Reported by L.A. Rivera
Defining the Cannabis Boardroom
Blowback from military airplane transforms the life JM Balbuena
J
ohann Marie Balbuena was sure she was going to work as an Aviation Technician that day. It was business as usual for the Navy Veteran. They call her JM for short, and she remembers walking on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, USS John C. Stennis, which was deployed to the Middle East. Suddenly she felt a booming gush of wind from an airplane that plunged her into the air. Balbuena’s shirt was literally ripped off her chest as she 22
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hit the flight deck like a rag doll. The military veteran recalled the incident like it happened yesterday. “We were headed to the Middle East on an aircraft carrier during my first deployment in 2012,” Balbuena told Cannabis Inc. Magazine. “I was working on the slide deck, doing my usual inspections before and after the planes land.” She paused to take a deep breath with palpable angst – then she continued. ”And I was walking behind the plane and it went up on power, and
I was blown away by the jet blast.” She paused again. “I landed 16-feet away from the jet, and pretty much hurt myself.” Balbuena acknowledged that the military officer who accidentally powered up the engine was her commanding officer: “He happened to be the pilot. He was the one who blew me away from the propeller wind that threw me into the air,” she said. She also said she suffered a concussion and temporarily lost the ability to speak English. ”For twen-