Unlike the Korean war dog tags we never got,the ‘Offical opening by her Majesty,the Queen,1st
August 1997, American Air Museum in Britain’ ,dangled around our necks as Estelle and ourselves stepped
Around the barricade unto the Duxford Air Base landing strip that memorable yesterday,outsideCambridge
First,the Pakistani clerk at our bed&breakfast, digs near Kensington, said”If those snapshots make me
seem like a Prince Charming, don’t mail them back from the Big Apple. My brother is on his holiday.. Give them to him.When his fortnight ends,he’ll fly home with the prints. Here’s my sister’s phone.Pager,E mail,fax.
Developing the click snap shutter,back in the States,we called the number.The Omar Shariff voice when asked where the sister lived,carrying his brother’s images, “815 East 14th Street. Avenue H.,apartment 1 H.,Flatbush,Boro of Brooklyn.”
“A six floor elevator apartment house?,two blocks away from the Avenue H subway,bordering on Rugby Road?”Off Wellington. We lived in 5A,growing up.A day dreaming punk from Santa Monica,California. Public School,217,Midwood High School.Our best friend Dr Howie lived in the same apartment as your sister.How’s that for being in synch,sir?”.
Second, our odyssey began, the Fort Hamilton Army library,in Bay Ridge, a diverse Brooklyn neighborhood near. New Chinatown. Keith Lewis,.Junior,an internet pro,E mailed Sandra Brooks at Mildenhall RAF.Beck Row Village,29 mi.from Cambridge,UK, about billeting Standby .for an Air Force Ready Reservist,23 years longevity.,and his good wife.? When the full electronic mailbox was sorted out Sandra Brooks who wasn’t from Brooklyn..said “Major ,call USAF Lakenheath direct.!”
Third, “Sergeant Gideonse here”,answered the NCO in charge of Lakenheath lodging. “Com ‘on ahead,Major….Bring the good wife.We’ll put you up for eleven days,how’s that for a gig?The motor pool
has orders,for her Majesty’s honor guard..Transportation squadron ,48th Fighter Wing.”
Fourth,unlike the Royalty, soon to descend from those ominous skies playing out “A foggy day in the British Museum” penned by the Brooklyn born Gershwin brothers.George&Ira, we thought back of our yesterdays almost a half a century earlierThe 448th Reserve B 25 Light bomb Wing,Long Beach,California.
out on the municipal airport’s strip,adjoining Signal Hill’s pumping drills.
Fifth,President Harry Truman, a no nonsense Commander in Chief,called up the 452nd Reserve B 25 Wing, on hearing the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea…..Colonel Cochrane,the duty officer for both Colonel Keeney ,448th, General Sweetzer,452nd,.”Lieutenant A,”he said“Report Hamilton AFBase,the 2567th Processing Squadron….San Rafael.,Travis AF Base,Japan,Korea Is your fated destiny,
My boy.Verbal orders are as good as gold.that’s the scenario.”
Sixth,defered until February,’51,&never called till the Cuban crisis, Colonel Paul McGuire asked us ito play out the role of his 2567th Group Intelligence Officer, Santa Barbara-Long Beach,California.”How can we resist you,sir…”sending us Intelligence School,Shepard AFBase,Assistant Chief of Staff,Intelligence,Pentagon,DIA,Western European desk, Portugal,Angola and Mozambique….….
Seventh,for some 12 years more, two week tours at a stretch;two at the AF Academy,Estelle& ourselves…
Found ourselves some 3 decades later,strolling towrd the ecliptical designed American Air Mueum in Britain,the skies opening up, the rains descending……
Eighth,the good wife ran for cover in the dining hangar where the 2000 Yanks,their wives, children,grandchildren.widowers, widows,girl friends ,chubs ,next of kin,milled around the dining tables,tasting&testing the grub of sandwiches, English biscuits, warmed over hot meals of sole fish,Arthur Treacher fish&fries, pastries, tarts,tea,coffee, while the reminiscing of some 60 years spilled the air,the BBC audio taping the scene, the Imperial War Museum pro clicking snapping shuttering.
Ninth,meanwhile Major A ran for shelter, the Museum’s entrance…the hangar door, the swooping P 38’s,open cockpits flying fortresses, B 25’s nary a one.Nor the courier F 10’s….”Charleton Heston,”he called,the Hollywood actor stumbling on the wooden block.into the hangar…”It sure is wet,isn’ it?”he said,a big black limo waiting ,a voice “Mister Heston,Charleton,…..”
Tenth, the yesterdays trailing back 3 decades….Perfidious Albion’s Bard playing out the theme from Romeo&Juliet Henry Mancini,a Ucla graduate,conducting the band into his solemn airs,Jules Stein ‘s passing.A band leader himself,&opthomologist, he had bought Universal Studios, where Mister Heston starred in “Airport’75”.
Eleventh,the limo driver cried “Charlton,her Majesty. landed .from Scotland.Edinboro.castle.,Warmed over Queen’s grub isn’t worth writing home about.
Twelth,meanwhile the Imperial Warm Museum’s pro Greg Smith clicked shuttered the Major&Estelle inside the Hangar for the 2000 Yanks….ushering them out for the benediction, the ceremonial staff offered them chairs and chairs unto the field, her Majesty,Prince Phillip, former prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, Charlton Heston, Duke of Kent,a Field Marshall…..Greg Smith snapping away.Her Majesty in her yellow ponchos tucked away at the podium,in front of the musuem,her USAF color guard in their protocol,the band into the strains that bonded these two mighty peoples ,defending then dominating the Battle of
Britain…
Thirteenth ”Do you know the Greg Smith singers,always playing the Ucla spring sing,”said Major A.”Any kin?” he asked the Imperial War Museum. pro,the rains ceasing, the fly over beginning…3 F 16’s a flying fortress…
Fourteenth,the resonancing voice of “Airport ‘75” leaping into the Bard’s Henry Fifth….”My soul shall thine keep company to Heaven;Tarry sweet soul,for mine,,then fly abreast;as in this glorious&well –foughten field, we kept together in our chivalry…..I saw young Harry with his beaver on,his cuisses on his thighs,gallantly arm’d-Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,and vaulted with such ease into his seat,as if an angel dropt down from the clouds,to turn&wind afiery Pegasus,and watch the world with noble airmanship….O for a Muse of fire,that would ascend the brightest Heaven of invention..a kingdom for a stage,princes to act,and monarchs to behold the swelling scene Then should the warlike Harry,like himself assume the port of Mars;and at his heels,leasht-in like hounds;should ,famine,sword,&fire,crouch for employment…..”
.
Fifteenth….The Lakenheath blue USAF bus rode back, the Honor guard relaxing, the latrine orderly out of Ohio,a Captain, laughing, listening ,her fellows officers into their small talk.No Pistol,Falstaff,Fluellen
Doll Tearsheet here..
Sixteenth, Greg Smith acting out of London’s Imperial War Museum the ‘morrow…said”If you want the photos Major,call Andy .at Duxford ,processing the negatives……walking thru the lush Lankenheath grass toward the post office, his aging blues ,stumbling over a memoriam .’” Andy”,his was the ultimate sacrifice… 48th Fighter Wing Transportation Squadron, Sunday,August 1st 1966…..
To the airmen of many nations who flew with the R.A.F. during the Battle of Britain. And soared into the Heavens that others might live .”If the British Empire and its Commonwealth Allies last for a thousand years,men will still say “This was their finest hour”.
British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill
June 9,2001, Brooklyn New York.
