FLYING WEST

from a book titled Tall Tail Tales and credited to Captain Michael Larkin, TWA





I hope there’s a place way up in the sky

Where pilot’s can go when they have to die

A place where a guy could buy a cold beer

For a friend and a comrade whose memory is dear

A place where no doctor or lawyer could tread

Nor a management type would e’re be caught dead

Just a quaint little place; kind of dark, full of smoke

Where they like to sing loud and have a good joke

The kind of a place where a lady could go

And feel safe and protected by men she would know

There must be a place where old pilots go

When their wings get too weary and their airspeed gets low

Where the whiskey is old and the women are young

And the songs about flying and dying are sung

Where you’d see all the fellows who’d flown west before

And they’d call out your name as you came through the door

Who would buy you a drink if your thirst should be bad

And relate to each other “he was quite a good lad”

And then through the mist, you’d spot an old guy

You had not seen in years though he’d taught you to fly

He’d nod his old head with a grin ear to ear

And say “Welcome my son, I’m pleased that you’re here!”

For this is a place where true flyers come

When the battles are over, and the wars have been won

They’ve come here at last to be safe and afar

From the government clerk and the management czar

Politicians and lawyers, the Feds and the noise

Where the hours are happy and these good old boys

Can relax with a cool one, and well deserved rest

This is heaven my son, you’ve passed your last test.

...there's a fellowship...

When a Veteran leaves the 'job' and retires to a better life, many are
jealous, some are pleased, and others, who may have already retired,
wonder if he knows what he is leaving behind, because we already know.

1. We know, for example, that after a lifetime of camaraderie that few
experience, it will remain as a longing for those past times.

2. We know in the Military life there is a fellowship which lasts long
after the uniforms are hung up in the back of the closet.

3. We know even if he throws them away, they will be on him with every
step and breath that remains in his life. We also know how the very
bearing of the man speaks of what he was and in his heart still is.

These are the burdens of the job. You will still look at people
suspi
ciously, still see what others do not see or choose to ignore and
always will look at the rest of the Military world with a respect for
what they do; only grown in a lifetime of knowing.

Never think for one moment you are escaping from that life. You are
only escaping the 'job' and merely being allowed to leave 'active' duty.

So what I wish for you is that whenever you ease into retirement, in
your heart you never forget for one moment that you are still a member
of the greatest fraternity the world has ever known.


A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or reserve- is someone who,
at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The
Government of the United States of America' for an amount of 'up to
and including my life'. . . and military wives are as much veterans as
their spouses.



From one Veteran to another, it's an honor to be in your company.

Military Ingenuity

Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the authorities were casting-about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses', where a POW on-the-loose could go for food and shelter. Paper maps had some real drawbacks: They make a lot of noise when you o! pen and fold them, they wear-out rapidly and if they get wet, they turn into mush.


Someone in MI-5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise what-so-ever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.



When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dis-patched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war.



Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located (Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.



As long as they were! at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together.
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French

currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!



British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on their first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square! Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy Indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful use in still another, future war.



The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honoured in a public ceremony. Anyway, it's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.



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