Recording intelligenceAI-generated brief · check the source for context

Kagan Gill: From Ejection to Healing

2:59:47 recording · EN · 2 speakers

Listen to the original

Listen to the episode

Brief overview

A Navy fighter pilot survived a 695 mph ejection and rebuilt his body and life.

  1. The ejection is off the survival chartThe NATOPS survivable envelope for the Martin-Baker seat does not even cover his angle and airspeed.
  2. The cold water that should have killed him saved himDoctors said the 37-degree water kept him from bleeding out and helped preserve his brain function.
  3. He came off the pills without the doctorsEvery doc told him to stay on the meds, so he titrated off over a dozen of them himself.
Executive Summary AI
  • Kagan Smirth Gill, a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet pilot, joins Sean to tell how he survived the fastest ejection in naval aviation history during a 2014 dogfighting training exercise off Virginia Beach.1:29
  • On the last fight of the day his jet hit the G bucket and stopped turning, and two seconds before impact, at 0.95 indicated Mach and about 695 miles per hour near sea level, he pulled the ejection handle.49:39
  • Hitting the air at that speed ripped off his helmet and caused a traumatic brain injury, a broken C1, bilateral humerus fractures that cut his brachial artery, and open tib-fib fractures; he spent almost two hours in 37-degree water before rescue swimmer Cheech cut him free.51:20
  • He arrived at Norfolk General with an 87-degree core temperature, went through over a dozen trauma surgeries and two weeks in an induced coma, and woke paralyzed to be told he would never walk, never use his arms, and never fly again.1:11:29
  • He weaned himself off more than a dozen medications, including 2,400 milligrams a day of gabapentin, and a captain told him that if he got his body working again the Navy would put him back in a Super Hornet.1:26:36
Key Quote
“It's the fastest survived ejection in the Navy.”
— Kagan1:07:56
Key Quote
“I mean, you survived an ejection that you probably should have never survived.”
— Sean1:09:10
Key Quote
“God still needed me for something.”
— Kagan1:09:43