Showing posts with label honor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label honor. Show all posts

Monday, November 9, 2020

Veteran's Day

 

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Veteran’s Day, or Remembrance Day as some countries call it, is celebrated on Nov. 11 because the Allied nations and Germany signed an armistice, or a temporary halting of hostilities during World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Much has been written about this period of history, and many of you may have relatives who played a part, if not in WWI than in later conflicts. In today’s world, we honor not only those who fought in WWI, but all of our veterans.


My dad joined the Army Air Corp by using his brother’s birth certificate as he was too young at the time to join. After first enlisting, he later re-upped and went to Officer Candidate School and became a pilot. He flew in the Berlin Air Lift at the end of WWII, delivering supplies to blockaded Berlin. During his career he also flew missions to Vietnam and played “cat and mouse” with the Russians during the cold war. He set records for distance and speed as new transport aircraft were constantly being built. When he’d go on a mission, we never knew where or how long he’d be gone. He didn’t talk about it, and now that he has passed away, there are so many things I wish I had asked him. Not so much about where he flew, but why he risked his life; why he stayed in the Air Force for 23 years instead of returning to civilian life.

Because he had retired by the time grandkids came along, they only knew him as Grandpa Rusty, who would pile them in the back of his pickup and take them to Dairy Queen. They never knew that other part of his life. When he was perhaps 75 years old, I decided to write a creative non-fiction story about the Air Lift for his grandchildren. I had to do a lot of research and I was surprised at the amazing things those young pilots did at that time. It was hard to imagine my dad at 23 years of age, a cocky “fly boy” and quite handsome in his uniform. He flew 100 missions along a narrow corridor with anti-aircraft flac exploding on both sides of his airplane. He had little in the way of radar. The planes took off and landed only seconds apart and if for some reason they couldn’t land, they had to return to base without delivering their much needed supplies. It was an operation that people said couldn’t be done and yet ended in success.


My dad lost his vision later in life, and eventually could hardly walk, but every Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day he would be on his brother’s porch for the parade as the bands marched by. And he would say, “Tell me when the flag comes”, and when we told him, he would stand and salute.

I am so proud to be the daughter of a veteran. It’s not said often enough, but THANK YOU to all the men and women who have spent their lives in service to their country to ensure the freedoms we still enjoy today.



Barb Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/

 

 

 


Sunday, September 8, 2019

A ghost on a military base? by J. S. Marlo




During the Second World War, HMCS Cornwallis (later renamed CFB Cornwallis) was the largest naval training base in the British Commonwealth. Built on the southern shore of the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia and commissioned in 1942, the military training base closed in 1994.

In the late 1980s, my husband and I enjoyed a three-year posting at CFB Cornwallis. During that time, we attended many functions inside the Officers' Mess. It was a beautiful building (pic on the left), rich in history, and haunted by the ghost of a young woman. I was fascinated by the sad story of that young woman who allegedly hanged herself in one of the upstairs bedrooms after her lover, a sailor in the British Navy during World War II, abandoned her to go back to his wife.

The legend of her ghost was very much alive. While I didn’t know of anyone who had ever seen her, there were reports of strange activities inside the Mess, but was her ghost really roaming the Officers' Mess and only showing herself to unfaithful married men?

Despite all the research I did, I couldn’t find any evidence that a woman ever killed herself inside the Mess, but the basement of the Base Commander’s Residence did shelter grave markers. The dead no longer rest in the basement, their remains were moved to a different burial site, but two of the markers still stand side by side, each engraved with the names of two young children. The four siblings—Edward (1 month), Amelia (1 yr & 6 months), Gilbert (3 yrs), and W.C. (3 yrs)—died between 1850 and 1858.

The legend of the ghost and the grave markers inspired me to write Misguided Honor, my latest novel which was released last week.

In Misguided Honor, Becca Shea sneaks into Cornwallis and travels back in time to 1941 where she meets the young heart-broken woman in the days leading up to her tragic death.

To bring the story of the ghost to life, I took some liberties with history. Among other things, I gave Cornwallis a fictional past as a private shipyard, moved the buildings around, changed their layouts, and delayed the closure of the base. I wish I had unearthed the origin of the legend, and though I didn't, I'm convinced something dreadful happened a long time ago in the Officers' Messor else the legend wouldn't have been born.

Happy reading!
JS

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