reprint from 1-10-2012

Reprint from old Story of the Plane Crash

   

     This is a reprint that I have edited of an old story i told before on 1-10 2012,  and will now slip into my chronological order  of jobs I have had in my life. As I say every job you have had has some kind of story to tell. If nothing else it's the people you meet or events that happened that make up your memory of that time, This happened to me when i was 5 and I had told it before but it wasn't really edited very well so I have went back through and hopefully  haven't changed it to much. The drawings I did are drawings of the scene as I remembered it, only with some artist enhancement . I wasnt able to view the plane till almost 6 months later, as they were protecting it because of the radiation. It was my brothers that snuck me in to finally see it from a back way, unknown to grandpa who would have had a fit, But this is what it looked like then. I just added the balloons for effect. the pictures are kind of grainy but are from pencil renderings I did and scanned to the computer. Hope you enjoy.

1-10-2012-click on image - my first job

     Today being the 9th of january and we squeaked out another really nice day and they say we might get another before we are done. Todays story is an extenuation of yesterdays story. If you hover over the picture with your mouse you can enlarge the pics to see more clearly.
    Well what these pics represent is a period of when I was helping my grandpa  and a bunch of scientists as they were preparing for an experiment on the farm adjacent to ours and  in the same research area as I had mentioned before. And it was in this area one day I watched them fill balloons full of helium and suspending them on strings till they were above the tree tops. There were strings of green balloons as well as red and blue, and they seemed to be in rows all through the woods. These woods were old growth , tall dense trees , some running 90 -120 feet in the air and some virgin timber. It had a forest top so dense it was dark throughout the forest floor with hints of sunshine barely visible through the tree tops. Even the balloons as they disappear through the tree tops could hardly be seen from on ground. I watched as a team of men circling the helium tanks would fill one balloon after another, and finally I asked one of the guys I knew, just what was going on there, And in a matter of factly way he explained to me that the balloons would serve as a  guide to a plane that was spraying radioactive material over the woods. Each color stood for a pass the plane was supposed to make for complete coverage of the woods. I being only five at the time and not really understanding radioactivity asked what it was, and he told me it was stuff to make animals sick. That the reason they were spraying the material was to test the effects of radiation on small plants and animals.
   Anyhow the next day rolls around and we all head to top of our hill where we would have a good view, we being my grandpa I and host of government workers I had never seen before in suits and ties. and that we would  be down wind from the spraying operation, but with a good view ,(which is never a good idea to be downwind from any spraying operation and might be responsible for this third arm growing out of my back). Anyhow  my grandpa and I was at the tractor as in second pic,  We were watching as the plane flew in over the tree tops and circle around for next pass.as he did,  he would finish his spraying and would make another wide circle lining up on balloons in his one engine single seat plane, and we watched as he made his last pass skirting low to the trees,when we hear a cracking noise just as a  government employee snaps a picture with a big bellowed camera.   You hear the engine sputter and the plane disappears through the tree tops and more cracking and banging as the plane goes down snapping limbs and wings off as it hits the forest floor. Everyone up there looks at each other in disbelief and one stuffed shirt looks at me. and points his finger at me  and says get him out of here. Grandpa didnt have to say anything as I turned and headed to the house. Looking back I knew I saw more than i should have.
      Havoc was still playing its hand as they could not get to the pilot to find out how he was. there were only 2 guys with special moon suits that could walk into the pilot . The stuffed shirts had one walkie talkie and guided the  ground men to the crash site where they extricated the pilot and took him to our farm and loaded him into an ambulance and whisked him away. In the meantime the fire department , state police and sheriff set up camp around our farm and roads next to the woods to keep people out. A reporter was arrested trying to sneak in and was charged with trespassing. In the end  the pilot lived with just a broken jaw as in first picture and this is how the plane landed with a tree coming up through center of cockpit and catching him under chin. He dropped over 100 feet through trees and was one lucky man. more on this tomorrow. these pictures are drawn by me based on my observations after the crash. The second is my remembrances  of  the exact crash . I was 5 yrs old at time at the time of the crash. Drawings were made on date as on drawings itself and i have had them in my possession for some time. .