BAXTER: It was a dead-end job. A job that goes nowhere, and that's not uncommon anywhere in the military. Your last job, you take something that you want to do, that's fun, or is where you want to retire at, you do what you want to do instead of doing what's good for your career, or looked at well in the Navy.

Q: How did it feel to you to end up that way?

BAXTER: I had mixed feelings. At some point in your life, you have to stop doing certain things, and even if I had stayed in the Navy, and made commander, and gone to my squadron flying, after that, what? At some point it has to stop. And so you make a decision for yourself as to how you're going to make that transition suit you.

And, even though maybe I wasn't quite ready, I knew that I needed to make that transition. I did it as best I could.

Q: You still fly?

BAXTER: No, hmm-mm.

Q: You miss it?

BAXTER: Sometimes I do. Flying is one of those things, you have to keep doing it, you need to stay proficient, or you die. A lot of pilots, they go out and get private licenses, and then they think they can go fly, maybe they do it for five hours a month or whatever. They're not good enough, they don't do it well. Flying you need to do at least 20 hours a month to stay proficient.

Q: So do you feel like you realized your dream?

BAXTER: I realized one dream. I did go as far as I could, under the circumstances. And now I'm working on other dreams.