Early this morning The Weather Channel was calling for "breezy" conditions today. This indicates somewhere in the 25 to 30 knot range, and depending on the direction of the winds in relation to the runway, it could be more wind than I want to deal with. They were also talking about "gusty" conditions... gusts of about 10 knots more than the normal average wind speed. That makes it even worse.
The only thing to do was to get to the airport as early as possible, but by the time we were rolled out at 7:30am, the winds were already evident in the big trees. At the airport the windsock was jumping around a lot, but was indicating mostly a crosswind of about 30 to 45 degrees, and about 15 to 20 knots. This is not a "No Go" condition, but it sure does make takeoffs, and especially landings, a lot more challenging.
Art promised Dave Perewitz's son Jesse, and a couple of the other people who are involved in the building of his awesome new custom Harley, rides in the Waco. I could sit on the sidelines and watch Art deal with the winds. He has more experience with these conditions, and more experience in the Waco, so I was perfectly content to be on the ground. He did a great job, and he claimed that he made greaser landings each time, but that the winds were very challenging, and that after each ride he told himself that it was going to be the last one. But each time he couldn't disappoint the next rider. What a guy!
After the last ride, he cut the engine and decided that he just didn't want to fly to Martha's Vineyard today. The winds were building up even more as the morning wore on, the ride would be very rough.
We had no idea what a geat day it would turn out to be.
Art's uncle Les is one of those soft spoken individuals who has had an extraordinary life, but you would never know it unless you got close to him. Les retired from 31 years in the US Navy, and has served as a radioman on submarines, blimps, battleships, destroyers, and fixed wing aircraft (subchasers). As it turns out, just about 20 miles down the road is a place called Battleship Cove, and the feature attraction is the USS Massachusetts, one of the largest battleships ever built, and he was on it when it first sailed in 1942, right here in Boston. This would be a most excellent opportunity for Les to revisit his old ship, and for Art and I to be given a guided tour by someone who knew every nook and cranny of this huge warship.
To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. It is incomprehensible to me, but this monster would fire a shell that weighed 2000 pounds out of a 16 inch diameter gun, and hurl it up to 25 MILES at the enemy. Les was on board when they sailed to Casablanca and fired these guns at a Vichy French vessel for 19 HOURS straight. It must have been absolutely deafening. During that battle, Les was working the radio just behind the bridge, in a room protected with 16 inch thick steel walls. From a slit in these walls, he watched as 3 enemy torpedoes were launched directly at his ship, but because of the greater speed of the Massechusetts, they missed.
We toured the entirety of this impossibly big ship, and Les held us captivated with stories about almost every different aspect of it. The highlight of the visit was when Les found his name in the long list of sailors who served aboard her. He was very, very pleased to see that they still remember him.
Tied up right next to the Massachusetts was a submarine from WWII, and very similar to the one on which he also served during the war. He took us through every section of the sub, and again he had many terrific stories about life on these very cramped hunter/killers.
Les is now 76 years old, and in the weeks we have been traveling together on this flying trip, he has from time to time gotten tired just from walking much more than a mile. But today we must have walked at least 4 miles, and we climbed a LOT of ladders as we decended into engine rooms, and climbed to the top decks, and in and out of big guns. Never once did he seem even the slightest bit tired. All the time there was a twinkle in his eyes as he remembered, and told us stories about, things he probably had not thought of for more than 50 years. Today it seemed as if Les was 20 years old again, and living his life at sea.
Les is one of the millions of true American heroes who served their country in a time of great crisis. He helped to change the course of history. It is an honor to know him, and a privelige to have toured these great ships with him.
Best of all, he's a very good person. Humble, self-effacing, quiet. Loving father. Favorite uncle to Art. It's really fun to watch Art and Les together. They are always playing and kidding and having a great time of each minute together.
He's already saved civilization as we know it on this planet, and now he's perfecting being a human being.
When I grow up, I want to be just like uncle Les.
Tomorrow, we attack at dawn. We want to get in the air early so we beat the extra-windy conditions which are forecast to continue. We really want to get some landings on grass at Martha's Vineyard. From there we fly south to Chester airport in Clinton CT to visit Art's closest brother Bob. After getting to know uncle Les, I can't wait to meet Bob.