Just in case you are visiting this site and you are not family or friend, here is a quick bio of who I am: My name is Ken Tatum and I am 43 years old. I was in the United States Air Force for almost 21 years as a fighter pilot who had been flying F-15Cs since 1982. I have been medically retired from the Air Force to undergo a bone marrow transplant to cure leukemia. My wife, Nancy, and I have three great children, Ron who is 16 and Keeley and Steven who are 14 (yes, they are twins). We also have a dog, but Belle is kind of stupid and not really worth mentioning (actually, she's a pretty neat dog). All my life I have been about the healthiest person you would have ever met. Other than having my appendix removed 16 years ago, I had never been in a hospital. In fact, if you looked at my medical records for the 11 years prior to 2001, you would see that I had only been to the doctor 11 times. Those 11 visits were for 11 required annual flight physicals (which I passed with flying colors). All that changed on 11 May 2001 when I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or AML. AML only strikes 1 out of 100,000 people below the age of 60 years old. The way I look at it, I saved 99,999 people from getting AML (Man's logic). The exact diagnosis is AML subtype M0 with normal chromosomes. I have a running diary I am writing to keep folks up (who want to keep up) to date on my progress through this medical journey. You also may be interested to know that my family and I are very dedicated Christians. This may shock some of the people who have known me in the past, so I would like to take this time to tell how this conversion came about. I was raised in a Christian home in the Episcopal Church. I never really took much interest in learning about God and the Bible. I just went to church and didn't think about it much the rest of the week. This is the way I lived my life up until I left for college and then I simply quit going to church. Luckily, I married a very strong Christian woman and she was very patient with me. I lived the life of the stereotypical fighter pilot until the fall of 1996 when my father died of lung cancer. This event started me thinking seriously about who I was and what I believed. Nancy and I had already join a church we liked very much, but I still was mostly just going through the motion for the kids and family. Nancy gave me a book called, "A Ready Defense", by Josh McDowell. It is written by a guy who wanted to prove that Jesus was not who he claimed to be, but during his research he became a believer. I read this book and while riding on an airplane from Las Vegas, NV to Washington D.C., on 13 Dec 1997, I felt the present of the Holy Spirit come upon me and I asked Jesus to forgive me of my life of sin and asked him to come into my heart and allow me to live the life set forth for me in the Holy Bible. I asked Nancy to buy me a Bible and I set out to read the entire book cover to cover. I have accomplished that goal and I too have found that the plan laid out in the Bible is the way to salvation. I realize that this testimony may shock some of my long time friends whom I have not seen in many years. All I can say is I am still the same guy I used to be, only now I am living the life I should have been living instead of the life I was living. This faith is what has pulled me, Nancy and the kids through this trying time in our life. We have actually found that more positive things have come out of this bout with leukemia than negative things. It has brought the family closer to God and it has strengthened our faith in the Lord exponentially. It has also brought the family itself closer as we try and figure out what is going to happen next. We have relied on prayer from our family and our friends to heal me from this disease and it has worked. But no matter what the Lord has planned for me and this disease, you can rest assured I will give thanks to the Lord for bringing me to Him before it was too late. My testimony above was written in June 2001. Since then I can tell you that God has moved mightily in my family's life. It is hard to express in words the peace and comfort I have knowing Jesus Christ is in control of my life. Let me tell you, for a ex-hard-core fighter pilot, that was something I never thought I would be saying. I have found all the promises of the Bible coming true in our lives here in Niceville. It is not about whether God heals me of leukemia. It is about God healing me of all the other moral diseases I had before this tribulation awakened me. There is a passage in James 1:2-4 that says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." A year ago if you asked me if I could consider this "pure joy", I would have taken your temperature. God has given me the opportunity to "get off the fence" and either choose Him or reject Him. (BTW read here what Jesus says about riding the fence). Therefore, yes, I do consider it "pure joy" that I have faced this tribulation in my life, because without it, I would have rode that fence for the rest of my life. God Bless you all. Ken Tatum |
Who am I? |
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30 Apr 02 |
