WriterPilot

Welcome!

John@CanFighter.com — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:42:00 GMT

You may select Background and Clips
grouped in the subject Portfolios at left, or you may scroll down through the representative selection below.

John Roberts

is a published author and full-time freelance writer.
His resume and background information are in the
top Portfolio at left.
Portfolios and articles are currently being added.

He seeks advanced assignments in the subjects of the other Portfolios:
Finance/Investments, Market Analysis, Medical, Travel, Military Aviation, Foreign Policy, Book Reviews, Creative, Websites and Blogs.

He has been a magazine editor and weekly financial newspaper columnist.
He has published many articles in books, newspapers and magazines.
His book The Fighter Pilot's Handbook was published in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Australia and was a selection of The Military Book Club.

He was previously a fighter pilot in Vietnam and NATO, and a military training instructor at the Air Force Academy.

He was a stockbroker and manager of several brokerage offices, firms and regions, and taught Management at the undergraduate and MBA level.

A successful cancer survivor, he is currently writing a medical book:
Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight
A Positive Guide for Patients, Survivors, Caregivers and Loved Ones.
See the following Platform for the book:
Website: www.CanFighter.com
Blog: Canfighter.terapad.com
MySpace Page: www.MySpace.com/CanFighter
Subscribe to: Cancer Fighter Newsletter

John Roberts: Brief Resume

John@CanFighter.com — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:45:00 GMT

      John Roberts                                                 Author and Freelance Writer
      940 S. Lakewood Ave                                 E-Mail: John@CanFighter.com
      Baltimore, MD 21224                                                               Cell: 410-905-8320

Brief Resume

Education

BA Washington University, St. Louis International Relations
MBA New York University, NY City Management and Investments

Instructor: United States Air Force Academy: Leadership, Combat Ops

Instructor: MBA Program, Oxford Brookes University: Management
Instructor: Florida Metropolitan University: Strategies for Success

Military

      Instructor and Classroom Instructor, USAF Advanced Jet Pilot Training
      Military Training Instructor: United States Air Force Academy
      Led 600 men through US Army Airborne School
      Fighter Pilot, 2 Combat Tours, Vietnam/Thailand, Flight Commander
      Aide and Executive Officer to Vice Commander, US Air Forces Vietnam
      Operations Officer, 2nd in Command, Air Combat Instructor Pilot
           F-4 Phantom, NATO Fighter Squadron

Journalism

      Author: The Fighter Pilot’s Handbook. Published, US, UK, Canada, Aust.
      Editor: Air Forces International Magazine (UK)
      Editor: Technical Digest, Stock Market Advisory Service
      Weekly Financial Columnist, Associate Publisher: Budapest Sun
      Freelance Writer: Numerous Articles in Books, Magazines, Newspapers
Financial Services and Management

      Stock Broker: Merrill Lynch and Prudential Securities
      President: Roberts Securities Corporation (NASD)
      President: Gryphon Asset Management Corp. (SEC Investment Advisor)
      NYSE Branch Office Manager: John Hancock Brokerage Firm
      Founder and Co-Manager: Nicholson Growth Fund, US Mutual Fund
      Regional Manager: Germany: Integrated Resources Financial Services
      Managing Director: Csiky Securities Ltd., Hungarian Stock Exchange
      Managing Director: Delta Lloyd Investment Research Ltd.
           Eastern Europe Mutual Fund Research and Management
      Training Team Leader: Ford Customer Service Center, US and Asia

Challenge Sports

Marathon, Scuba, Sailboat Racing, Alpine Mountain Climbing,
Alpine 1-Man Bobsled, Parachuting, Aerobatics

Travel

            Lived in 11 different countries for more than six months
          20 years Europe: 10 England, 5 Germany, Spain, France, Hungary
            Traveled Europe, Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Africa, N. and S. America

My Dad

John@CanFighter.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:12:00 GMT

Letter to My Family

My Dad

by John Roberts
April 2004

This week, exactly 40 years since I followed Arnold Palmer around the course of Augusta National as he won the 1964 Masters, I watched him walk the final fairway as he completed one of the longest and greatest careers in the history of world sport. Then, he sat down and talked about his father and started to cry. He allowed himself to be led into a few words about his emotional relationship with his Army. I shared and shed a tear at his tribute to their loyalty. They had given him in return the greatest of all tributes: enduring respect for the kind of man he was.

Naturally, it reminded me of my father, the same kind of man, who died 25 years ago. My Dad was a great golfer. But, the greatness was not the many accomplishments he gave to the game; it was the way he allowed the game to give to him, and how he built it as the very foundation of his admirable character. Character is, as they say, destiny. And, it can only be built to the highest standard by a lifetime of self-examination, determination and habit.

John S. Roberts began life as the poor son of a bitter street car conductor who drank too much and yelled at his wife all the time. He began golf as a caddie, but probably swung as many clubs as he carried. He watched, and learned about much more than golf from the men he served. He caddied for men like Eddie Rickenbacker, the hero of World War I and Eastern Air Lines, a very tough and disciplined fighter pilot and businessman. By the time the young man was 17, he was the champion of Detroit; a year later, runner-up in Michigan. At the same time, he became an Eagle Scout, and pushed boxes in a Woolworth store to begin a career. He wanted to be a golf pro, but the depression was not a good time for that risk, and he had a new family to feed.

So, he began to work hard and impress his bosses in the great F.W. Woolworth Company, once America's first and greatest retailer, one of the 30 Dow Jones Industrials. I doubt if he could have dreamed that he would one day sit at the top of what was then the highest building in the world and manage that vast, worldwide retailing empire. I doubt if he could have known that he would one day play golf with the president’s cabinet ministers and be the man who welcomed Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and a hundred others to Baltusrol Golf Club to play in the United States Open Championship. He could not have known he would be invited to serve on the board of directors of great New York banks and insurance companies, not because of his expertise in their industries, or the game of golf, but because of the simple but shining character he was beginning to build on the golf course.

Golf gave him that character, because that is the kind of game it is. Physically, golf is a universal sport, something many can play, yet a game of great coordination and judgment that requires exceptional control of strength, restraint of power and merging of concentration. The same old golf joke always brings a laugh: the gorilla who could drive the ball 300 yards, but putted the same way. The game provides unusual time to think and decide, or not to, about how to play it stroke by stroke. The brain and the club and the ball and the course and the backdrop of the whole game are always linked together in a single experience.

Golf, however, is also a game of character. It is a game of self-enforced rules and subtle forms of courtesy and good manners, of adherence to custom and respect for tradition, of friendship and humor and sincerity, of courage and strength, of care and deference to caddies, colleagues and kings. It is a game for professionals, even if you are an amateur. Play a round of golf with someone, and you will know him. Take the qualities to the board room and they apply, especially in those great corporations of men like Frank Woolworth who are now almost gone.

My Dad was always a strong man, he always knew what he was doing. He was able to build his self-confidence on a bed of humility. Every year he would leave his tower and his famous club and rich associates and return to Detroit to play golf for a weekend with the old friends he learned the game with, still working on the auto line. They would laugh and kid and try like hell to beat each other, and I know those rounds were the best they all played in their entire lives because the bond of friendship was as strong and happy as ever, so much more important than the changes of time. Then, he would lead the Baltusrol team on the annual exchange with St. Andrews, the first home of golf in Scotland, and soak up the tradition of the sport he loved with the poor cousins of his ancestors.

Once, on a trip to Britain to visit the Woolworth company of that country, he was asked if there was anything he wanted to do. Yes, he said, I would like to go to Wales and see the village where my great-grandfather was a coal miner. Those fools in the society of classes sent a great white Rolls Royce to pick him up and drive him around that terrible, dirty town, where a few sooty men rose up from the ground to walk home in silence and glare at the rich gentleman who was probably the cause and benefactor of their misery. He told me about it in sadness, and told me not to forget the simple, uneducated founder of our family who had the courage to move to America to find a better life. He told me never to forget where we came from.

Then, exactly at the peak of his accomplishments, just before he retired and looked forward to time for lots of golf for the first time in his life, he was told he was going to die, but probably not for years as the disease slowly wore away at him. He played the game with passion to the very end without changing his demeanor or his attitude. In the final days he told me it was coming, about the only time we had a private and personal conversation. Gone to our own worlds, neither of us had discovered the value of such things with each other. I had just come from my years as a fighter pilot, I had lost friends, and my culture of war and focus was to shove the wreckage aside and keep on going.

He said we were not going to cry, and he said take care of your Mother. And, that was that. Two tough guys who never felt they needed each other or knew how . I didn’t tell him how much I loved and respected him, and he never told me he was proud of me for all the things I had done. When I came home from Vietnam, and I took him to watch the launch of a flight of the mighty roaring fighter I had flown for so many years, the greatest machine every operated by man, the squadron of 60 strong men I was leading, he looked at me in a certain way and kind of nodded his head, and I knew he understood, and it didn’t need to be said. I had not followed him down the fairway. I had, as Frost said, chosen a different road, the one less traveled, and it made all the difference for me. I watched the color drain from his strong face the moment he died, and took my Mother home in silence. The church was full. The company died. The golf transcends.

Despite all the lonely weekends – Mom even learned to play the game a little, but rarely with him, of course – she loved and supported and respected him as much as any wife could. Because he was a man of character and kindness who directed it at her whenever he could, they had a long and happy marriage. They had met in a Woolworth store, she behind the candy counter, he bringing her boxes, smiling at her shyness. They had done it all together, all the way to the top, and she knew the golf was as much a part of him as her beloved children were of her. I have no doubt that he told her he couldn’t have done it without her.

Integrity for all of us, not just those with responsibility, is more than just honesty; it is the consistency of thought, word and deed. Say what you think and do what you say. Think a lot about it, and build it into a diamond-hard core over a lifetime so you will be ready when the inevitable challenges come. Near the end of his career, Dad was the District Manager in Philadelphia, with about eight states under his control. He received a notice that his new Assistant Manager had been assigned, who happened to be the son of a member of the board of directors. He was not qualified, it was nepotism, pure as can be. So, Dad called up the president and refused to accept the appointment. It would not be good for the company. He thought he would be fired, despite his 35 years in the firm. Instead, the board realized what they had. They withdrew the order, and he was promoted to Executive Vice President a few months later. I know he didn’t have to think about it for a minute, couldn’t have accepted that innocent, unknown man into a job he couldn’t handle any more than he would have accepted a man of poor character into his foursome on the golf course, no matter what his handicap.

Each of us finds our own character. It sometimes takes a very long time on a winding road strewn with errors and challenges. Mine was built in Vietnam, when I faced my responsibilities, and in my marriage to a good woman who taught me much, but not enough. But, the best way to do it is to have a strong leader to emulate, and to keep on trying and building, and always to refuse to quit when the going gets tough. If you keep your self-respect, you can do anything. That’s what I’m still doing, because I know that is how Arnie did it, and how my Dad did it, and now even how my strong children are doing it. If my Dad were here now, I think we would finish that conversation. I know now I am going to have one with my children long before the chance is gone. Step by step, shot by shot, we are going to win.

Hungarian Capitalism: Budapest Week Newspaper

John@CanFighter.com — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:39:00 GMT

Hungarian Capitalism
One of a Series on Hungary's Involvement in European Institutions
by John Roberts
Budapest Week, Associate Publisher, Political Columnist

A Fighter Pilot's Christmas

John@CanFighter.com — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:32:00 GMT

A Fighter Pilot’s Christmas

by John Roberts
Written on Casbar, the Chat Room of:
The Red River Valley Fighter Pilot’s Association.
December 25, 1999

Now it’s Christmas again and, in my personal tradition of the past two decades, I always think of the three families I no longer have––my parents, my ex-wife and children, and my fellow Fighter Pilots. It is the time to be alone and be silent and think of those who gave me and changed me the most, whom I never repaid and cannot erase. It is not guilt, for it is not healthy to carry that too long. It is a more positive thing, a warm and self-confident recognition that I owe what I am to others more than to myself. Of many, it is the closest connection between my individuality and all humanity, which a sane man must build and nurture at all costs. Lose that, and all is lost.

The Fighter Pilot concept and experience are not just influence or profession or way of life. It is so intense, because of the nature of the effort and the completeness of the concentration required, it is so embedded in your brain and personality, if you really are one, that it is your definition. Those others who feel the same, and that is a small group surrounded by imposters, affect each other like brothers from the womb.

I have told you before that I decided to be a Fighter Pilot at 15, and it took 20 years before I was flying combat over the four countries of Southeast Asia. Perhaps because it took so long, was so uncertain, and required so much of me, it became much more a part of me than others for whom it was an easier, faster, more casual process. A natural part of that was that I wanted to be the best, nothing less, or I would have felt that my life and accomplishment were terribly incomplete. For the Fighter Pilot, excellence is not just a goal; it is self-respect and survival. And, it is promotion up the slippery, competitive pole that I climbed until I was leading a NATO fighter squadron four years later.

And so, one day in 1970 after a year and a half of combat, I took myself alone one afternoon to the big briefing room at Korat, Thailand. Just me and that nice, old dawg, and the memories of those who had been there, with that same dawg, three years before. I once wrote a book about all the fighter pilots who had flown combat in the twentieth century, and I concluded that the bravest and greatest of them were the men who had sat in that room, and the similar one over at Takhli, from 1965 to 1968, and who had flown their great and vulnerable F-105 war machines into the cauldron of North Vietnam around Hanoi known as Package Six. It takes nothing away from the carrier pilots of Midway or the RAF pilots of the Battle of Britain, or any others, to say that the Thud Drivers of Rolling Thunder were the greatest Fighter Pilots who ever lived, and died. We all know why, no need to repeat it here.

I had talked to some before I came, I had read Jack Broughton’s book and the others, I had heard the legends of Risner and Hasler and the rest. I had put myself in the cockpit and tried to imagine what they had done against the missiles and the MiGs and the ground fire and the politicians. I remembered the film clip where the guy had finished his hundred from this place and was standing at his going-home party and holding the squadron photo his comrades had given him. He was crying, and then he smashed the glass and wood into pieces on the table, cutting his hand, and choked out the words: “I don’t need this to remember you guys.”

So, there I was, in the middle of Southeast Asia, the middle the war, the middle of my Fighter Pilot career, the middle of an insane bombing halt, remembering the greatest Fighter Pilots, remembering those who never came back to this base or their friends or their families. And, I realized that I was never going to be like them. I was never going to kill a MiG or go Downtown or be the absolute best. I didn’t have the flying time or the ultimate combat experience, and such things are just so much ego anyway; so it was just as well as the war and sacrifice grew meaningless.

But, the final recognition that I had reached my limit, as had my country, was a painful and discouraging experience that eventually led me out of the Air Force. I had already extended my tour to be there, and all I was doing was getting shot at while killing jungle snakes and moving mud. My country didn’t really need me any more. So, I decided not to extend again and go back to my family and forget it.

Before I left that room thirty years ago, however, I took a few more minutes and I thought about the men who sat there and never came back. I thought about their attitudes and courage and spirit, and I thought about their willingness to go back again and again, 100 times, against the odds, because not to have done so would have been the greatest betrayal of their lives and their comrades and their ungrateful country.

For the rest of my life, they, the lost ones, are the images who guide me and tell me to carry on and keep fighting and remember. I was not one of them, but they are a part of me that will never darken, that will sustain my spirit and my happiness. I live for them as much as for myself, because we are one in the pantheon of warriors who sacrificed their gentleness to carry the world another painful step forward.

John Roberts
Budapest, Hungary

Shortly after I posted this in December 2007, I received a request to place it on a fighter pilot website, and it was sent to one of the F-105 pilots who flew as I described. Their kind response:

John,

Thank you very much, Sir!

Your experiences are incredible, and I know your story will be enjoyed by many visitor's to my site. Incidentally, I already forwarded it to an F-105 pilot friend of mine who did 100 Missions North in 1967 - and he was both touched and impressed by your story... see below

"Gary,

Thanks! That is truly an excellent piece.

It expresses so eloquently the deep feelings I continue to have about my flying career in general, and my 100 missions in the F-105 in particular! My combat over North Vietnam was the single most profound and defining period in my life, and John Roberts explains WHY!

I wish I had John's way with words.then maybe I could better explain to my children why their "dear Old Dad" continues to call himself a "fighter pilot" so long after his flying days have ended. Maybe they will understand from John's words why one doesn't stop being a fighter pilot.you just ARE one, it didn't just begin and then end.it just always was.and always will be!

Just like a good neighbor friend of mine says - there aren't any "former Marines" - there are only "retired Marines"! BIG difference! Same for fighter jocks!

I'm really surprised that I had never seen that before. Thanks very much for sending it!

Best,

Paul"

John, thanks very much again!!!!!

Very Respectfully,

Gary

Political Article No. 1, Budapest Week Newspaper

John@CanFighter.com — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:31:00 GMT

Political Article about Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn

by John Roberts, Associate Publisher and Political Columnist

Budapest Week Newspaper, 1995

Book: The Fighter Pilot's Handbook: Introduction

John@CanFighter.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:52:00 GMT

Introduction
The Fighter Pilot's Handbook
by John Roberts
Published, 1992, in Great Britain, Australia, the United States and Canada
Arms & Armour Press, London and Sterling Publishing, New York

Introduction

As with every profession, the fraternity of fighter pilots has its own special history, character, literature, ideology, standards, ideals, procedures, equipment and heroes. This collection is a sampling from the body of writings and illustrations - a flavour of pages, pictures and thoughts from a vast encyclopaedia which grows ever larger.
Above all, it is a book for fighter pilots. It is a compilation of a few of the things that I wish had been collected in one place when I was in the profession. And now that I am not, this is a book that I will always enjoy picking up. You could say that I put it together as much for myself as for anyone else, for this represents the life and ideals which were once my guiding force.
And it is, of course, not just a book for fighter pilots, but for all those who enjoy their story, admire their lives and respect their profession. For simple adventure and interest, there are few better images.
If you have known a fighter pilot, the chances are you knew someone with spirit, who approached the world positively and who was comfortable with himself. The man who masters himself and his aeroplane does not always master the other elements of his life, perhaps because he devotes himself so singlemindedly to his flying. Sometimes the drive and exuberance needed by his profession are out of place in the mortal world and outsiders find him a bit odd. Whatever the case, this book may help you to understand him.
But, no matter who you are, this book will tell you something about one of mankind's most admirable defenders, one who has been given a romantic role and a separate place in the pantheon of good, brave men.

Book: Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight: Introduction

John@CanFighter.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:51:00 GMT

Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight
A Positive Guide for Patients, Survivors, Caregivers and Loved Ones

I. Introduction

Cancer is combat. The warrior ethos applies.
––John Roberts

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
––The Bible: II Timothy 4

Fight to fly, fly to fight, fight to win.
––Top Gun Motto

For our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the best way to conduct our lives.
––Plato, The Republic

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.
––Helen Keller

Every man, every civilization, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment of a man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man.
––J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, 1973

If you have cancer, you must fight. You fight to stay alive, but also for much more. If you win the fight, you have added another new life to your old one. Even when you are prolonging your life or sure to die, you are still fighting for the other things, just as important: you are fighting for self-respect and dignity; you are fighting for peace and understanding; you are fighting for the ultimate reconciliation and love with your family and your spirituality. These are difficult challenges in the midst of your illness, but achieving these goals will give greater meaning to your life and overshadow the experience of dying.
This book is addressed in tone and style to the patient diagnosed with cancer. It makes no difference where you are in that process, even if you are probably cured or have many years to live. Whatever finally causes your death, this book will help you prepare, fight and eventually accept death in peace and dignity.

This book is also for everyone else in the world of cancer: doctors, nurses, researchers, caregivers and loved ones, for their focus must not only be on the disease and its treatment but also on the patient who needs their help in the fight. The intent here is to explain and encourage the fighting spirit, strength and attitude that will contribute to greater quality and quantity of life. Everyone must work together as a team to make this happen.

Since the majority of people with cancer will be cured or die of something else, there is much in this book to help minimize the effects on one’s normal life while also preparing for the possibility of a recurrence. There are so many roads from diagnosis to death, whatever the cause, that one must be extremely flexible and versatile in dealing with whatever comes along. Eventually, death must be faced and fought, even if not from cancer.

For most of us, the subject of death should be faced squarely rather than denied, although not necessarily immediately while hope is prominent. Once this is done, the patient and those giving care, support and love may then deal with the issues and advice in this book that will make the entire process of living with cancer and the possibility of dying from it much easier. In most cases, ignoring the reality of impending death makes the remaining life, however long, more difficult. It is possible, indeed essential, to be realistic while maintaining hope and optimism.

Fighting cancer does not necessarily require that you carry on a belligerent and tough fight to the exclusion of a peaceful acceptance at the end. At some point, however long or brief the final acquiescence, I believe there is a valuable reward in using one’s spirituality to ease the final days. We might say that, as a fighter, you do not simply give up and let go, but rather design the end of the fight with your mental comfort in mind, whatever that may be.

Everyone in the cancer world is trying to do a better job of helping patients live, and helping them die as they wish. And, as I pass through this unique world, I have seen that almost everyone could do a better job of this, not only for the patient, but for themselves. There is no school for this for most of us. Even some trained and experienced doctors still have difficulty in dealing with it, for they must try to balance their compassion with the need to maintain their own unemotional state of mind over years of contact with the intense emotions of a multitude of dependant patients whom they do not know very well.

If you are a member of the world of cancer, professional or loved one, but not a patient, I ask you to consider your overall ability and motivation to help the patient try to prolong the quantity and increase the quality of life. Perhaps something in this book will help you to improve that, and to use your knowledge to motivate the patient to actively participate in, and, in many cases, to lead the fight.

If you are a patient, regardless of your condition or time remaining, I ask you draw from this book whatever you can find that will help you fight the disease aggressively and positively. There are enough thoughts here, mine and otherwise, that I know you can find something useful and motivating. If you can, I want you to take the lead, to take advantage of all the forces around you, and to build your own strength to lead yourself. Every leader must first command self before attempting to command others.

Those who are not cured will always be on the lookout for the symptoms of debility in those organs subject to the cancer and the body as a whole. As that progresses, there will be ups and downs, good times and bad, and the will to fight will come under increasing assault. Each person will reach a point where it seems certain that all hope is gone, and each person will have to decide when to accept this and whether or not to “rage” against it until all life is gone. Many, who have fought bravely and steadily, will finally decide that it is time to find peace in the short time remaining. Fighters can do this with self-respect, for it also has an important purpose.

Weekly Financial Column No. 2, Budapest Week Newspaper

John@CanFighter.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:20:00 GMT

Sample No. 2 of:

Weekly Investment Column
Budapest Week Newspaper
Budapest, Hungary

Written weekly
for over one year.

Front Page Article, Times of London, Gulf War

John@CanFighter.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:38:00 GMT

Front Page Article

The Times of London

The Gulf War, 1991

Mr. Roberts also served as a Gulf War Analyst for BBC-TV

Book Review: When the Focus Is on Care (Cancer)

John@CanFighter.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:54:00 GMT

See the Book Review section of our website: www.CanFighter.com

Book Review by John Roberts
Published on Amazon

When the Focus Is on Care: Palliative Care and Cancer

Kathleen M. Foley, M.D., Editor
Atlanta: American Cancer Society, 2005, 337 pp.
The American Cancer Society publishes a wide range of books on cancer. This one was written by a variety of MDs, PhDs and other experts. Most cancer books are written by individual patients, doctors or good journalists. Those written by a highly-qualified group are unusual, thorough and valuable.

     This book focuses on the needs of the patient in the latter stages of the disease rather than the earlier phases of treatment and cure. As death becomes more visible and likely, the patient needs special care to maintain quality of life when cure is no longer possible and the success of treatments is fading. Other problems now must be dealt with: serious illness, new legal and financial matters, caregiving and all the heavy issues related to death and grief.

     The book is as much for caregivers as it is for patients. It is said that there should be caregivers for the caregivers, who go through many emotional, financial and activity management problems of their own. This book provides the expert information and advice that will help both patients and caregivers solve problems, maintain hope and positive attitudes and prepare for final days.

   Every year in America, more than 500,000 people die of cancer. Most of them will face the problems covered in this book. As I deal with my own cancer, survey the literature and research and write a book about my experience and how to fight the disease, this essential book rises to the top of my recommended list.

Fighter Pilot Column, Air Forces International

John@CanFighter.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:02:00 GMT

Regular Fighter Pilot Column

Air Forces International Magazine

Book Excerpts: Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight

John@CanFighter.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:53:00 GMT

Selections from a book in progress.

No more than three may be copied, with attribution.

For additional content, see the website: www.CanFighter.com

Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight:
A Positive Guide for Patients, Survivors, Caregivers and Loved Ones
by John Roberts

Death

Don’t let the fear of dying ruin the rest of your life.

––John Roberts

Regrets

Our life is a trail strewn with the memories of our mistakes and failures, a dangerous path we must not retrace or dwell on even as we carry along the hard, heavy lessons we must depend on as we go forward.

––John Roberts

Symptoms

Cancer is so pervasive, and initially so insidious, that if you don’t learn and actively look for early symptoms of many kinds of cancer, you may be too late and are committing long-term suicide. Early detection is the best prevention.

––John Roberts

Winning

The real winner knows that winning is a personal philosophy and a way of life that requires a quantum jump into a comprehensive, deeply embedded attitude and belief system. That system sees personal goals with a different vision that most others do not understand or feel the need to achieve. The real winner has developed a different kind of brain for overcoming difficulty and finding happiness with a mind that automatically pursues exceptional achievement with intense coordination and effort.

––John Roberts

Perseverance

The great leaders all say the same thing: The principle element of success, above all the others, is simple persistence: the determination and drive to refuse to quit and to keep going when you don't feel like it, when the obstacles are high and your morale is low. That is when the successful person breaks out of the pack and leaps over failure.

––John Roberts

Spirit

Spirit is the core of a person, visible in personality, but something much deeper in character and soul. It is as though the other meaning of the word, a supernatural being, inhabits some people and gives them that special fire.

––John Roberts

Future

It is wiser to think of the future as a road without end rather than the last house on the road.

––John Roberts

Solitude

Solitude is my greatest solace and my greatest strength, because that is when my mind is at its best.

––John Roberts

Responsibilities

Responsibility begins with clearly understanding and firmly accepting that YOU are and will be responsible and accountable. Only then can you meet your responsibilities to yourself and then successfully turn to fulfilling your responsibilities to others.

––John Roberts

Grief

It is enough for death to take one life, not two. Just as the dying must find peace before they go, the living must find peace afterward.

––John Roberts

Last Words

Last words are like last sex; you hope for something inspirational and that it might not be the last after all.
––John Roberts

Attitude

If you don’t learn to maintain a positive attitude throughout your life, stronger and stronger as you grow older, you have missed a large part of what you could have done or enjoyed. You will never know how many people or situations turned their back on you, refusing to associate with negativism.

––John Roberts

Time

You will never have a more challenging and rewarding time management problem than in the time before you die.

––John Roberts

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is Act I, not the final curtain.

––John Roberts

Living

The more you live, the less you die.

––John Roberts

Heart

No heart ever broke down under the weight of its greatest qualities. But, its metaphysical development requires just as much consistent effort as the cardiovascular.

––John Roberts

Self-Respect

The damage to your past performance from fault and failure is not as serious as the damage you allow to your self-respect.

––John Roberts

Spirituality

Spirituality is one of the primary qualities that distinguishes us from all the other creatures. The wonder of it is that it is so broad and self-defining that every one of us can build one and benefit from it in any way we wish so long as it does no harm to others.

––John Roberts

Afterlife

Afterlife is not an escape; if you believe, and desire its benefits, it becomes your responsibility to conduct your life and its transition with a peaceful and deserving modesty.

––John Roberts

Love

Here I am. Please take care. I will give you everything I have. I expect the same.

––John Roberts

Aging

Aging is putting the final touches of genius on a grand work of art, including painting over the earlier mistakes.

––John Roberts

The Great Adventure

An adventure is more than something new and risky. It is another muscle in your great heart.
––John Roberts

Weekly Financial Column No. 1, Budapest Week Newspaper

John@CanFighter.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:51:00 GMT

Sample No. 1 of:

Weekly Investment Column
Budapest Week Newspaper
Budapest, Hungary

Written weekly
for over one year.

Downhill in St. Moritz and Uphill in Slovakia

John@CanFighter.com — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:47:00 GMT

Adventure Holidays

Downhill in St. Moritz

and Uphill in Slovakia

Travel Article

by John Roberts

Published in The Budapest Sun Newspaper, March 7, 1996
(John Roberts is a freelance writer and the Managing Director of Csiky Brokers in Budapest.)

If you're looking for something totally different to fill your leisure time, here are two exciting and physically- demanding adventures. Any reasonably fit and self- confident individual should be up to the challenge; but it does take some conditioning and planning. At 59 years old, I had never tried either sport before, but I loved them both. You will, too.

The point of both experiences is that you have to master your fear. Nothing grabs your concentration like hurtling alone down the twisting ice run on a tiny sled in Switzerland's richest resort; or climbing walls of snow and rock in mid-winter, in the high mountains of Slovakia.

St. Moritz and the High Tatra Mountains are the epitome of winter sport in their regions, both within a day's travel from Budapest by train or car. Of course, both locations also offer the finest in skiing.

The Cresta Run, like the great Olympic bobsled run it parallels nearby, is a classic, U-shaped chute of solid ice, a mix of hard turns and accelerating runs, on which you have to steer your tiny metal sled face-down the mountain against the clock. Speed from the top reaches 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour), but beginners may want to start from a lower station, dragging their metal toes to scrape through the dangerous curves until experience and the necessary bravado encourages them to go for it.

The Cresta is a private men's club. It is Old World, rather snobbish internally, but friendly to outsiders who go by the rigid safety and social rules, pay for the unique privilege and enjoy the camaraderie of international adventurers.

In my previous six decades, I had never set foot on anything higher than a Colorado bar stool. But, recently I picked up the mountain-climbing dream. The Great Alps--a mile straight up--are too much for any beginner. Maybe next year. So I decided on Europe's second-most beautiful mountain range: the High Tatra Mountains of Slovakia.

My guide and I slowly worked up to the task. "Don't treat me like a tourist," I told him, "because I've been running for months in preparation." So the first day, he put me on the points of my boot crampons, the rope and the snow wall. "Up there?" I said, not seeing anything in the way of steps.

Yes. No preamble; we just went up the wall outside of town, and there I was, teeth full of snow and nothing but space beneath my heel--an instant mountain climber. "Think about the wall, not the fall," I told myself.

Then, after increasing peaks and conditioning, we tackled Lomnicke Stit, Slovakia's second highest--and most beautiful--mountain. Up we went, climbing mostly rock steps and stomping stairs in the snow wall. My guide led, one rope up. I watched each step, plunging my ice ax into the side of the mountain before moving.

We took care of each other, both vulnerable and responsible. My guide urged me on as nasty weather closed around the peak. But, I stopped again and again, looking down over the mountains, the valleys and the ages of my life.

I love the mountains, and up there I reached a dual high of brain and body. The Eiger. The Matterhorn. Yes, I will, I will, before it's too late.