Chapter 26: Interlude in Blue

Yes. The airplane was blue ... on the bottom. The dividing line was indeterminate.

If the plane was directly overhead, on a cloudless day, the blue was the color of the sky ... If you were in a second craft and flying straight at it it, the change was easy to see: blue fading to the colors of autumn. From above the Blue was unnoticeable ... the aircraft looked like a hodgepodge of the colors of a Louisiana fall.

Flown by the Army from 1956 as a Command Transport, (read General's Toy) it flew all over Europe, SE Asia, Philippines, Australia, Hawaii and the CONUS (Continental United States) and just happened to be flying low over Cajun Country near New Orleans when the aircraft was involved in what was termed a "hunting accident" in 1976.

A single .30 caliber bullet (forensics determined it was fired from a pre-war Springfield '03A3 by parties unknown) penetrated the cabin area and lodged in the copilot's head; she was entertaining the bird Colonel on the starboard lounge. She was immediately killed.

Talk about your unlucky shots, this one was a beaut. The Colonel was on the 'fast track' to be the next General and screwing the help was frowned upon. Alaska in the winter is a nightmare.

The pilot panicked and flew to the nearest airfield.

However, the vast expanse of concrete just west of McNichols was Not an airfield. It was a just a vast expanse of concrete and actually longer than the next available airstrip. Under Army MP guard, the 1956 Beech E18S languished there after the hushed up investigation until the Army decided that the aircraft was too old, too loud and too notorious to continue as Army property and bids were entertained.

There was only one.

A former Army Air Corps pilot bid the ridiculous sum of One Dollar. He was one of the first Negro pilots graduated from Tuskegee Army Airfield Training Base. Trained on the AT-10 twin engine plywood Beechcraft and highly qualified, he, nevertheless, never flew in combat.

The Army was rigidly segregated and Negros were 'psychologically unsuitable' as Officers. He wasn't discharged but his orders were 'lost.' He never commanded a white ... eventually, he was told to go home and he would be contacted. He never was.

At war's end he received his 'honorable' in the mail. He continued to fly as and where he could ... usually some Cub or Taylorcraft rented by a white friend.

The One Dollar bid was intended to be an insult but it was the only bid and he took possession ... rather chagrined by the fact he now owned an ex military aircraft with bloodstains and a single bullet hole.

A succession of neighbors hauled 5 gallon 'jerry-cans' of aviation gas to the plane, fueled it and then swept the concrete pad clean of loose junk and our pilot taxied to the farthest downwind end and made a successful takeoff. The Beech landed at Lakefront Airfield.

Former black ground crewmen gathered from all over the US and restored the plane to flying condition ... this act was also intended to be an insult to their former white officers.

The aging gentleman was soon flying successful black businessmen all over the country. Again, 'giving back to the community' and keeping hard earned dollars circulating in the 'hood.' The summer heat of 2001 was the downfall of our pilot and he finally lost his license in 2002.

His final flight was to deliver his aircraft to Armadillo and into the hands of William and Wilihemina Sutherland, 18 year old twins and newly minted pilots. They loved the old gentleman ... he taught them the quirks and foibles of the Beech 18 and rode right seat back to New Orleans. Mina flew left, Bill and Laurel availed themselves of the scene of the 'hunting accident, ' and wore each other to a nubbin.

The reason Megan told Mina the aircraft was blue? That was all she saw as the plane flew overhead ... a rather pretty blue, actually.