Jay Straub was born and grew up in Amarillo, Texas . At the age of twelve a friend, whose father was a retired Air Force Colonel, got him interested in flying and that is when he took his first flying lesson. At sixteen years of age when he got his drivers license and car, he became an “airport bum” and proceeded to get his private pilot certificate and build his flying hours to get his instrument rating, multi-engine rating, and commercial pilot certificate. He was hired at nineteen years of age as the Chief and “only” Pilot for an oilfield drilling contractor in Pampa, Texas, and he was hired at American Airlines in May 1986. Jay and another 1975 graduate of Amarillo High School learned to fly at the same time at Tradewind Airport in Amarillo. Jay went the civilian, corporate-Airline route, and the friend Colonel Rick Husband went the military, Air Force-NASA route. It was a very sad morning and afternoon for Jay, the day that Rick and his crew were lost as Columbia re-entered just south of Dallas-Ft. Worth. As that day went on though, it brought great joy to see Rick’s strong faith in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ being broadcast over the news around the world. Even though that was such a sad day for many families, friends, and our nation as a whole, Jay knows that faith in Jesus Christ, and our willingness to persevere under trials, will be blessed with God’s mercy and grace. He has been blessed with divine intervention from God in a couple of aircraft related experiences, and he was blessed with miracle after miracle when he experienced a severe traumatic brain injury from a twelve foot fall headfirst into the concrete at DFW Airport on November 22, 1999. Those miracles were the answer to hundreds of prayers that were offered for him by loving friends, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ. Jay lost the career as Captain for American Airlines, but he has been blessed to spend the last seven years participating in trips to the Mid-East sharing his personal testimony about God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ our Lord. He gave his first public testimony, August 2002, in the Baptist Church in Gaza City.
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