Then & now

Airman, July, 2004 by Chuck Widener

When 23-year-old Scott Kapanke was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1995, his life was reduced to the flip of a coin. Heads, he lives. Tails, he dies. The cancer had spread through his stomach and chest, which contained 20 to 30 tumors in addition to the one he found on his neck.

"I thought, 'Why me?'" he said in a 1997 interview with Airman "Before all this, I hadn't a care in the world. I was having a blast partying almost every night. I felt invicible."

After near-lethal doses of chemotherapy and two bone marrow transplants, he said although he had accepted death, it was a big relief to learn the cancer was gone. It only took the medically retired Airman about a year and a half to battle back from his bout with cancer and rejoin the Air Force. He was cleared for duty by a medical board and reinstated in May 1997.

Now Staff Sgt. Kapanke is making the most of his time. His lifestyle made an about-face after battling cancer. He welcomes change and doesn't "sweat the small stuff." He continues the routine of saying a silent prayer of thanks each morning, and the once rowdy youth is now married with three children. He just completed a tour as a mechanic with the Air Force Thunderbirds and is preparing to become a C-17 Globemaster III mechanic at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. The cancer has shown no signs of returning.

"To be honest, I don't have the spare time to worry about that," he said. "I survived cancer. I didn't die."