of Maine. Tom works seven days on, seven days off, with a crew that includes a nurse, a paramedic, and a mechanic. While on call, Tom faces critical decisions, decisions that could impact his safety, that of his crew, and the health outcome of the patient in need. As the lead pilot, it’s up to Tom whether to take on a call or not. He has just a few minutes to consider this choice, and only twelve minutes to get airborne with his crew if it’s a go. “I am aware of the level of risk with each call,” shares McDevitt. “My primary purpose is to bring myself, my crew, and my patient to where they need to go.” Flying in Maine in highly variable weather can offer very real challenges, and McDevitt treats this with all the seriousness that it deserves.
On any given shift, Tom could be tasked with a number of calls. Often, these are interhospital transfers, with about 20% of his flights taking patients to the larger specialty McDevitt pilots the Agusta109, seen here on Tom’s recent trips to downtown Portland and Boston.
hospitals in Boston for immediate treatment. Additionally, Tom will have to fly to the scene of an accident in order to most quickly get patients to the treatment they need.
In the midst of the pandemic, Tom’s work has become even more important, but not without additional challenges, especially when flying COVID-positive patients.
That said, Tom keeps an upbeat nature and a positive outlook even while navigating this adversity. “I would share this with the graduating students of Bridgton, as well as everyone reading this piece during these challenging times: have faith. I realize that’s a word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For me, faith starts with my personal faith. I have faith in God. It’s gotten me through some challenging times. But whatever faith means to you—find it and embrace it. If you believe in God—have faith in God. If you don’t, have faith in something bigger than you. Most of all, have faith in yourself—in your capabilities, in your strengths, and have faith that you can make it through your challenges. Have faith in our country and in the world. I truly believe that together we will come through this. I think this current pandemic is also an opportunity for improvements—for individuals, towns, states, and the country. I keep coming back to John F. Kennedy Jr. saying ‘Ask not what your country can do for you…’ There are many people out there right now doing good things. Have faith. We will work together and be better on the other side of this.” BA
