I’m in the airline lounge, waiting for my flight. To pass the time, I’m totaling my air miles for the year on a napkin (got up to 31,710 through the end of March). The gentleman in the chair beside me guesses what I’m doing.
“How about lifetime miles?” he asks.
“I don’t know. But I’m over 600,000 in less than five years. How about you?”
“Ten million lifetime,” he says.
“Mmm,” I say. “Nice.” What I’m thinking is, Liar or crazy? as I pointedly turn away.
Another man approaches. “Excuse me, but are you Komrade Bresnik?”
Mr. Ten Million allows that he is.
“Hey, can I have your autograph?”
As Mr. Ten Million scribbles on a napkin, the other man gushes, “I follow all the NASA Twitter feeds! When are you going back up?”
More shameless eavesdropping and some furtive Googling later, I discover Mr. Ten Million is in fact Marine pilot (combat missions in Iraq)-turned-astronaut Randy “Komrade” Bresnik. He’s served as a Commander of the International Space Station, and has logged over thirty hours in spacewalks. Ten million miles is probably an underestimate.
When the fan leaves, happily clutching his signed napkin, Bresnik stands and collects his things.
“Have a good flight,” he tells me.
“You, too,” I say, still feeling awful at my prior snub. “And thank you for your service. Um, here and up there.”
He laughs. “All in a day’s work,” he says, and walks away.
