"Land of the brave"

"Home of the... good sweet jebus!!!"

“I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically,” Mr. Couch said.

For that job, he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in balloons, a parachute in case anything went wrong, a handheld Global Positioning System device with altimeter, a satellite phone, and two GPS tracking devices.

Mr. Couch's wife, Susan, called him crazy: “It's never been a dull moment since I married him.”

*