Prodigal Father – Colonel Heath Bottomly

As a young officer in the USAF in the early 1980s, I had the privilege of meeting Colonel Heath Bottomly. Colonel Bottomly is the author of the book, Prodigal Father. Now most of you know the parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible. A young man asks his father for his inheritance “now” and goes off and blows it on partying. When all of his money, and “friends” are gone, he comes back home to his father and asks to live as a servant in his father’s home, but his father greets him, kisses him, dresses him in finery and throws a huge party for him because his son was lost, but now he is found again.

Colonel Bottomly was a "man’s" pilot. His exploits are the stuff of which major motion pictures are made from. From what I gathered about him from reading his book, he looked upon "religion" as something that is good to have, but not something that is life changing or something to base your life’s journey on.

He was a man destined for major leadership positions within the USAF. He was really self-assured and cocky as a rooster in a barn yard. However, he had an encounter with God who uses Colonel Bottomly’s own son as the tool through which God would change the Colonel’s life forever.

As I read the book, I felt a sense of joy in that even though Colonel Bottomly was oh so sure of his ability as a pilot and leader of men, that through God’s intervention, he was brought back to the fact that indeed, he was only human and the accoutrements of this life e.g. wealth, power, adoration etc., are fleeting at best and downright destructive at worst.

Give this book a read. It is action packed, and inspirational.