MONROE, NC

They sent us to Monroe during Dark Cloud Pine Cone II.  (Who names these things, anyway?)  I don't remember how long we were at Monroe but it was at least a few days.  We had government meal tickets and we ate all of our meals at a local home cooking type restaurant in town.  We got to know some of the regulars and talked to them every day.  They wanted to know what was going on, of course.  Maybe they were thinking that the Russians were coming.  (It was half expected at that time.)  One couple found out that we didn't have anywhere to clean up except a sort of half bath at the airport and offered to take us to their house and let us take a shower.  We quickly took them up on it.  Nice folks.  People always seemed to treat us really well back then.

We only had army aircraft one afternoon and they left the next morning.  We had quite a few fixed wing and choppers come in that afternoon.  They had a sort of ground control set up to land them and get them off the next morning.  It seemed to work very well.

We just had to be there all the time except for meals.  After lunch one day one of the guys suggested that we go to a local hobby shop across the street from the restaurant and look around.  We did and a couple of us bought a U-Control model, glue, paint, and an engine.  Everything needed to fly the model.  We had a good workbench in our van that was not being used at the time and built the planes.  I was out flying one afternoon and the Manager came out and asked if he could fly it.  I said, sure, if I can fly yours.  He said that he would take me up the next day.

Piper J-3

The next afternoon he came back from a crop dusting job in his J-3 Piper Cub and came up to the van and asked if I was ready to go.  I said, Yes, and followed him to the crop duster.  The other guys were all standing around and watching us.  I should have know what to expect from the manager since he was a former fighter pilot anyway.

The J-3 is a two place front and rear plane and had been converted for crop dusting.  It had DDT or some chemical powder all over the inside and looked like it had a hard life already.  I would go up with anybody in anything, ... back then, anyway.

We taxied out and took off on the taxi strip instead of the runway.  Yep, this was going to be interesting.  That side of the airport was on a high fill bank and we were over the gully when he kicked it into a steep turn at just about runway level.  He straightened it out and flew in the gully with trees between us and the airport and got his speed up and then pulled up  into a steep climb.  He said that he would give the guys a little show.  Maybe I should have asked then to not put on much of a show but I didn't.  That was my last chance to say much because after he had gained altitude, he put us in a steep dive with the engine screaming and the chemicals coming up off of the floor.  Hey, fun is just starting...... He pulled out of the dive in the gully and screamed that back at the airport it looked like we were in the trees.  Yeah, we almost were.  He gained altitude again and pulled up into a hammerhead stall and kicked it into a spin back down into the gully again and pulled out just above the ground.  No, I didn't scream or tell God that if he would let me live I would never get in another plane but I thought about it!  He flew in the gully below the trees and then hopped over the bank and back onto the taxiway for a landing right beside our guys.

I was very proud of myself.  I could climb out of the plane and even walk somewhat normally and even talked without screaming.  One of the guys asked me if I was scared?  I don't remember exactly what I told him but I didn't admit to it or deny it either. 

  No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Ronald Reagan 
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