Musings while driving

It was six o'clock in the morning. I was headed east out of town well before sun up. It was McCook but could have been anywhere in Southwest Nebraska. The clouds were absent, no moon, just stars and the wind hadn't kicked back up -- yet. It is a time to exercise the mind, solve the world's problems, think of what to write and rejoice in a life well lived. Quiet time hard to find in today's hustle bustle; thinking time that I miss from solitary hours on the tractor when I used to farm.

I silently give thanks for a wife who has forever arisen to fix breakfast and see me on the way no matter how early the morning. That is the way it always was with Grannie Annie whether I was off to fly an early morning Air Force mission or to tend to irrigation water on the farm.

Why is it that some of the cars that I meet have their fog lights on along with their dimmed driving lights? Irritating! Isn't that illegal in Nebraska? I know from living in California it is illegal to drive there with parking lights on. Parking lights mean that the vehicle is stationary. Oh well, even if it is against the law in Nebraska violations will probably be enforced about like talking or texting on the cell phone while driving. Have you ever seen a record of anyone being fined for those unlawful acts? Me neither.

Passing through Indianola, slowed to 35 m.p.h. -- thank you Joellyn, I catch a delightful whiff of acrid wood smoke. Surely there must be someone who still heats with wood. Goodness knows there is wood aplenty for burning to be found along the Republican River and the price is right!

It could be chopped, and hauled home at little cost just healthy manual labor expended. Like Uncle George Wallin used to say wood heats twice, when you cut it and when you burn it.

Just outside of Cambridge I catch sight of the newly lighted "Jesus Saves" sign carved in the loess soil bluff north side of the highway. My mind gives thanks for being born into a Christian country. Jesus Saves, the way to salvation for a tortured soul and yes even for a happy soul like my own.

The two-word reminder makes me ponder on the still missing MH 370 flight. Malaysia, a country of majority Muslim faith. What kind of a person who can believe that if he martyrs himself by dying in the process of killing a large number of infidels will go to heaven to be attended by a host of young virgins? Sure it is frowned on for a Muslim to commit suicide but if in his tortured mind he can dump the airplane in a remote enough spot no one will ever be able to resurrect the evil deed. Lure the copilot to the passenger cabin.

Lock the impenetrable door, set the new course, depressurize at 35,000 ft altitude and in short order everyone dies, pilot included, and the aircraft becomes a ghost ship. Gone unfound forever.

The obviously troubled pilot that night should not have been allowed to fly in the first place. Where was his supervisor? The gent was still living with an estranged wife and their children. Suppose that was a happy household?

Then his girlfriend had just dumped him. More trauma. Hours before take-off he had sat in a court room and listened to his buddy be sentenced to prison for some kind of insurrection against their government.

In retrospect, he should have never been allowed to command a ship full of innocents.

I speak from experience. At one time I was privileged to command a squadron of Air Force refueling tanker crews. Roughly 120 men half of whom were pilots. Each week I flew a mission with one of my crews and I pulled SAC alert when needed to fill a slot. My operations officer and I knew the capabilities for each crew commander and paid attention to his family's well being. Had any of my men been saddled with anywhere near the personal problems that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was reportedly suffering, I would have replaced him or placed an additional instructor on board to insure that all went well.

Will any of the managers at Malaysian Air step forward to take responsibility for Captain Shah's action the night that MH 370 went missing? Never happen!

Back to reality. Last Friday I arrived at the airport on time and launched into the sky in command of a wonderfully capable twin-engine airplane. The early morning air was absolutely solid, not a quiver of turbulence. We were headed east into a brilliant blinding sun just above the horizon. Difficult to see but air traffic control had us on radar and protected from other non-existent traffic at that time of morning. Way different from driving into a blinding sun on the highway where one can actually hit something.

Hazy below but we were suspended in the brilliant blue sky above. Life was and is wondrously good.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail