A Single Candle

Thought for the day: You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake. (sigh)

[Morguefile]

 If you folks in the southeastern part of the United States happened to see a massive glow in the sky yesterday, fear not. It wasn't Armageddon, or anything. The blaze atop my birthday cake just got a teensy bit out of control is all. (I TOLD Smartacus not to use a blow torch to light all those darned candles.) Anyhow, the fire department must be getting real tired of coming by the house every year to extinguish the bonfire, so I think we'll skip covering the cake with candles from now on. The truth is, I'm creeping ever closer to that age where there'll once again be a single candle on my cake, and everybody will tell me what a good girl I am if  I can summon enough hot air to blow it out in a single try.

Know what? Maybe it'd be better to skip the cake altogether, and just have a glass of wine.

Hey! I'm OLD. I can do that if I wanta.

Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.  [Stanislaw Jerry Lec]

                      (Too bad my work of art is being painted by Picasso...)

You don't stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing.  [Maurice Chevalier]      

I'm happy to report that my inner child is still ageless.  [Jane Broughton]

                                     

You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.  [George Burns]

So maybe we can't do a thing about getting older, but do you think a single candle can make much of a difference? I do. (For one thing, there's no need to call the fire department...)

Okay, I'm gonna be serious for a minute, because I want to tell you about a very special woman whose single candle radiated enough light to hold the powers of darkness at bay. Her name was Irena Sendler, and she truly embodied the Chinese proverb: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

[Wikipedia]

This is what she looked like in 1942, when the young Polish Catholic woman lived in German-occupied Warsaw. As a social worker and nurse, she was allowed to enter the Jewish ghetto. She saw their suffering first-hand, and knew that people of all ages were being  forcibly removed from their homes, never to return. And she also knew what the penalty was for trying to help them.

[Wikipedia]

She knew what the penalty was, because signs like this were posted all over Warsaw. 

These signs issued a clear warning that helping anyone leave the Jewish settlement without authorization was punishable by death.

And yet...

[credit: German Federal Archive]

And yet, the dark plight of the children tore at her heartstrings, and she had to DO something. As a member of the Zegota resistance movement, she smuggled 2500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto, provided them with false identities, and got them to a safe location... to private homes, to orphanages, to convents. She took the children out in ambulances, under the pretext that they were infected with typhus; she carried them out in tool boxes; she transported them in coffins. Whatever it took, she did it. One after another, desperate parents turned their beloved children over to her, a virtual stranger, in the hopes that their children would be spared from the horrors of living... and dying... in a concentration camp. Each child's name, Sendler recorded on paper, along with their new identities and locations. Then she tucked those papers into jars and buried them under an apple tree in her yard. Following the war, the information in those jars was used to reunite some of the families. Unfortunately, most of the parents were already gone, but thanks to Sendler and other members of the resistance, their children survived.

[Wikipedia]

In 1965, Israel recognized Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations, a designation honoring non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews. And risk her life, she did: Sendler was captured, tortured, and sentenced to death... and spared from execution by virtue of a bribe. The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations is part of the Yad Vashem complex on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem.

[Wikipedia]

At the entrance to the Garden stands the Tree of Irena Sendler. I don't know what kind of tree is it, but an apple tree would be perfect, wouldn't it?

[credit: Mariesz Kubik]

This picture, taken in 2005, shows Sendler with the grown-up versions of some of the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto during the war.

[credit: Mariesz Kubik]

In 2007, Sendler was presented with the Order of the Smile, an international award given by children to adults distinguished in their love, care, and aid for children. A year later, she passed away.

In 2009, Poland issued a commemorative coin in honor of three women. One was Irena Sendler, a woman who proved that one person... one candle burning brightly in the darkness... can indeemake a difference.

In a world full of darkness, in a world full of pain,

All it takes is a sparkle, all it takes is a flame,

To make joy out of sadness, to bring hope to a life,

Like the promise of the dawn

On a long winter's night.

[from the song Light One Candle, by Ronnie Spector]

                                       Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Let it shine! [Wikipedia]

For my birthday, a present for you guys. Sorta. Both e-versions of my books are on sale for 99 cents. Woo HOO. (I would've made them FREE, but those darned candles cost a lot of money, ya know...) Clicking on the book images in the sidebar will transport you to Amazon. U.S. Amazon, that is, but the book is also on sale in the U.K.

Counting Our Blessings

Thought for the day:  Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. [William Arthur Ward]

In the United States, we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. I suppose from an alien's point of view, some of the traditions associated with that holiday are a bit... strange. As an earthling, I think there's something a teensy bit strange about it, too. I mean, the idea of an annual holiday centered around the expression of gratitude sounds oh-so nice on the surface, but why isn't gratitude something we express every day? Isn't every day filled with blessings? Isn't every day a gift and a miracle? We don't need to shove bread up a turkey's butt  or stuff ourselves to the point of misery every day, but I think the world would be a better place, and we would be infinitely more content earthlings, if we made a conscious effort to express appreciation for the people and things in our lives and to give thanks for them... every day.

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. [Margaret Cousins]

A most memorable story of  gratitude comes from the life of Corrie ten Boom. During WWII, her family was sent to a concentration camp for aiding and hiding their Jewish neighbors. The tent Corrie slept in at the concentration camp was horrifically infested with fleas, and yet, as she explained in the book The Hiding Place, she was grateful for those fleas. She thanked God for those fleas every single day.

Most of us with pets have had to fight a flea infestation at one time or another, but if you've never experienced that particular brand of hell, let me tell you, their bite induces a claw-your-skin-off kind of maddening itch.

So how could anyone be honestly and humbly grateful for an out-of-control infestation of those hellish creatures?

Because their presence kept the guards away, which allowed her the freedom to conduct Bible studies and prayer meetings.

Astounding, isn't it? The Bible admonishes us to be grateful in all things, but I honestly don't think I could ever live up to that example set by Miss ten Boom. Even so, we should try. Maybe not to give thanks for fleas, exactly, but to appreciate the many blessings in our lives. That being said, I'm thankful for you guys. Really. You are all bright spots in my life, and I'm grateful we met through the wonders of the Internet. I'm thankful for humor, too, even if it's sometimes inappropriate. (My bad)

Okay, how about some silly Thanksgiving riddles? They aren't even inappropriate...

• What sort of glass should you use to serve cream of turkey soup? A goblet.
• What's Alan Alda's favorite Thanksgiving dish?  M*A*S*Hed potatoes.
• What do you call sweet potatoes that are very outspoken? Candid yams.
• If I have relatives with Mohawk haircuts, multiple facial piercings, and a bunch of tattoos, what should I serve them for dessert? Punk kin pie.
• Not only was my neighbor's turkey infected with salmonella, but she undercooked it.  Guess what all her guests suffered the next day? Yup, 'fraid so. The turkey trots.
• The local restaurant served overcooked turkey, lumpy gravy, and cold mashed potatoes. Know how they advertised it? As the blooperplate special.
• NYC is placing tall bleachers up and down Broadway so spectators can get a better view of what slightly renamed event? The May See Parade.
• What famous play about a Thanksgiving turkey was written by Henrik Ibsen? Hedda Gobbler. 

Okay, enough groaners for now. Time to count my blessings. Care to join me? Check out this video  It'll put ya in the right mood.

And these cartoons are only a little inappropriate...



           

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Odds and Ends

Thought for the day: If your odds 'n' ends drawer only has one item left in it, which is it... an odd or an end?

This blog always tends to be a bit on the eclectic side, but today, we're going all-out random by writing about four totally unrelated items. See, whenever I come across something that piques my interest, I write a note to self to remind me to dig a little deeper.

So... I dug... and this post is the result. (I hope you dig it!)

[wikipedia image, courtesy of David Iliff]

For the first item, we're going to visit a beautiful national park. Yosemite. This mountain formation is known as the Half Dome, because with its one sheer face and three smooth rounded sides, it kinda looks like a dome cut in half. Located 4737 feet (1444 meters) above the valley floor, it's quite the majestic sight, isn't it?

It's also a favorite target for intrepid mountaineers and rock climbers. In particular, there's a section known as the Thank God Ledge. Personally,  I'd be more inclined to call it the No Way in Hell Ledge, because there is NO WAY you'd ever find my butt up there.  I'm not even sure my fat feet would fit...

                                                           Care to take a peek?

Whew, huh? Although we wimps may consider the notion of putting one's life in danger by traversing a ledge that was clearly not designed for people to traverse, I'm sure those who do such a thing may consider us to be the odd ones.

[wikipedia]

Since some of you either live or have lived in parts of the country where these evil cacti grow, I'm sure you're familiar with them. (Hopefully, not too closely.) The proper name of this booger is cylindropuntia fulgida, but it's more commonly known as the teddy bear cholla. Awww! Sweet name, huh? I guess 'cause it looks so cute and cuddly...

[wikipedia]

Those thorns don't look all that cute and cuddly in this close-up shot, do they? This piece, detached from the cactus plant, demonstrates why it's also known as the jumping cholla. 

No, it doesn't actually jump... but I bet it's made plenty of people and animals jump. And holler.

And bleed.

These little pieces of the cacti are so loosely attached to the plant, lightly touching the plant makes them detach. Even the vibrations from someone foolish enough to walk too closely to it can set 'em free.

And they aren't nearly as easy to detach from human and animal flesh as they are from the plant.

[wikipedia]

The hymenopus coronatus, AKA the orchid mantis is much more friendly than that cactus. Unless you're an insect, that is.

Found in Southeast Asia, this mantis is pink and white with semi-opalescent flattened limbs that enable it to blend in beautifully with an orchid. It clings to the blossom with its rear legs and sways gently to attract flies and other insects. (AKA dinner)



                                      Even if you don't like bugs... isn't she a beauty?

[wikipedia]

We're going to end with a rather remarkable woman... Mary Ellis, who was the last surviving female pilot from WWII. She flew 76 different types of planes and delivered more than 1000 of them, but her favorite plane to fly was the Spitfire... which she flew solo. She passed away in July of this year... at the age of 101... and as you can see in the video, which was made just a few months before her death, she was still full of spit and vinegar.

No wonder the biography about her is titled A Spitfire Girl. (Author: Melody Foreman)

       Well, that's it for now. Odd enough collection for ya? (Never apologize for being different.)
Curiosity killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance. [Harry Lorayne]

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

The Artistry of War

Thought for the day: All warfare is based on deception. [Sun Tze, 545 BC-470 BC]

[image source: wikipedia]

The thought for the day comes from an ancient book, The Art of War, which was written many centuries ago by Sun Tze, a Chinese general, military strategist, philosopher and writer. That particular passage continues: Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Deception. It can win wars, and the more clever the deception, the more effectively it works. I reckon everybody's familiar with the classic tale of the Trojan Horse, but have you ever heard of World War II's Ghost Army?

Nope, they weren't literally a group of deceased spirits looking after the soldiers, but their behind-the-scenes top secret missions sure did save a lot of lives. I guess you could say they were... weapons of mass deception. (Sorry.) Their mission: to deceive the enemy, and their work was done in complete anonymity and without acknowledgement. In fact, their fellow soldiers didn't even know their unit existed, let alone what they did... until 1996, when the U.S. government declassified the existence of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. AKA the Ghost Army. Some of their missions remain classified today.

[source: National Archives]

Looking at this photo, you might think these guys possessed some kind of super strength. But nope, they weren't super-strong. In fact, the 1100 men of this unit were recruited from places like art schools and ad agencies. What the government wanted... what they needed... were artists, illustrators, actors, sound specialists, and radio experts. People with good minds and an active sense of creativity. The ability to create illusions and to think outside the box. Because they used inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio transmissions, and scripts that were worthy of a Cecil B. DeMille production.

[source: National Archives]

Staging more than twenty battlefield deceptions... that we know of... including the largest deception in military history, which they carried out on D-day, it's estimated that their ability to fool the Germans saved more than twenty thousand lives. With their hard work and ingenuity, their tactics made their small unit appear to be 30,000 strong.

[source: National Archives]

Here's one of their pieces of rubber artillery. Standard procedure was to inflate tanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks and airplanes and then camouflage them in such a way that German reconnaissance planes flying overhead could detect them. They created fake airfields, soldier bivouacs, (right down to laundry hanging on the clotheslines) motor pools, artillery batteries, and tank formations... all with a few hours notice.

On D-Day, their deception convinced the Germans that the attack was coming from Calais, which is about two hundred miles north of the actual attack site at Normandy.

[source: National Archives]

One of their fake planes.

[source: National Archives]

Even fake landing craft.

[source: National Archives]

Five hundred-pound speakers played an important part in their ruses, too. Prior to deploying to Europe, some Bell Labs engineers worked with a team from this unit to create state-of-the-art recordings of armored and infantry units at Fort Knox. Various mixtures of these sound effects would be blasted from these speakers to give the sonic deceptions they needed to create their auditory illusions.

They even transmitted what they called spoof radio. They conducted fake traffic nets, impersonating real operators from other units. Although Morse Code involves sending dots and dashes, each operator has a distinctive way of doing it, called his fist. These guys even knew how to impersonate an individual operators' fist, so the enemy wouldn't know the real operator... and his entire unit... were no longer in the area.



Lest you think I'm trying to romanticize war, I'm not. But what these guys did is remarkable, and now that part of their story has been told, I wanted to share it with you. What can I say? I'm a history nerd, and I thought this was a fascinating story. PBS did a documentary about them a few years, but I missed it. (Doggone it!) But here's a trailer for that show:

             Amazing story, isn't it? I wonder what else we don't know about World War II...?

                          Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. [John McCain]

Wars are poor chisels for carving out a peaceful tomorrow. [Martin Luther King, Jr.]

If we don't end war, war will end us. [H.G. Wells]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. [Dwight D. Eisenhower]

Hate war... but love and appreciate those who fight and sacrifice in them for our benefit. [me]

What a Way to Go!

Thought for the day: According to research, an average of forty thousand Americans are injured by toilets each year.

Forty thousand??? Well, that stinks, doesn't it?

Supposedly, these injuries occur in a multitude of rather creative ways. Lots of little boys sustain a major owie if the lid unexpectedly slams down when they're learning to use the big boy toilet, and I bet a bunch of 'em revert to a the-hell-with-that diaper-only attitude afterwards. But there are also cases of adults (even sober ones!) literally falling from commodes, of others pinching their bottoms in broken seats, and even instances of bites unceremoniously delivered to their buttocks by lurking black widow spiders. Then there's the folks who sit on the pot for so long... reading a book, working a puzzle, whatever... that their legs fall asleep, and they fall flat on their faces when they try to stand. (Technically, I don't think those injuries should be blamed on the poor toilets, do you?) Oh, and before you folks in other countries start feeling too smug about American carelessness, rest assured, folks in your countries probably incur numerous injuries while going about their business, too. My guess is your sneaky loos are every bit as culpable as our perilous potties.

If you find a lizard sitting on a toilet, is he a commode-o dragon?

(ahem) Okay, let's get serious. Forget about those minor bathroom incidents. They're nothing! Just as President Roosevelt spoke of a date which will live in infamy, I'm gonna tell you about a toilet that truly went down in infamy...

[image courtesy of wikimedia]

The saying about loose lips sinking ships was prevalent in the military during WWII, but it wasn't loose lips that led to the demise of Germany's U-1206. Believe it or not, it was a toilet.

[image courtesy of Buchandivers.com]

The U-1206, a VIIC class submarine, wasn't huge. Just over twenty feet abeam and 221 feet long, it supported a very... close... crew of fifty. Pretty much packed in there like human sardines, those poor guys had no choice but to be a tightly-knit group, and to make matters worse, they were forced to share one stinking toilet. (Do you think new crew members received relief maps to help them find it...?) There were actually two heads on the sub, but the one located next to the galley was used to store food, so the crew was left with one.  Not the best circumstances, as you can imagine. Especially if they ate a lot of beans, sauerkraut and sausages. (The wurst!) Just think of it. All of those men jammed together in close quarters. Poor ventilation. Stuffy. Sweaty. BO out the wazoo. The pervasive scents of diesel fuel and grease... not to mention the lingering smell of that aforementioned kraut and wurst.

But, wait! There was often another... pervasive aroma.  U-boat toilets had no holding tanks. They flushed directly into the ocean, but because of water pressure, they could only flush when the sub was at or close to the surface.  Soooooo.... when the sub was down deep, the men had to store their stuff in buckets and cans until they resurfaced, adding yet another level of olfactory hell to the tight-quartered mix. (If they'd had a mascot, its name would've been Stinker Bell.) 

The solution? A new and improved high-pressure toilet that could flush at those deeper depths.

Problem was... those toilets were so difficult to operate, they came with complicated instruction  manuals, and a crew member actually had to be trained as a toilet-flushing specialist. I kid you not. (Think they called him Flush Gordon...?]

[image courtesy of wikimedia]

So anyhow, on April 14, 1945, the U-1206 was cruising off the shore of Scotland at a depth of approximately 200 feet when first-time sub commander Captain Schlitt had the urge to, um... use that new and improved toilet. While doing his duty, he read the manual, and afterwards, he tried to follow the complicated directions to flush.

Oopsie! Problem. Didn't work. Then when the toilet specialist came to assist, he made matters worse. Not realizing that Schlitt had already opened the inside valve, he opened the outside valve to the sea.

Oopsie! Bigger problem. Instead of what was in the toilet being flushed out of the sub, the ocean was now flooding into the toilet... and into the sub.

Flush Gordon managed to close the valve, but their problems weren't over. Now they were reeeeeeally up Schlitt Creek without a paddle. In a less-than-brilliant engineering decision, the sub's batteries were located directly below the toilet... and now they were being drenched with salt water. The result? Deadly chlorine gas, which was rapidly filling the U-boat.

If they were going to survive, they had no choice but to surface. Which they did, making themselves visible and vulnerable to attack. An allied plane promptly dropped a bomb, which caused enough damage to make re-submersion impossible, so Schlitt ordered the crew into lifeboats and scuttled the sub. One man died in the bombing attack, and three fell overboard and drowned. Thirty-six were rescued by small boats, and ten made it to shore in their lifeboats and were captured. Those 46 weren't POWs for long, because the war ended 24 days later.

However, their U-1206 became the one... and only... warship in history to be doomed by its own... Schlitter.

Maybe I should ask Smarticus to install something like this. You know, for our own safety...

                        Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Intrepid Flyers

Thought for the day:  Endurance is the price tag of accomplishment.

Wouldn't it be cool to fly like a bird? To soar and swoop and make some lazy circles in the sky... it's a dreamy thought, isn't it? But not a new one. Man has always been enthralled with the idea of flight.

Today, we're going to talk about some very unusual flyers... the first from the bird kingdom, and the next from the human ranks. One thing these groups have in common is determination. Determination and endurance. (Okay, two things.)

                                                                 First, the bird.

[source:Henri Weimerskirch, CNRS, France]

It practically takes an act of Congress to get some children out of bed at times, but not so for juvenile frigate birds. No sirree, and it's none of that lazy circles in the sky stuff for them, either. It isn't at all unusual for a young frigate bird to take off from his cozy nest and fly non-stop for the next 185 days straight... covering as much as 34,000 miles.

[source: Aurelian Prudor, CNRS, France]

These amazing birds, with their lovely forked tails and wingspans of up to seven and a half feet, (2.3 meters) fly an average of 255 miles per day... and can do it for months on end.

They accomplish this by making brilliant use of the wind currents, and they can ascend to 2000 feet and then drop back down to sea level with only a single flap of their massive wings.

[wikipedia]

Another interesting fact about these birds is, even though they're classified as seabirds... they can't get in the water. Why? Their feathers aren't waterproof. If they were to dive into the water or even land on its surface, they'd get waterlogged, and wouldn't be able to fly again. So if they choose to eat during their long journeys, they have to swoop down and grab small critters from near the water's surface.  According to scientist Henri Weimerskirch, of France's Center for Scientific Research, (CNRS) who tracked 80 of these birds for two years and learned about their remarkable ability to master air currents, "There is no other bird species like them."  (No wonder this male's chest is all puffed out!)


The human flyers were part of a remarkable group, too, and since it's only a couple days after International Women's Day, it's rather fitting that they were also... women.

[credit: Sovfoto/ UIG- 1944]

Meet the Nightwitches, aviators of Russia's all-female 5880th Night Bomber Regiment. These brave women, ages 17 to 26, some of whom had never even seen an airplane before they joined the regiment, played a vital role in World War II, and struck terror in the hearts of their enemies.

[wikipedia]

These women flew in Polikarpov PO-2s, re-purposed biplanes from the 1920s, which were constructed of wood and canvas, and had been used mainly as crop-dusters prior to the war. These planes were slow, obsolete, and contained no radios or radar, so rudimentary navigation hinged on a stop watch and a map.

[[credit: Quality Time]

So what was so terrifying about these women, and how did they get the nickname Nightwitches? That's the English translation of the name bestowed upon them by German soldiers, who called them Nachtexen. (which, um, obviously means the same thing...) See, what these women did as they conducted their night missions was as they approached their targets, they shut off their engines. Then they'd glide down to drop the bombs, so the only sound accompanying their descent was the whoosh of their planes cutting through the air... which sounded like witches' brooms to the soldiers below.

[credit: The Image Works]

After dropping their bombs, the airplane engines then had to be re-started in mid-air, and if that meant a navigator had to climb out onto the wing to give the prop a spin, sobeit.

Because the planes were only capable of carrying two bombs at a time, each night's mission consisted of multiple flights ... as many as eighteen harrowing sorties in a single night. Weight limitations of these planes didn't just dictate the amount of armament they could carry, either. It also meant no parachutes.

At its largest, this battalion contained forty two-person crews, and in total, these gutsy gals carried out 30,000 missions, and dropped 23,000 bombs. At first, Russian male pilots thought these brave young women were a joke, but they soon learned to respect them for their courage, their ability, and their endurance.

[courtesy the Image Works]

Nadia Popova, who was sometimes referred to as Russia's Amelia Earhart, said, In winter, when you'd look out to see your target better, you got frostbite, our feet froze in our boots, but we carried on flying." 

After one mission, her airplane was riddled with forty-two bullet holes, and she was shot down a couple of other times. Still, she persevered and continued to serve as a Nightwitch commander. She passed away in 2013 at the age of 91, and she and her fellow witches will long be remembered as some of Russia's most intrepid flyers.

Determination is doing what needs to be done even when you don't feel like it. [author unknown]

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. [Og Mandino]

Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you. [Denis Waitley]

Endurance is the price tag of achievement. [author unknown]

Each of us, in our own way, has the ability to fly. Maybe not across an ocean like a frigate bird, and maybe not in daring night missions in antiquated airplanes... but we can fly; we can succeed. Those birds don't back down when faced with the daunting task of flying for weeks and months on end; they just do it. Those women, many of whom had never even seen an airplane before, didn't say, "We can't do it;" they just did it. Like them, with determination, we, too, can overcome obstacles, and we, too, can fly. We can achieve, and we can make our dreams come true, so never settle for less. Remember, even the grandest oak tree started out as a little acorn that refused to give up. Surely we nuts can do the same.

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

The Ace of Her Heart

Thought for the day:  Not all heroes wear capes. 

[Flame, superhero of the 1930s and '40s-  wikipedia]

It's true. It's fun to read about cartoon superheroes, and to see them come alive on the screen, but the real heroes in life don't need... or want... a spiffy outfit or cape, because they generally don't want to draw attention to themselves.

One definition of hero is someone who risks personal harm to protect and serve others, like firefighters, police officers, and members of the military. As you know, we're losing more and more World War II veterans every day, so I think it's important to share some of their stories from time to time, so we can remember their places in history.

I'm gonna tell you about one such man today. His name? Louis Curdes, and he didn't  need no stinking cape,  because that hero man was a brilliant aviator. Matter of fact, he was an ace, and he also bears the rather unusual distinction of being the only person who has ever been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down... his girlfriend.

[Louis Curdes, with his plane Bad Angel]

Intrigued?

Good. That's the idea.

Curdes was already an ace with a ton of war and flying experiences, including being shot down and escaping from an Italian POW camp, when our story opens. Following their mission to attack Japanese positions on the island of Bataan in the Philippines, one squad member, low on fuel, had flown back to base, one had been shot down, and was floating in the water on a rubber dinghy, another was flying at a higher altitude, trying to summon a rescue plane by radio, and Curdes was flying a low-altitude pattern above his fallen friend, prepared to protect him, and provide cover, if need be.

[C-47 transport plane- wikipedia]

Another plane approached from the distance, and as it got closer, Curdes could see that it was a C-47 transport plane, AKA jungle jumper, bearing U.S. markings. It lowered its landing gear, clearly signalling its intention to land on the Japanese-controlled island. Curdes had heard horrific stories about the fate of people captured by the Japanese, so he simply couldn't  let that plane land. He tried to contact the pilot via radio, but to no avail. He dove in front of the plane several times, but the C-47 continued its descent. He fired a warning burst of machine gun fire across the other plane's nose, but that didn't work, either. So what could he do?

[50-caliber machine gun in  Bad Angel's wing]

The only thing he could do. 

He shot it down. 

First, he took out one engine... and then the other. The C-47 pilot had no choice but to ditch the plane into the ocean, where it settled close to the other fallen aviator's dinghy. Soon, all twelve occupants of the C-47 were floating beside him on life rafts. Curdes dropped a note down to them, saying, For God's sake, keep away from shore. Japs there. 

Only three WWII flying aces shot down planes of all three Axis powers, but only one of them, Louis Curdes, also shot down an American plane, thereby saving everyone on board.

Two of them were nurses.

One of the nurses was his date from the night before.

They later married.

 I guess you could say she really fell  for him... like a shot outta the sky.

Curdes' plane, as she appears today, at the Pima Air and Space Museum, in Tucson, Arizona. 

Indiana native Louis Curdes retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1963. In his twenty-two years of service, he earned many medals,  including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and numerous flying awards. When he died in 1995, Senator Richard Lugar delivered a fitting tribute  on the Senate floor. In the senator's words, Curdes was truly an example and inspiration for all who follow him.

 Okay, so maybe this song isn't the perfect choice to go with this post, but it's stuck in my head, so in an attempt to get it out, I'm gonna share. Besides, it's never a bad time to listen to something that makes your toes tap and your heart sing...

You know, there are things other than danger that can define a hero. For example, I find it bordering on heroic for someone to work a job (s)he hates, day-in, day-out, without complaint... because that's what (s)he has to do to support a family. Maybe your husband or wife? Your parent? You? Appreciate their efforts, and value your own.That kinda love makes the world go around.

 Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. [Franklin P. Jones]
                                                              Okay, I sit corrected.                                   
                                   Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other. 

NOTE: Next week's post will be on WEDNESDAY, in conjunction with the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group confab. If you've been thinking about signing up, it isn't too late. Go ahead! You know you wanta... so do it right here