Background

Philip was born on July 31st, 1969 to the Blackwood family – father Luke and mother Annie. He also has a twin sister, Linette, that was born soon after him. The Blackwoods were from Georgia where Luke worked as a surgeon in the local hospital, while Annie was a member of the Air Force. Philip as a child was always imaginative – he always like thinking about scenarios that could happen to him and was very inquisitive as a child. He once asked his mother – „Does the color of the sky mean anything special to you ?“ – to which she replied „When I close my eyes, in my dreams… the sky is a deep, dark blue.“ – a reference to her love of flying. Philip was always a very sociable person, from a young age he would always make lots of friends in school. He gave his heart to everything that was asked of him – in swimming, he became the state champion, in spelling contests, he always won gold, in school he always had to have straight As. As Philip matured he looked up to his mother, more and more – having become the first female test pilot of the F-22 Fighter Jet was a great honor for her and Philip adored her because of it. When he turned 17, Philip followed in her footsteps and enlisted in the Air Force. It took Philip 3 years before he found his calling in the Air Force – Pararescue. It took Philip 3 more years to finish the „pipeline“ as it's called – before he finally earned his maroon beret and officially became a PJ or a Pararescue Jumper. From then on, Philip continued to improve on his skills and worked to perfect his craft. Having been assigned to the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron, Philip had to move away from his home state of Georgia to where the unit was based – McChord Air Force Base in Washington. The move from Georgia to Washington was a little harder on Philip than he expected, but he powered through – determined to not give in and finish what he started. One major part of his training was serving as an EMT in a local hospital – in which Philip realized he made the right choice of profession – saving lives is something he really enjoyed. Everything would soon change for Philip as his unit was deployed during Operation Just Cause – it would be the first time Philip saw action – during one of his rescue missions, his team was ambushed by regime troops which managed to bring down their rescue helicopter. Philip and his team members distinguished themselves by fighting off the enemy troops until rescue arrived while providing care for injured – for this, Philip and his team members were awarded the Bronze Star. Following Operation Just Cause, Philip stayed in the Air Force and continued his service as a Pararescueman. In 1990, when the Gulf War began, his unit was deployed again. One of the missions his team was deployed to, was rescuing a Marine squad that was ambushed by an RPG attack. While working to save one of the injured, Philip heard the friends of the injured man calling him „Kneecap“ – paying little mind to his name, Philip did his best to stabilize the man and quickly evacuate him. Most of his service during the Gulf War was much of the same – rescuing soldiers that were injured by roadside ambushes. After his return from Iraq, Philip learned that his sister, Linette became a surgeon. Thankfully, Philip was given leave so he could visit his family and congratulate his sister. During his visit he started pondering if he wants to remain in the Air Force, possibly seeking employment as an EMT to be closer to his sister, however – he put those thoughts at ease, his work as a PJ to him, was too important – he could not bear to leave his second family. The family reunion didn't last long however, as Philip had to leave to return back to base. The following years were quite uneventful, due to no major conflicts taking place. Philip continued training and working with his unit to better his skills, until 1999 – when his unit was again deployed – this time to Kosovo. Fortunately for him, his deployment didn't last long – his unit wasn't tasked with a single mission, most of his time spent in base – training. There was one thing that was curious for Philip – one evening he overheard two UN armored crew members from Great Britain discussing some sort of Project that dealt with contingencies in the case of a world ending scenario. Philip didn't pay much attention to their conversation, but he always kept it in the back of his mind – was that something he would like to be involved with ? Time will tell. After his deployment, Philip took leave to have some time for himself to destress and relieve the constant pressure from his work. Looking for options, he decided he would want to visit the Caribbean and booked a room on the cruise ship Undada-C that was departing from New York. Little did Philip know how his world was about to change….