My Grandfather

I got Burma, Her Story published the other day. The short story, at least. My next project is to turn it into a screenplay.

This is a story that I grew up hearing. I can’t remember a time of my life where I didn’t know bits and pieces of the life of this dog. I was happy to find third person contemporary sources to verify this amazing journey.

My grandfather was a pilot. When he was a child, he told the story of looking up to the sky on his Kansas farm and seeing a plane fly overhead and deciding to be a pilot. Mind you, this was in the 1920s. When he was old enough to join the Air Corps (predecessor to the USAF), he was first rejected because he was a several pounds underweight. So, he went home and ate and ate bananas for two weeks. Then he went back to the recruitment center and refused to go relieve himself until after he had been accepted into the military. Apparently, he was very grumpy that day.

He was already in the military, training in Arizona, when Pearl Harbor happened. He also listed many of his other military experiences in this treasure trove of declassified journals that we found after he had passed. He was also in the top 14 finalists to be among the first astronauts ever.

He was always a pilot, until an ultralight crash when he was 86 years old. The power cut out just after takeoff and he had to glide to an emergency landing in a field near Pittsburg (I think on the Missouri side). However, one of the wheels caught in a power line and cartwheeled him into the ground. I saw the pieces and scraps of the wreckage and couldn’t believe that anyone could survive that.

He lived until he was 92. His wits and eyesight never failed.

When I was younger, he would fly up to town to pick me up and fly me back down to the farm. He didn’t believe in this newfangled GPS. He gave me a map and told me to keep an eye on the highway and the rivers. Also, I learned that “taking the wheel” in a plane is a whole different ballgame then in a car.

By publishing this story, I want to share with the world what kind of man my grandfather was.