Air Force · 20 Years · F-111 & F-15E Weapons Officer — now a Christian fantasy/sci-fi author
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Terrence Rotering grew up an only child in Milwaukee, the son of an Air Force recruiter, with two posters on his bedroom wall: the F-111 and the brand-new F-15E Strike Eagle. He had no say in which airframe he'd end up flying — and he ended up flying both, twenty years in the back seat as a weapons systems officer, first the F-111 and then the Strike Eagle.
His first assignment was Lakenheath, England, during the Cold War, deploying across Europe and to Korea whenever tensions flared. He was slated to go if Iraq kicked off, but Lakenheath's squadron went instead — deterrence, not combat, was the shape of his whole career. In the jet, that meant full weapons and navigation controls, 9-G basic fighter maneuvers, and, in his words, planting his head into the avionics because at nine G's it weighs 180 pounds.
After the cockpit came the staff side: five years at Air Combat Command, then fifteen years as a civilian government servant working NORAD and NORTHCOM out of Colorado Springs — continental air defense, plus counter-cartel operations along the southern border.
In 2005, with his kids young, he wrote them a 150-page story just to show them that anybody can have a voice. He set it aside for fifteen years, then picked it back up in 2024 and turned it into a full series — the Chronicles of Trinian — now four trilogies, roughly fourteen books, built around a good-versus-evil chessboard spanning 10,000 years and seven dimensions. No bad language, no sex — clean enough to hand a kid, and built to smuggle the gospel in front of readers who'd never pick up a Bible.
What stuck with me most is that his books actually sound like something I'd read. I'm an avid reader — I lean toward CIA-thriller and Star Wars-style fantasy stuff — and Terrence's series might scratch that same itch. That's a real shift for a guest: he went from an interesting conversation to an author I'm actually going to go check out.
On the books: A faith-based fantasy and sci-fi series that runs from sword battles to time travel and spaceships, clean enough to hand a kid — that's a hard thing to find on a shelf right now. He built it for his own kids in 2005 and it grew into four trilogies. That alone moved him from a guest I enjoyed talking to into an author whose books I'm going to go pick up.
On the God winks: The Tophet story and the run of 3:16 coincidences were something to just sit with — a place he invented in his books turned out to be a real site in ancient Israel, and then a gold coin worth $2,316, a book that landed at 316 pages, a granddaughter born on March 16th. I've always believed God has a way of showing you things, and I was right there with him on it.
On the writing advice: I asked him for advice for new writers and he went deep — start with a purpose, work backwards from the maze, get your best ideas walking the dogs instead of staring at a keyboard. That's real, usable advice for anyone who's got a story sitting unwritten, and I'm glad he gave it in full.
On the aviation we didn't get to: We share the aviation world — I controlled the fighters from the ground, he flew the jets doing it from the back seat. I could have sat there and talked air missions with him all day. But he came to talk about the books and his faith, so I gave him the room. Wish we'd had more time for it.
Takeaway: If you've ever thought about writing your own story down, his blueprint — purpose first, then walk it out before you sit at the keyboard — is worth the watch on its own. And if you're the praying kind, keep an eye out for your own God winks. I have.
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