"Captain" Dieter Uchtdorf

Look hard but that's President Uchtdorf - Quite a sharp looking man for his age (68)


A couple of weeks ago I attended a small gathering at the Provo airport in Utah Valley University's aviation hangar. It was advertised as; Guest Speaker: The former Senior Vice President Flight Operations of Lufthansa Airlines, Dieter Uchtdorf. Also known as President Uchtdorf, the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You had to get tickets well in advance and I thank Kirsten's friend and co-worker, Michael, for getting me a ticket.

There were only about 400 or 500 people present, 95% of which were pilots, so it was one of the more intimate experiences you can have with a member of the First Presidency. Dieter Uchtdorf is formerly the Senior Vice President of Flight Operations of Lufthansa Airlines. If you don't know about Luftanza, that's okay. I'll give you a brief summary:

Lufthansa is a Mega-Airline of Europe with it's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It's our Delta, United, or American Airlines. They fly to 209 destinations in 81 countries. President Uchtdorf said in his talk that the only countries he never flew to were those located in the South Pacific islands. It's airline pilot program is the most difficult in the world. Hundreds and hundreds of pilots apply and they only take a few. This man was the top dog, in terms of pilots and executives, for one of the largest airlines in Europe, and one of the most elite airlines in the world.

We as a crowd didn't really know what to expect from President Uchdorf in this address in the hangar. He came in smiling and excited to be back in his old environment. As a kid he used to ride his bike to the airport and watch the planes takeoff and that he dreamed of flying. He talked about how he thought learning english was impossible until he found out that english is the international language of aviation and in order to be a pilot you must speak fluent english. Still true today. He quickly found the motivation to learn the language and excelled.
He spoke of the importance of aviation to the world and how it connects countries, cultures, and economics. Then he took a sudden religious turn that many of us were wondering if he would take. "As pilots you must be accepting of all people across the world because you have so much contact with them. We are all children of God, and must see them all that way." He was much more religious in his talk that we expected. I know of at least 3 or 4 people that were there that are not LDS, and I only knew about 7 or 8 people that attended. He announced that the missionaries were at the door if you were not LDS, and sure enough 6 Elders were waiting by the exit, and they would be teaching you the discussions on the way out and you will be baptized. We all had a good laugh.

I can't really put into words so that others can understand how great this experience was for me. Honestly, I can hardly remember what he said. But what I won't forget is how much he related to us, and the feelings we felt as we saw a successful and very accomplished man teach us gospel principles through our common love of aviation. Be not mistaken, this is a very intelligent man of God. Living in Utah, or Provo to be specific, may not seem like a great place to live to some people, but these kind of experiences are not so readily available anywhere else on earth and I am grateful for them.

A very neat thing that he did after concluding his speech was open the hangar floor up to questions. About 50 hands went up in the air when he did this, mine included. I was not chosen to ask the question, but my question was asked by someone else and it was answered. His wife actually took the pulpit for a few minutes to answer the question and described how she felt about the family life for a pilot's wife and children. She loved it and spoke of the many benefits and great things the go along with the lifestyle, but she was quick to admit that not all wives or families felt the same way she did. She is a very independent person, and didn't mind at all the times she was alone. She actully said she enjoyed the alone time being able to do whatever she wanted for sometimes weeks at a time, "And when he came home it was like a honymoon all over again." She sounded a bit like someone else I know :) and that gave me a sigh of relief. What an experience.