Navy helicopter pilot Dan Huval is wrapping up his time on Guam. Pastor Walton spoke with him this week about work, ministry, and his time at Harvest.
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Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We have two services at Harvest this week, The first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM on Sunday. We have Japanese and Korean translation during that 10:45AM service, and that’s also when we livestream at hbcguam.org.
Hbcguam.org. This week, we’re beginning a new series in Revelation two one through seven, seven habits of highly effective churches. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey, hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. We’d invite you to come and join us this Sunday. In fact, this would be a great Sunday to start because we’re gonna begin a teaching through two very important chapters in the book of Revelation. We’re gonna do a little bit of an overview, but then we’re gonna talk about Revelation two and three in the next seven weeks, as long as we don’t divide one up.
And Chris mentioned the title, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Churches. That might sound a little familiar to you. There’s, of course, kind of a cultural reference to a book that was written, by Stephen Covey. And I’m not meaning in any way to make light of this. This is a very serious, conversation that, the scriptures have, that the writer John has with the churches of, the first century, and it gives us such incredibly clear instruction about how to live out our lives in the world through our church, and so I’m looking forward to it.
We’ll actually have a couple of our pastors, we’ve already kinda worked through a schedule, they’ll be involved in it February, and it’s gonna be, I think, a really helpful series for us, and we’d love for you to come and just learn, as we study God’s Word, apply it to our lives, and apply it to our church. So we’ll invite you to Harvest this Sunday. I’m really glad to have Dan Huval with us here on Harvest Time. Chopper Dan, as he’s affectionately known around here at Harvest, but Dan, welcome to Harvest Time.
Dan Huval: Oh, hey, it’s good to be here.
Gary Walton: Glad to have you, on here. Were just talking about, you’ve been here a couple years and getting ready to head out. And Dan’s like, nah, just as I’m leaving, now I get to be, you know, come and be interviewed. But really thankful for you taking some time here.
Dan Huval: Yeah. No, I appreciate it. Excited to see where it goes.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Don’t know. Is this Chopper Dan nickname just a Harvest nickname, or is it other places too?
Dan Huval: That’s actually only a Harvest nickname. Usually, when I introduce myself at work, I go by Lieutenant Dan because it’s just funny. Know? I have a whole other call sign, but I’m like, Lieutenant Dan is just too good.
Gary Walton: So Yeah. It’s exactly right. So helicopter pilot Mhmm. For the Navy. Right?
Dan Huval: Yes.
Gary Walton: Okay. Yeah. How long have you been in the military? What what’s that journey taken?
Dan Huval: So in the Navy, I’ve been in since 2019, so almost seven years, which is kinda crazy to think about. But, I always wanted be in the military since I was, like, eight years old. Wow. Okay. I really, like, I knew that.
Like, I saw my brother graduate the Marine Corps basic back in the day, I was like, wow. I wanna do that. And wanted to be a pilot, found out you had to go to college, and I gave up on that dream, and then got heard that said that, heard me say that I’d never want to go to college, so then I ended up going to college. And then after that, I kind of realized I was like, I could actually be a pilot. Like, that’s a real opportunity for me.
Gary Walton: Did you go into the military thinking that right away? Like, when you were eight, was it like, I wanna be a pilot, or it’s just military is my track?
Dan Huval: Well, so when I was eight, I was like, I wanna be in the military. Okay. Like, that’s what I knew. Like, I knew that’s what I wanna do, I honestly started praying about it back then, which is, like, I prayed for two things back then, like, guidance on my job and guidance on who I marry.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Dan Huval: And and I’ve continued to pray for that. But at that point, I knew I wanna be in the military. I didn’t know what I wanna do. And mission wanted to a pilot, like I said, and then I gave up on it. So then I looked into special operations because I was like, those are like the jobs, like, you actually get to do something in the Yeah.
And I, like, actually went into special operations in the Air Force. So, like, I tried to go do that. And I was young and dumb and thought I was like, you know, this hot stuff and I did not train hard enough and I was 19 and I got stress fractures in both my tibias and how to get out. And so I got out of the Air Force after eight months, which is kind of crazy to think about, but it was kind of like my obsession and I really wanted to go back into that, but then I started going to college and saw other doors open for me and God was like, Hey, you’re putting Special Operations above me in a way. And so He opened the door for me to apply to the Navy.
I was like, okay, I’ll try to apply to the Navy and see what happens, thinking I probably wouldn’t. I’m, you know, a kid from South Louisiana who’s homeschooled. I was like, there’s no way I’m gonna get a pilot contract. And literally three months later, the door opened and I was, you know, hey, you’re going to OCS. And I was like, woah.
So, you know, I was like, I’m gonna go do my dream of flying. So and then I joined that in 2019.
Gary Walton: So Okay.
Dan Huval: I’ve been flying ever since. So
Gary Walton: k. Great. And, it’s taken you in a couple places, eventually almost three years on Guam, but what tell me the steps before that.
Dan Huval: So basically, for flight school, you go you can either go, like, the Academy or ROTC or OCS, which are just different programs to become an officer. I went OCS because I graduated college before I even, like, started applying to that. And, I went to OCS and then I went to flight school and that took about three years for me to complete that. And with the Navy it’s an eight year contract once you finish. So I was in Pensacola for most of that, like learn to fly, you fly fixed wing and then, you go to your specific track, whether it’s like fighter jets or big jets or helicopters.
And I knew I wanted to go either fighter jets or helicopters and found out the community of, like, jets is kind of toxic, and I was like, I don’t I don’t wanna do that. So helicopters was a way from me. That point, I started looking where can I go as a helicopter pilot, and I saw Guam, and I was like, oh, we do search and rescue there, like Mhmm? Because there’s no coast guard here, so, like, we are the only rescue asset here. I was like, I’m going to Guam.
Like, I knew that super early on. So then went to San Diego, told them I wanted Guam and nobody else wanted to go to Guam because it’s Guam, you know. It’s great, but you also don’t have Target. So, you know, people are like, I’m not going there. So I got Guam immediately and then I came out here in, 2023 and gotten to do three deployments and two rescues and five medevacs and all kinds of awesome stuff.
So it’s been a real blessing.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Well, I mean, just, I mean, of course, we value the, the the military commitment that you’ve made. Thank you for your service.
Dan Huval: Oh, thanks.
Gary Walton: In that way. But, as well, I mean, just for those of us here on Guam, you know, we we understand those those rescue operations. They’re part of the whole, you know, the whole, structure of our our community and thankful. Yeah. Yeah.
God’s given you some opportunities over these few years and that’s been great. And getting ready now to PCS, think, So the next part, been here almost three years, next couple weeks you’ll be heading out, right?
Dan Huval: Yes. I’ll be leaving real soon, and I’ll be going to Norfolk, Virginia to become an instructor.
Gary Walton: So Yeah. Okay. Well, it’s been an interesting journey. I’m, I’m thankful for that. You you connected at Harvest, I think, right away when you when you got here.
Right? So
Dan Huval: Yeah. So that’s actually kinda funny because when I was in Pensacola, I was going to there was, like, a moment during COVID where they said we couldn’t go to church for, like, a little bit. Yeah. And I was like, okay. And I just stopped going to church for, six months.
And you couldn’t like, I was a Christian, but I could feel like my walk with Christ just plummet, you know. Like, I was the minimum Christian you could be, and I was like, I just felt like I need, like, spiritual growth and, like, a walk with someone else. So then I started going to church again, and I went to a Baptist church there, and I was like, hey. Yeah. I’m going to Guam in, like, a year.
And the church I was going to, people went to PCC, and they were like, oh, if you’re going to Guam, you need to go to Harvest Baptist Church. Mhmm. And I was like, how on earth do you know about a church in Guam? Like, most times I’d say Guam, they’re like, are you going to Africa? And I was like, no, that’s not it.
But then I went to San Diego and it was like around Easter and there was a rescue swimmer who was like an instructor there and he was like giving out cookies or something, and he was like, hey, you should come to my church, and I was like, oh, I’m I’m about to leave for Guam. And he’s like, oh, if you go to Guam, you need to go to Harvest Baptist Church. Wow. And I was like, alright, God, like, I guess I’m going to Harvest Baptist Church.
Gary Walton: If there’s any messages here, I think I’m hearing it.
Dan Huval: So I showed up on a Saturday at Guam, and I was in church the next day, and I’ve literally never gone anywhere else. But it’s hard to I mean, the community at Harvest is pretty much impossible to beat, I think.
Gary Walton: It’s really a fantastic place. God’s blessed, and and you’ve been a big part of it. You’ve been involved with our young pros group Mhmm. Which, you know, God’s just really blessing in that group. Let’s back you up a little bit Okay.
Dan, just to get the full story. You said you grew up in Louisiana. Tell us about your spiritual life, your spiritual story.
Dan Huval: So I was super blessed to grow in a house that, like, you know, was a Christian house. Both my parents were Christians and, you know, raised us in the church and stuff like that. And I was homeschooled, so, like, know, be writing scripture verses and stuff like that. But, I got saved at a super young age. Like, I was involved in this thing called, Royal Rangers, which is like Christian Boy Scouts.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Dan Huval: And, we’d go to summer camps and stuff like that. And I remember every time they’d, you know, have a salvation call, like, you know, hey, you need to come up and get saved. I’d raise my hand every time. So I went up there, like, probably a 100 times.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Dan Huval: So which one of those? I don’t know. But I got saved at a super young age, and then kinda continued my walk since then. And it’s had its ups and downs, like, you know, like I talked about with the military. I kinda put the military above God for a little bit, but I think that’s part of the reason I’m here is he had to shut the door for something else for me to come here.
Gary Walton: So We were talking before, you know, we started recording just about Guam is such a unique place for a lot of us, military, but, you know, all kinds of other opportunities. But it really is a place, if you’ll take advantage of it, is a place for spiritual reset, if you connect with a good church, you know, you know, really to be able to put your foundations down, your roots down deep, and maybe some reconnection. So, yeah, I’m thrilled to hear hear that story over and over again. And our prayers at Harvest would really truly be a home for people that could find, you know, reset their lives Yeah. Their spiritual lives and been cool seeing God’s continued work in your life.
We talked a little bit about what drew you to aviation. What might be something that people are surprised to learn about what you do?
Dan Huval: Probably the level of prep before you do, like, a flight. Depending on the flight. Some flights, it’s not tons of prep, but some of the flights, like our tactical missions and stuff like that, we get there. I mean, you get the mission drop, like, hours before, like, day before, and you’re looking at it. And then six hours before you even take off, everybody comes together, and you’re, like, coming up with this plan of how to do the mission and stuff like that, and you’re just prepping for all this amount of time.
And then you get to the aircraft, so you’ve been prepping for this for, like, you know, if you’re counting the study and beforehand, literally, like, a whole day. Mhmm. And then you go fly for, like, only, like, three hours, and then you come back and then you debrief for, like, you know, another hour or two. So you’re talking just hours and hours and hours of prep just to do, like, one flight. There’s obviously smaller training missions where it’s, like, not as big of a deal, but mostly I think the lot of studying and planning you have to do.
Cause like, I mean, the book I have, it’s funny because like I have friends come over and I got this book that’s, you know, probably like five, six inches thick, and I’ve like read through that multiple times and there’s parts of that I just know like verbatim. So the amount of knowledge you have to have is like kinda insane.
Gary Walton: So that book is sort of the mission protocol, you know, what is it?
Dan Huval: It’s the NATOPS, it’s Naval Air Training Operation and Procedures and Standardization. Okay. Basically it’s the manual of our helicopter. So it has every single limit of like the engines and the rotor system and how all of them work and like, okay, if this, if you get this indication or these things happen, you need to do these procedures to land and all these it’s just very thick. Like, oh hey, if it’s really cold, you need to do these procedures.
If it’s really hot, you can do this. There’s just a lot of instruction and they say it’s like written blood because a lot of stuff that’s written there is things that have happened, like mistakes that people have made or mistakes that they the helicopter has made because I mean, it’s literally a vibrating object.
Gary Walton: Right.
Dan Huval: Like, I think, multiple mechanics talk about how like it’s just a spinning vibrating object that shouldn’t be flying at all. Right. Exactly. And as somebody who flies it, I kinda like when you start learning about the Yeah. Physics of it, you’re like, oh my gosh.
Yeah. Like, it’s crazy that it flies at all. But it’s basically how to operate it safely.
Gary Walton: No. I’m taking notes, man. When I’m done, I’m writing down, NATOPS. I’ll have to ask you some more questions about I don’t know. Maybe it’s top secret.
Dan Huval: It’s not. That one’s not. Other ones are, but
Gary Walton: No. Actually, before you said that, I was just processing. I mean, I love the analogy of the mission. I come back to it all the time. That little description that you gave us for a, you know, two to three hour mission, the prep that goes into it, the debrief after it.
And it is all about the mission. And I, you know, as Christians, we come back to this idea because that is what the central focus of the Bible is. It’s about the mission.
Dan Huval: Oh, yeah.
Gary Walton: The middle of the scriptures. Here’s the great mission. That’s what Jesus calls us to. I love actually, there’s so much in the analogy of what happens militarily when you’re preparing for a mission that I think it was exactly what Jesus was trying to describe for us. Yeah.
I’m gonna give you one life mission. It’s just one. Go and make disciples of all the nations, and here it is. Go do it. And, you know, just all of those analogies.
But the one piece that I hadn’t added to it before was, and guess what? There’s a manual.
Dan Huval: Yeah. Hey.
Gary Walton: There’s a Natops.
Dan Huval: We call it our bible, literally. We call it
Gary Walton: you can call it That’s your bible.
Dan Huval: People are like, yeah. It’s your helicopter bible. You know?
Gary Walton: Wow. Yeah. So we have that. Jesus didn’t just send us out there with an idea and tell us to figure it out. He really did give us everything that we need to know about how to accomplish the mission that he’s called us to.
Dan Huval: Yeah.
Gary Walton: Alright. Well, I’ll I’ll write down my notes, you know, later. I’ll send you Oh, absolutely. I’ll send you some questions to help fill that out. You’re getting ready.
We’re talking about this, to to PCS. What does that season look like practically, emotionally, especially when you know that you’ll be away from, you know, people that you care about, church people, others? Yeah. Yeah. How do you process that?
Dan Huval: I mean, part of it for me, luckily, is that, like, I always knew I wanted to do this, so I kinda knew I’d be moving around. It’s not like a, you know, like I’m like, oh, no. You know? Right. Like, I knew this was part of the job.
Yeah. And I also see the blessings of, like, I’ve gotten to come out in Guam and, like, I’ve gotten to go to Australia and live in Japan for six months and do all these cool things. So I see the blessing side of it, but the bad part of it is, like, you make these connections with these people who are, like, you’re super close with. I mean, like, my roommate Ben Borja, like, I’m he’s, like, a best friend of mine right now. Like, we are, like, best friends forever.
But at the same time, I’m like, how often am I gonna see him again? Especially Guam, like Yeah. It’s the other side of the planet. So, like, I have friends in Pensacola who I’m super close with, but I, like, trying to keep up with them and then trying to keep up with the friends in Louisiana and then friends in the military and then the friends on Guam. That part really stinks and I think that part makes it really hard.
Yeah. But at the same time, I know I’m so close to those people and, like, I know that the moment I see them, we can pick up where we left off. And you just kind of see your blessing, you see the connections, you get to know people like so well, like really quickly, which is nice. But I think that’s the toughest part is you know you’re leaving this community like these people you’ve connected with and you’ve bonded with. Also, the stress of moving.
I mean, military is super awesome in that, like, you can I mean, they shift my car, they ship all my they came and packed my house and they shipped all that stuff and they’re paying for all of it, which is kinda insane coming out to Guam? But it’s definitely super stressful in, like, shopping for a house even though I’m not even in that state, I’m like, okay. Yeah. That house looks nice from a video, you know? So but the biggest part is, I think, leaving people.
Because, like, I’m close to those people in San Diego, but, you know, I hardly ever have time to talk to them. But I think part of that is I’ve learned to just be present with the people who are around you. Like, obviously, don’t, like, shun the people behind you, but, like, are people who are right in front of you who need just to listen. Yeah. So it can be change your life.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Man, I love that. Keep connected, with keep connected with the relationships that God’s given you and be present with those. I don’t even know why this popped in my brain, but when I was growing up as a kid, my mom had a it’s it’s kind of a famous little quote. She had it on a I think it’s called a trivet.
It’s like a metal engraving kind of thing. It it sat right in her kitchen, and I’ve got a couple of things, they were just always there when I was growing up, but it was this little phrase, make new friends, keep the old, one is silver, the other is gold. Weird how I remember that after all these years. But but, my mom was very relational. It kinda connects me, you know, with her and I think there’s some benefit of that.
God gives us some lifelong connections and then we gotta be present, you know, right You know, military life often causes us to learn flexibi I I think a lot about flexibility and trust, like almost competing in some ways, but you’re forced to, you know, to have those kind of things. How has your faith shaped the way that you prepare for missions and time away from home, all of that together?
Dan Huval: For flying wise, so one of the things I love about helicopters is that we’re a crew. So, like, you know, we got two pilots up front, Generally, have two crewmen in the back, and usually one’s a hoist operator and one’s a swimmer. And, something with that is you gotta, like, trust, like because I’m flying in the front, and I can’t the hoist is, you know, five feet behind me and, like, to my right, so I can’t actually see where it is and we’re trying to drop a guy in a very precise location. Literally I can’t see anything he’s seeing and I’m completely relying on him to, tell me, like he’ll be like, Hey, come right, three, two, one, hold here, come right, come back. He’s giving me very precise calls and I am completely relying on him to tell me where it is.
I think a big part of that is like the humility of saying like, yeah, you know, I’m the pilot, I’m like, this is Right. I’m the aircraft commander. I’ve signed off for this bird, this is my bird. But I’m relying on him there’s like a team aspect of that. And there a big part of that is having the humility admit, like, he sees something that I can’t see.
Like, yeah, I’m wiggling the sticks, but at the end of the day, he’s telling me exactly where he wants me to be and that’s, I mean, part of my rescue, the rescue I did on Guam at San Carlos, like, if we didn’t have that dynamic, the guy would have probably not. Mhmm. He’d been paralyzed for life. Mhmm. So it’s really a humility aspect.
I think it’s been the biggest thing that I’ve seen in my career is, like, just in the missions that you plan for, you know, you may be the mission lead and there’s two aircraft, so that’s like, there’s five people, there’s 10 different people in this whole thing. And you have this whole plan, but you might not see everything. So somebody might say, hey, what about this? And you gotta go, oh man, that’s not part of my plan. That’s probably a better idea though.
So humility, I think, is something that people don’t talk about a lot in the military. But like having that humility to admit like, maybe I should listen to you. Like, you see something I don’t see, and you might be right about it. So I think that’s the Christian that’s the aspect I’ve seen the most.
Gary Walton: Dan, that is incredible. Great. Really, spiritually in tuned, fantastic leadership. It’s like a master class in critical leadership responsibilities and wow, there’s so so much in there analogy. Yeah.
Thanks for sharing that. Was really cool. You’re also getting married.
Dan Huval: Yep. Sure am.
Gary Walton: Coming up. Congratulations on that.
Dan Huval: Pretty excited, you know?
Gary Walton: Yeah. Are you and your fiance navigating military life while you’re planning your future together?
Dan Huval: So we met at Harvest. For anyone listening, Ellie, love you. Mhmm. Well,
Gary Walton: shout out to Ellie.
Dan Huval: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. She’ll listen to us eventually. But, yeah, we met at Harvest.
Funny because I met her and I said, I’m never gonna date this girl. And then about a year later, was like, wow, she’s really cool. I should probably date her.
Gary Walton: This is the one.
Dan Huval: Yeah. This is the one. And then, but when we met, we started dating about, like, two months before I left for a six month deployment. And, that was pretty tough.
Gary Walton: Remember that.
Dan Huval: Yeah. Yeah. It was super tough Yeah. To go that way, but I think that made us so close. Because, you know, the long distance, like, we both had to put in a lot of effort.
Like, you know, we had to talk very specifically, like, This is time that we’re gonna video call and we’re gonna do these things. So I think even though the military is, like, kinda stinked in that way that, like, we had to do that, it also brought us together so close. Like, at that point, like, after, like, two months of that deployment, I was like, oh, yeah. I’m I’m all in on this. I remember telling her, was like, hey.
You gotta go talk to your family because I’m I’m all in. I don’t know where you’re at, but I’m 100% in on this. And that’s been hard to navigate, like the deployment, but knowing that I wanted to be in the military, I read so many books and biographies and stuff like that and I saw the little things that people did. And it’s kind of the effort that you have to take of, like, saying, hey, like, you know, just doing little things ahead of time. Like, six months bef like, month before I go, you know, I bought flowers for every month and had them delivered here and stuff like that.
So it’s the little things like that that matter.
Gary Walton: Wow. We we love you both and excited for God’s, you know, God’s future for you. Praying that he’ll direct each of those steps. That’s cool. Someone’s listening to kind of a season of transition.
I mean, for in their lives, maybe they’ve got new orders, new role, new chapter. What’s one truth that helps stabilize you in the transitions that you’ve experienced?
Dan Huval: I think in all of it, God has a plan. Like, truly, like, this is part of his plan, and you just gotta trust him. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, like, because, like, to me, I wanna do the special operations thing, and then that door closed in for And then I ended up doing the pilot thing, which was probably way better for me at the end. But I remember, like, having a lot of doubt and being like, why is this why am I doing this? But I had, like, signs that told me to do this.
So, like, having that, like, even when it doesn’t make sense to you at the time, knowing that at the end of the day, like, this is all part of God’s plan. It’s all gonna work out, and he’s gonna put you in a place where you need to be. Because, like, being at the squadron I’ve been in, I’ve gotten to help a lot of people. And, like and it’s not, like like, yeah. The cool part of, like, doing rescues is awesome.
Yeah. Like, doing all that stuff and flying around Guam, I mean, it’s absolutely beautiful. But the most rewarding part I’ve had is, like, having some sailor come up to me and saying, hey. My mom’s super sick. Just be like, hey.
You know? I’m here for you. I’m here to just listen. Yeah. And that’s, like, been the most rewarding part for sure is being able to help somebody, even if it’s just just listening through their thing. So
Gary Walton: Dan, this has been great. Really appreciate it. I think there are some nuggets of, insight in here that, for everybody that’s listening, that’ll be helpful, encouraging, encouraged to hear about your walk of faith and what God’s doing. And, yeah, we’ll be praying as God heads you out. Appreciate it.
He’ll keep giving you those, you know, very clear directions, and God will use your life, your life, your and Ellie’s life together. So thank you for investing yourself right away in Harvest and, being a part of this family. That Harvest familia, I mean, that never ends. So you’ll always Oh, yeah. Always be a harvester. So
Dan Huval: I appreciate it. Harvest is hard to beat.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Thanks a lot, Dan.
Dan Huval: Thank you.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna personally invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church, 08:45AM, 10:45AM, Sunday morning, Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service. That’s also the service we broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.