THE LOBO TANK BUSTERS
By: Stan Jordan
We four P51D’s were in flight to around the Duren, Germany area. My wing man was off to my left and back a little bit, the other two pilots were to his left a little bit. I sure like this plane. I crawled into it and closed the canopy and settled down in my bucket seat. It fit me just like a $40 sports jacket, it fit just right around the shoulders, I sure love to fly.
When this war is over and I am back home, I am going to save my money and buy one of these P51’s for myself. I will take it up to Wisconsin to Jack’s Chop Shop and he can get some hunter plugs. Without rockets, guns and ammo, I bet it will do 400 mph. I could do that distance from Wisconsin to Ohio in just a little bit.
I will join the air force reserve and maybe they will send me to multiple engine school for a couple years and I will ask for a job as a pilot on a commercial airline, any thing to be up here in the blue.
WOW! What was that? The radio crackled I was jarred awake from all my day dreaming, a thing you can’t do when you are flying, especially in a combat zone.
It was a green and black German jet ME262. One of those new twin engine jet fighters. He had been quite a ways above us and passed by us in a steep dive and kept right on going. That ship will do over 500 mph in a flat level, he was really moving in that dive. If he wanted to show off that plane, he did a good job.
We four pilots had just committed an error of a green rookie. The inexcusable error of not keeping a sharp lookout in all directions, the error of relying on someone else to be on watch. You can’t stay alive very long when you don’t keep looking in all directions. Man, we were lucky, he could have gotten at least two of us on that one pass if he wanted to.
And that became the discussion, why didn’t he shoot us down?
This was some of the ideas of the boys. He didn’t have any ammo. His canon wouldn’t work. He was a rookie and didn’t want to take on a challenge and fight. Maybe he was just out and breaking in this new plane and he didn’t have any ammo or canons at all. Maybe he was a good pilot and just wanted to show off his new plane. He knew we could have never caught him. If that was the reason, he did a good job.
We were very lucky to be alive and we all knew it.
See Ya!
BONFIRE
By: Stan Jordan
Do you enjoy a good bonfire?
A couple weeks ago, I helped celebrate my sister’s 60th wedding anniversary. Besides all the good food, we had a bonfire out in the back yard out of the wind. All afternoon the smoke went the other way. I sat in my lawn chair and stared into the hot coals. I have the unnamed ability to look into a bonfire and see lots of things besides white coals. The yellow flames, the red flames, the little blue flames, all form a picture and image.
In my one vision I could see the white sands of the beach and the blue sky of Oahu, Hawaii, it was so real. Then that piece of oak shifted a little and the picture changed, the blue became the sky and the white became the snow on the mountain of Fuji.
Then I was aroused and someone said, “Uncle Stan, you have been asleep!”
To me, a bonfire is so relaxing. You can sit there and look into those flames and your everyday worries and cares just fade away.
Soon, one of the children will bring you a well burnt hotdog that is still cold in the center, you eat it and tell the little girl “thank you,” but if you were at a restaurant and they brought that to you, you would return it, but the circumstances here are different and it really did taste good.
Right then, somebody puts two new logs on the fire and the spell is broken, cause it takes a while for the new logs to start burning a lot. Now is the time to eat your cake and ice cream and converse with all the other guests. The wind whips around and you get a little smoke in your eyes.
After a few minutes, the good flames are back and you can see some new images. I can see a lot of sunflowers, some are so bright. Well the log rolls and cracks a little and the area is covered with a bunch of buffalo. You are on your trusting stallion and running right beside them shouting along with the hoofbeats, and soon someone says “Uncle Stan, you were asleep again!”
I am sorry they broke the spell, but we must talk a little. To me, staring into a good bonfire for a while is really relaxing. The only thing equal to that is being in a boat on a nice warm morning with a little breeze and me casting for bass with a few hits now and then. Fishing is always good, and better when they bite every once in a while.
See ya!
MORE ON THE MEDICINE USE OF MARIJUANA
By: Stan Jordan
This is a continuation of my column last week on the use of marijuana on a six year old girl with severe seizures. She has had them ever since she was three weeks old.
“The biggest misconception about treating a child like little Charlotte is most people think that we’re getting her high, most people think she’s getting stoned,” Josh Stanley said, stressing his plant’s low THC levels. “Charlotte is the most precious little girl in the world to me. I will do anything for her.”
The brothers started the Real of Caring Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides cannabis to adults and children suffering from a host of diseases, including epilepsy, cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s, who cannot afford this treatment.
People have called them the Robin Hoods of marijuana. Josh Stanley said it’s their calling. They use the money they make from medical marijuana patients and get donations from sponsors who believe in their cause. They only ask patients such as the Figis’ to donate what they can.
“We give (cannabis) away for next to free,” Stanley said. “The state won’t allow us to actually give it away, so we give it away for pennies really.”
Charlotte gets a dose of the cannabis oil twice a day in her food.
Gedde found three to four milligrams of oil per pound of the girl’s body weight stopped the seizures.
Today, Charlotte, 6, is thriving. Her seizures only happen two to three times per month, almost solely in her sleep. Not only is she walking, she can ride her bicycle. She feeds herself and is talking more and more each day.
“I literally see Charlotte’s brain making connections that haven’t been made in years,” Matt said. “My thought now is, why were we the ones that had to go out and find this cure? This natural cure? How come a doctor didn’t know about this? How come they didn’t make me aware of this?”
It’s called Charlotte’s Web.
“I didn’t hear her laugh for six months,” Paige said. “I didn’t hear her voice at all, just her crying. I can’t imagine that I would be watching her making these gains that she is making, doing the things that she’s doing (without the medical marijuana). I don’t take it for granted. Every day is a blessing.”
Matt added, “I want to scream it from the rooftops. I want other people, other parents, to know that this is a viable option.”
After knowing the story of Charlotte Web, I have different thoughts on the use of marijuana for medical use. Who knows, maybe these boys in Colorado can help a lot of people with seizures and the like.
I remember 50 years ago we had a plague of polio. A man named Salk invented a serum that’s practically done away with polio. Maybe the Stanley boys can come up with a miracle.
Yes, I have rebutted my stand a little on the medical use of marijuana, but not on recreational use.
See ya!
