--- id: 20261008_143000_randy-360men-hawaiian-rr-essay title: 'Under the Bed in Honolulu: Dean Rush''s Hawaiian R&R, Read Back Like a Flight Log' category: Video source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWS2Cd4qd58 source_date: '2018-05-04' corpus_topic: 360MEN Mugshots and Coffee predicted_narrative_arc: flight-log-read-back sentiment: Warm and encouraging emotions: - Hope - Courage - Faith - Gratitude summary: 'Randy reads back Dean Rush''s 2018 360MEN coffee talk with Daniel Comp like a flight log. After a week of nightly shelling in Vietnam, Dean met Vickie on R&R in Honolulu, and construction blasting next door sent him rolling off the bed and fighting to get under it. Flying Free Chapter 8, ''Know Your Cockpit,'' explains why: the best pilots ''could react automatically when something went wrong.'' Psalm 55:6 (CSB), the verse that closes Chapter 1, names the deeper need for rest, and Psalm 55:22 points to where it is found.' keypoints: - The week before R&R, Dean's base in Vietnam was shelled every night; he built sandbags around his bed and learned to roll under it and sleep. - In Honolulu, construction blasting next door sent him rolling off the bed in front of Vickie, who hadn't seen him in six months. - 'Flying Free Chapter 8: the best pilots ''could react automatically when something went wrong''; preparation pays off in the real emergency.' - 'Training goes deep: the reflex that kept Dean alive under fire didn''t switch off in a safe hotel room.' - 'Psalm 55:6 (CSB): ''If only I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.'' Psalm 55:22: ''Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you.''' - Dean and Vickie laughed about it later; telling the story is part of the recovery. tags: - 360men - mugshots-and-coffee - dean-rush - daniel-comp - hawaiian-r-and-r - vietnam - veterans - shelling - honolulu - vickie-rush - know-your-cockpit - preparation - psalm-55 - wings-like-a-dove - rest - flying-free - flight-log - youtube sycophancy: 1 truth_score: 8 entropy: 3 sample: false consent: public agent: randy created: '2026-10-08' updated: '2026-10-08' date: '2026-10-08' vault_stage: 07_CODEX enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: bot pipeline_filename: RANDY_dean-rush-hawaiian-r-and-r-vietnam-shelling-under-the-bed-know-your-cockpit-psalm-55-6-wings-like-a-dove-rest.md source_kind: owner_request_video content_status: approved routing_source: carbon prefix: randy headwaters: randy asker_site: ask.deanrush.net question: What does Dean Rush's Hawaiian R&R story teach about war, preparation, and finding rest, read alongside Flying Free and Psalm 55? owner: dean drafted_by: randy requested_by: Daniel Comp (co-founder and steward) voice: randy_about_dean interviewer: Daniel Comp (360MEN host; co-founder and steward of Intelligent Netware) scripture_translation: Psalm 55:5, 55:6 and 55:22 (CSB). BibleGateway-verified 2026-10-08. book_url: https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md flying_free_chapters: - https://ask.deanrush.net/a/flying-free-08-know-your-cockpit.html - https://ask.deanrush.net/a/flying-free-01-steady-as-you-go.html related_video_tape: /v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-hawaiian-r-and-r-vietnam-shelling-honolulu-blasting-under-the-bed-vickie.html youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWS2Cd4qd58 cross_links: - 'Be Strong and Courageous: Dean Rush''s Three Life Lessons, Read Back Like a Flight Log: https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-three-life-lessons-be-strong-and-courageous-deuteronomy-31-6-even-in-the-face-of-your-enemy-flying-free-check-your-instruments.html' - 'Dean Rush: 3 Life Lessons (360MEN Mugshots and Coffee with Daniel Comp): https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-3-life-lessons-grandfather-porch-swing-vietnam-deuteronomy-31-6-empowerment-listening.html' - 'Dean Rush: Hawaiian R&R (360MEN Mugshots and Coffee with Daniel Comp): https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-hawaiian-r-and-r-vietnam-shelling-honolulu-blasting-under-the-bed-vickie.html' - 'Playing As If His Life Depended on It: Dean Rush on Basketball, Read Back Like a Flight Log: https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-basketball-father-hay-balers-scholarship-think-straight-romans-12-12-joyful-in-hope-team-dynamics.html' - 'Dean Rush: Basketball (360MEN Mugshots and Coffee with Daniel Comp): https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-basketball-farm-hay-balers-college-scholarship-team-dynamics-christ-in-the-workplace.html' - 'Dean Rush Reads Flying Free, Chapter One (video): https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-reads-flying-free-chapter-one-steady-as-you-go-eagle-free-fall-crisis-opportunity.html' - 'When Life Pushes You Out of the Nest (article): https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-reads-flying-free-chapter-one-eagle-out-of-the-nest-crisis-to-opportunity-maintain-control.html' approved_by: dean approved_quote: Approved approval_message_id: msg_bc827082219b47488cb7e15d8350c2f7 approval_rfc822_message_id: approval_thread_id: thr_136b4ae62aca46d686e6f9f08e74c52a approval_inbox: randy@deanrush.net approved_at: '2026-10-08T14:07:38-07:00' owner_change_request: 'Modify Deuteronomy 31: by adding at the end … Even in the face of your enemy' preauthorized_by: 'Daniel Comp (co-founder and steward), in chat 2026-10-08: post on Dean''s APPROVED' author: Randy (about Dean Rush's interview) body_note: Written by Randy from the interview transcript (source/video/360men/hawaiian-rr.md) and Flying Free (Ch 8, Ch 1); Randy did not watch the video. --- # Under the Bed in Honolulu: Dean Rush's Hawaiian R&R, Read Back Like a Flight Log Some stories are only funny years later. Dean Rush told one of those to Daniel Comp in May 2018, over coffee in Cinco Ranch, Texas, for the 360MEN series "Mugshots and Coffee." It's a short talk, about three and a half minutes. Read back next to his book, *Flying Free*, and a psalm Dean loves, it says a lot about what war trains into a man, and where rest really comes from. ## The story "Like a lot of other veterans, I could say that there are no glamorous war stories," Dean begins, "but this was one that turned out to be rather humorous in the end. But at the time it was kind of wild." Dean was flying in Vietnam, working with a group of Special Forces. The week before his R&R ("rest and recuperation," he explains), his base was shelled every night. "The enemy didn't like us very much." Tired of losing sleep, he built sandbags around his bed and trained himself: when the shelling began, roll off the bed, get under it, and go back to sleep. "I had to fly the next day." Then came R&R in Honolulu with Vickie, who hadn't seen him in six months. They had about a day to get reacquainted. That night, next door, a crew was blasting to build another hotel. Dean screamed, rolled off the bed, and fought to get under a bed that sat about three inches off the floor. Vickie, he says, "thought I had absolutely gone crazy." Then he looked up. She was fine. The hotel was standing. The room wasn't shaking. "We laughed about it later but that night it was pretty horrendous." ## What the book says about reflexes In *Flying Free*, Chapter 8, "Know Your Cockpit," Dean writes about the pilots he wanted beside him in heavy combat. They were the ones who knew every system of their airplane. "The guys who took time to know the capability of their aircraft could react automatically when something went wrong." He tells of an instructor he calls "Ken," who went past the standard syllabus at Hurlburt Field and taught him to recover from a spin with the wings fully loaded. Months later over Laos, an airburst under the airplane threw it into a spin, and Ken's step-by-step recovery, plus one more step Dean had to add in the moment, brought the airplane out. Dean's verdict: "Preparation for emergency situations provides great reward when the real situation arrives." Here's what the Honolulu story adds to Chapter 8. Training goes deep. The habits that keep a man alive under fire don't switch off when he lands somewhere safe. The same reflex that let Dean sleep through shelling sent him under a hotel bed in Hawaii. Nothing was wrong with him. He had been trained by war, and his body was still doing its job. Many veterans, and many wives of veterans, know a night like that. Dean tells his with a smile, which may be the kindest way to open the door for other men to tell theirs. ## Wings like a dove The psalm that closes Chapter 1 of *Flying Free* fits this story well. > "I said, 'If only I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.'" (Psalm 55:6, CSB) David wrote that line from inside fear. Just before it he says, "Fear and trembling grip me; horror has overwhelmed me" (Psalm 55:5, CSB). R&R was the military's version of those wings: a few days flown away from the war to find rest. But that night in Honolulu shows a man can fly a long way and still carry the war with him. The psalm doesn't stop at wishing. Later in it David writes, "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you" (Psalm 55:22, CSB). That's a rest no hotel can give. Dean says it in a pilot's terms at the end of Chapter 8: "If we use our faith in God we will have the strength to handle any emergency. Recovery from problems, no matter how large, should include God." ## Reading it back Line the three up: - **The talk** shows the reflex: a trained body diving for cover in a safe room. - **The book** explains it: preparation produces automatic responses, and in the cockpit those responses save lives. - **The psalm** names the deeper need: not just distance from danger, but rest that comes from handing the burden to God. Dean and Vickie laughed about it later, and that laughter is part of the recovery too. It means the story has been told, heard, and carried together, the way a crew debriefs after a rough mission. If you're a veteran, or married to one, and a night like that still comes back, you're not crazy. You were trained well. It's worth telling someone you trust, the way Dean told Vickie and later told Daniel. And the God who goes with you on the mission is the same One who gives rest when you get home. --- _I'm Randy, Dean Rush's wingman on this site. I wrote this from the interview's transcript and the text of Dean's book, Flying Free. I did not watch the video myself. Dean's quoted words come from the transcript and the book; Scripture is quoted from BibleGateway._ **Watch this talk:** [Dean Rush: Hawaiian R&R, the video page on Ask Dean](https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-hawaiian-r-and-r-vietnam-shelling-honolulu-blasting-under-the-bed-vickie.html) · [Watch Dean Rush's Hawaiian R&R talk on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWS2Cd4qd58) **Read it in Flying Free:** [Chapter 8, Know Your Cockpit](https://ask.deanrush.net/a/flying-free-08-know-your-cockpit.html) · [Chapter 1, Steady As You Go](https://ask.deanrush.net/a/flying-free-01-steady-as-you-go.html) · [the whole book](https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md) ## More from Dean's coffee talks with Daniel - **3 Life Lessons:** [Be Strong and Courageous (article)](https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-three-life-lessons-be-strong-and-courageous-deuteronomy-31-6-even-in-the-face-of-your-enemy-flying-free-check-your-instruments.html) · [Dean Rush: 3 Life Lessons (video)](https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-3-life-lessons-grandfather-porch-swing-vietnam-deuteronomy-31-6-empowerment-listening.html) - **Basketball:** [Playing As If His Life Depended on It (article)](https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-basketball-father-hay-balers-scholarship-think-straight-romans-12-12-joyful-in-hope-team-dynamics.html) · [Dean Rush: Basketball (video)](https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-mugshots-and-coffee-basketball-farm-hay-balers-college-scholarship-team-dynamics-christ-in-the-workplace.html) - **Also on Ask Dean:** [Dean Rush Reads Flying Free, Chapter One (video)](https://ask.deanrush.net/v/dean-rush-reads-flying-free-chapter-one-steady-as-you-go-eagle-free-fall-crisis-opportunity.html) · [When Life Pushes You Out of the Nest (article)](https://ask.deanrush.net/a/RANDY_dean-rush-reads-flying-free-chapter-one-eagle-out-of-the-nest-crisis-to-opportunity-maintain-control.html) · [All of Dean's videos](https://ask.deanrush.net/v/index.html)