B-24 Nose Art Story: Part One

The Nose Art Story - Part One

Hello readers. I posted my Dad’s mission diary from WWII yesterday and promised to tell you the nose art story.

Like many veterans my Dad wasn’t one to talk too much about his war experience. The bomber crews survived as high a casualty rate as anyone in the war. Dad survived thirty missions and his crew only lost one man in that time.

It wasn’t that Dad couldn’t talk about those times. He didn’t carry any life long trauma like some of the guys bore, he just wasn’t that interested in the past. As a little boy I watched my share of war movies. Twelve O’Clock High was one certainly and one that opened my eyes to what my Dad had gone through.

So I one day I asked him what the name of his bomber was and what was the nose art.

“Bomb Baby” was the name but Dad said he couldn’t remember what the nose art was. I was disappointed but what can you do? Over the years I’d occasionally wonder about it. I even looked through a few books on Aircraft Nose Art in the hopes that someone had taken a picture of Bomb Baby. No such luck. It was a mystery for much of my life.

Then . . . one day many years later I got a note from my Dad. We didn’t write often so I wondered what was up. First out of the envelope was the crew photo I posted yesterday, which on the back noted which one of the guys was killed by a piece of flack.

Then out of the envelope was a picture . . . of the nose art on Bomb Baby. Then I knew why he hadn’t shown it to me when I was a lad. 

Tomorrow I’ll post the picture of the Bomb Baby nose art and tell you the rest of the story (it’s a hoot).

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Correction

Hello to my kind and intelligent readers. I’ve enjoyed a couple of days off and spent a little time with my friend Dorian fishing at his place just out of town. He doesn’t spend much time in Harappahause too often anymore. He only goes there to attend formal state functions, and that is becoming more and more rare these days.

Dorian was in the middle of things for so long I think he’s tired of all the political batlingshit. 

We spent plenty of time solving the Galaxies’ problems over a bottle of wine (or two). Dorian told me he is enjoying reading this blog but he asked me to issue a correction regarding Harvest Day.

Dorian is not a scientist but he knows some. The science derns among us chafe when the normal of us say the Harvest Day explosion knocked Harappa off its orbit. Almost everyone tells it that way. However the geeky crowd wish we would be more accurate and say that the explosion broke the bond between planet Harappa and the Blue Moon. That’s why the planet is falling into its sun.

Illumaphane has such a strong gravity pull, planet Harappa would have fallen into its sun millions of years ago if the Blue Moon wasn’t constantly pulling it away. The Harvest Day blast didn’t actually knock Harappa off its orbit but the shock wave did move the Blue Moon and broke the gravity chain between the worlds.

There Dorian, feel better?

The rest of you can still say that Harvest Day blasted Harappa off its orbit like I do. Just know that someday some geek will try to correct you. Tell ‘em I said it’s OK.

Tomorrow; More about Dusty Waters

“Never Mix red wine with Oodo”

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Dad's WWII B-24 Mission Diary

Today: Something different.

My Dad's WWII B-24 Mission diary.

Tomorrow: the story of the Nose Art.

Mission #1 - May 30, 1944 - Oldenburg, Germany. Target was airfield. Medium flak. Over target at 10:55. Joe Garber shot down. Clark ditched.

#2 - June 2, 1944 - Creil, France. Airfield. Heavy flak all along route. Had hydraulic system shot out. Saw Paris in the distance. Lost Cross. Pete, Bouchard and Bebout. target at 21:21.

#3 - June 4, 1944 - LeTorquet, France. Target German headquarters in hotel. No flak. Hit target at 12:55.

#4 - June 5, 1944 - Ambleteuse, France. Made two runs on the target. Heavy flak directly over Bolougne. Col. Vance ditched in the PFF ship and lost a leg. Target at 09:41.

#5 - June 6, 1944 - St. Lo, France. “D” day. Target was a road intersection. solid cloud cover, no flak. Saw invasion fleet in the channel. Target at 09:01.

#6 - June 7, 1944 - St. Malo, France. Railroad bridge, target destroyed. No flak. 09:10.

#7 - June 13, 1944 - Ploermel, France. Railroad bridge; no more bridge. Hit target at 20:48

#8 - Versailles, France - sub depot. Also hit rail choke point. Hit target. altiˇtude 25,000 ft. flak below and ineffective. First time as squadron lead. 07:12.

#9 - June 20, 1944 - Regenville, France. Rocket plane installations. Flew deputy group lead. Some flak. Dropped on PFF. 06:38.

#10 - June 20, 1944 - Oisemont Neville O Auboin, France. Rocket installations. No bombs, Heavy Flak over with several hits. Our airplane “Bomb Baby” damaged beyond repair. Landed at Wendling, returned to base the next day. Captain Madson’s plane blew up. 20:08.

#11 - June 25, 1944 - Villa Voblay, France, on the outskirts of Paris. Airfield. Heavy flak over target. Left wing man exploded. Blackburn shot down. Lost one plane on takeoff and Hamilton on landing. Lost only pitot tube on our plane. 19:33.

#12 - Aschersleben, Germany. JU-88 factory. Heavy flak at the target. Hit by several ME-109’s. First meeting with the Luftwaffe. Hit target at 09:37.

#13 - July 21, 1944 - Kempten, Germany. Airplane factory. first PFF mission as lead. Some flak over target at 11:23. Had to salvo bombs in field. Led the missionˇ as lead of the wing.

#14 - August 5, 1944 - Brunswick, Germany. Airplane factory. Flak low and inaccurate at target. Lots of damage apparent, with smoke high in the sky. “Bomb Baby” flown by another crew, went down in the channel.

#15 - August 6, 1944 - Hamburg, Germany. Oil storage dump, target destroyed. Heavy flak. Osborne failed out. Lead 491st Bomb Group this day.

#16 - Saarbrucken, Germany. Made some good hits on a marshaling yard. Heavy flak at the target 14:53. Kissinger landed in Switzerland.

#17 - August 13, 1944 - Ground support for troops. target was mainly roads. Plenty of flak. Richard Zettek was killed by flak in the waist. Lead 2nd Air Division.

#18 - August 24, 1944 - Rostock, Germany. Large aircraft factory that will be out of business for a few months. Flak was inaccurate.

#19 - August 27, 1944 - Berlin, Germany. Called back at the Danish coast, but got credit for the mission.

#20 - September 11, 1944 - Magdeburg, Germany. Dropped PFF. Flak heavy but inaccurate. Flew group lead. Target at¯ 12:33.

#21 - September 26, 1944 - Hamm, Germany. PFF mission. Flak inaccurate. Target was marshaling yard.

#22 - October 2, 1944 - Hamm, Germany. Hit the marshaling yards again. No flak encountered.

#23 - October 6, 1944 - Harbourg, Germany (Little Hamburg). Oil installations. PFF bomb run. Heavy flak over target.

#24 - October 9, 1944 - Koblenz, Germany. PFF bomb run. Flak inaccurate. Hit the center of town.

#25 -  October 14, 1944 - Cologne, Germany. PFF run with a long time in the flak. Hit the marshaling yards.

#26 - October 17, 1944 - Cologne, Germany, again. Practically no flak. Hit the marshaling yards again.

#27 - October 22, 1944 -  Hamm, Germany. Marshaling yards. Deputy division lead. No flak.

#28 - October 26, 1944 - Bottrop, Germany (Happy Valley) otherwise known as the Ruhr Valley. Good hits on synthetic oil plant.

#29 - November 2, 1944 -  Bielefeld, Germany. No flak, first attack by jet fighters, the ME-262.

#30 - November 4, 1944 -  Hannover, Germany. Oil installations. Heavy flak, no fighters. -- THE LAST ONE

Also tomorrow: Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog. More Dusty Waters.

Notes from the Author: My Brain is Fried and my Bum is Mush: or is it the other way around?

My Brain is Fried and my Bum is Mush: or is it the other way around?

Welcome happy readers. I returned home yesterday from the four day Pacific Northwest Writers Association Summer Conference. Now I think I need a day or two to process all the new information crammed into my head.

I now know what Onomatopoeia, Anaphora and Anadiplosis are and how to use them in my writing. Writing that will have more impact more zip. I have an inkling of a clue how to use social media to promote my book. I’ve had a peek at trends in the publishing world. For example, the Harry Potter crowd is growing up and reaching college age still having an interest in reading but reading more mature stories. They are no longer YA (young adult) but are  now “New Adults”.

I rubbed shoulders with Agents, Publishers and other writers for three and a half days. I came away from the conference with five submission requests. (woohoo!)

Writers can be an introverted crowd and the extroverts in the bunch struggled at times (”What is wrong with you people!”). I found that I could engage anytime I wanted (people LOVE to talk about a book they are writing) but could also be invisible in a room full of people.

Philip the Bard will return very soon, and I will share more tidbits of wisdom from the conference and I will look for fun and interesting things to discuss here. I hope you will join me in conversation.

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Excerpts from Dusty's book.

Philip Normer’s Harappan Blog: An excerpt from “I Need A Drink: We’ve all had quite a shock”

Welcome wonderful readers. I was going to share some of Dusty’s stories from her book but thought that it might be better to just include an excerpt from the book itself. So with Dusty’s permission;

Sierra and I had had enough. We could see how beautiful little Maxi was but she wouldn’t let anybody else see it. After her date with that dirtbag Fitzgerald we decided that she needed a makeover and Sierra and I were the people to do it.

Up till then Max figured her peasant top was the hight of fashion. Make up? That poor girl knew nothing about how to paint a face. 

One day before the saloon opened Sierra brought Max over to my office ostensibly to talk about the local health inspector and we worked her over. Worked her over good too. I borrowed a little black dress from Lydia, one of my girls who happened to be Max’s size. Oh, did we have a hard time getting Max into that dress!

“Too revealing!” Max would whine.

It was low cut and the hemline was half way tween the knee and the you know what. What we learned was that Max had the legs to pull that dress off. Who knew?

Max hadn’t yet cut her hair so we put some curls into her straight black mane. I did the eyes. Max had lovely, exotic, almond shaped eyes and when we accented them they were truly hypnotic. I don’t fancy girls but I couldn’t take my eyes off her when we’d finished. Sierra picked out a deep red for the lips which were as full and inviting as any I’ve ever seen.

Max was simply breathtaking. I had seen in her a natural beauty but I had no idea that she could clean up so well. I mean it, really. I only wish I’d taken a picture of that moment. A lot of people would be surprised to see Max in that way.

Sierra and I fawned over Max, telling her over and over how beautiful she looked. Max just looked in the mirror and blushed. 

Sierra left to get the saloon open while I twisted Max’s arm to tend the bar dressed and painted as she was. She told me that she would but she had to go to her apartment above the bar first. She crossed the street in a rush and ran down the alley behind her saloon and into the back door.

Sierra had already served the first round of beers to Skip, Ron and Bucky, the regulars, when she heard Max headed down stairs.

Sierra looked up to see how stunned the gathering crowd would be when they saw the new Max.

Ah, but we all know a little bit about Max Gavaskar. We all know that her sexuality is just that, hers. She came down the stairs in slacks and her embroidered peasant top. All the makeup was gone, down the sink.

Max later told me that she didn’t want the miners and dandies who came to her saloon to see her or think of her in that way. I came to understand that Max didn’t want anybody but her husband to see her in that way.

History can wonder; would the Mother have been as influential as she has been if she had let the world see her as she looked that afternoon in Salmo? Me, I think she would have been just as influential but perhaps in a different way.

That is my week readers. I have nothing planned this weekend beyond a little hammock time and a glass of wine (or two) with my friend Dorian. Until then,

“Never mix red wine with Oodo.”

Next week on the Blog: More about Dusty and another excerpt from her book “I Need A Drink: We’ve all had quite a shock.”

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Mary "Dusty" Waters

Mary "Dusty" Waters

Of all the people Max met during her Lavan exhile, Dusty is perhaps the most fascinating. Born Mary Waters in the Texas Territories on Earth. She has been evasive about the date of her birth and no verified date is known.

She is the only one of the Mother’s acquiaintenances to have written a tell all book about Max’s time on Lava. The title of her book was “I Need A Drink: We’ve all had quite a shock.”

Though it was called a tell-all it didn’t really dish much on the Mother. Dusty offered her versions of several stories that are better told in the novelization “The Gavaskar Field”. There are just two stories about Max that are not told elswheres. (I’ll get to those later) Both show Max in a good light.

Dusty did spend some time detailing life in the Salmo Hotel the brothel she ran for almost tweny years before retiring to Colonial.

She purchased the hotel from the origional owner who’s name is lost to history. She had been there, goin’ on ten years when Max showed up across the street.

Dusty had been good friends with David Green the owner Mike’s saloon (untill it was renamed Max’s). Her, David and Sanderson had regular card games in her office at least once a week. It is not know if Dusty knew David Green’s secret, but she befriended Max at her first opportunity and watched over the Mother the entire time she was on Lava.

Tomorrow: More Dusty

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Who is Sierra Nicholson?

Who is Sierra Nicholson?

Most everyone knows that Max’s time on Lava, hiding out from the SID, was a difficult and lonely time. Not everyone knows that Salmo is where Max met her lifelong best friend.

Sierra Nicholson was never someone you would think would be the best friend and confidant of the Mother of the Galaxy. She was born on Lava in Ag Tract Seventeen to Don and Delphine. She has a younger brother named Blain.

Don and Delphine moved to Lava from Earth lured by promises of free land and SID support. Turned out the soil on the land was lifeless as was all of Lava. The SID did provide soil ammendments and did help set up these family farms. However, as with most profit based orginizations their support waned when they discoverred how much support these farms would need. Farming on Lava turned out to be a hardscrabble life until the Food Riots in Lavan Year Tweny-Four.

Perhaps it was the hardships or maybe Don and Delphine were just not cut out to raise children or at least not Sierra. She ran away from home when she was sixteen and spent almost a year living on the sttreets in Colonial, Lava’s Capitol. She has never been very open about her time on the streets but one must suspect it was a rough time for her.

Things got so bad for her in the city she headed out to Salmo looking for work in the mines. Even today she is a little thing. No one would ever expect to see her weild a pick. But then, I think she’s done a  lot of things no one thought she could. 

When the mining thing didn’t work out for her she tried to hit up the Madam in town for a job as a prostitute. Dusty, who ran the Salmo Hotel and whom I’ll be writing about soon, introduced Sierra to Max as a possible barmaid. The rest is history.

You can read about how their friendship grew in the novelization “The Gavaskar Field” which recounts Max’s time on Lava.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Exploring Lava

Philip the Bard’s Harappan Blog

The recently released novel “The Gavaskar Field” does a fine job of detailing Max’s life on the run while she lived on Planet Lava but not everything about that time is in the book.

I took a trip to Lava shortly after the Galactic War and met many of Max’s Lavan friends. It’s an interesting circle, that’s for sure.

Over the next few posts I’ll do what I can to fill in some of the gaps in information about Max’s Lavan Period.

I actually had a beer in Max’s Saloon once. Max’s friend Sierra took over the establishment and kept the name. I understand there is still a Max’s Saloon in Salmo but Sierra has long since retired and the entire block was leveled and rebuilt.

The original saloon was a mud brick building with double swinging doors, poker tables and a dart board. There was a large painting of Harvest Day behind the bar and several paintings from Old Earth around the room. I remember two of the Earth paintings were of fantastic mountain scenes. I’ve heard that Earth is a beautiful planet though I’ve never been.

Salmo was the end of the paved road. I’m guessing that even after all these years it still is. The hills around town are loaded with silver and gold as well as some more exotic minerals (not illumaphane though) and is still a major mining center.

While Salmo is now something resembling any other town back when Max was hiding out there it was a rough and tumble, ramshackle excuse for a community. Max later said her Lavan experience tempered her for what was to come.

Tomorrow; Who is Sierra Nicholson?

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Notes From the Author: What kinds of stories are these?

Notes from the Author:

What kind of stories are these?

I was talking to a friend who is currently reading the Gavaskar Field and said she was enjoying it. She did mention that she was curious about the sequel. I tried to give her a one line description of what was to come and she said it helped her. So here is, not a synopsis but a description of all the novels in this series.

The Harappan Secrets is the three volume historical background. Not sure if it will ever see publication but it is the foundation for the entire saga.

The Gavaskar Field is a fun romp with hookers, gamblers and other ne’er-do-wells. I chose to start publication with this book because it is a fun and adventurous way to jump into the series. You don’t need to know all the history to read this one.

Kusha, the next in line, due out near the Holidays, is action, action, action. Things blow up, there are space battles and car chases (really). I think in the long run this one will be my favorite. I love to write action. Visualization is one of my strengths as a writer. There are also some big twists coming.

The Mother of the Galaxy ends the series in grand fashion. The issues dealt with here are galactic in scale. It is also a bit more philosophical and inward looking, exploring what makes the souls of us humans tick? The Mother of the Galaxy is the emotional finale of this series. In other words it is the soul and heart of this project.

That will be the conclusion of the Harappan History Project (at least until the movies start) but not my writing career. I have plans . . .

Stay tuned . . . I also have plans for a fan fiction opportunity.

Richard de la Tour

Earth Year 2013

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The sad story of Debendra Gavaskar

The Sad Story of Debendra Gavaskar

One of the common stories from Max’s childhood and youth was the, much too often, occurrence of people asking her if she was related to Debendra Gavaskar. She had to reply over and over that no, he was born many years after Max’s ancestors left Earth with Marcus Johnson.

Now poor old Debendra is almost lost to history. The starship named after him no longer exists and the entire galaxy thinks the Gavaskar Field was named after Max.

Who was he? He discovered the Gavaskar Field or underspace. On Earth in the early Twenty-first Century there was a lot of research into the nature of matter and Higgs Field Theory was developed. 

The later part of the century was dominated by environmental disasters and research took a back seat to reconstruction. When the environment was repaired and things started to settle down the SID was formed.

The Leadership Council of the Greenies ran things through their Scribes and Criers networks. The Science and Industry Division was established to provide for humanity what the Green agrarian life style could not. The SID ran factories, mostly automated and universities.

Debendra was born in Earth Year 2230. When he was seven he was drafted into the SID university system. He was a lab assistant in 2256 when they first discovered illumaphane.

It was studies with the strange mineral that led Debendra to his discovery. His genius was to connect the physics of the Higgs Field and quantum mechanics to the force of gravity and the structure of matter on the universal scale. The new mineral was the only thing found up till then that had any effect on gravity. The illumaphane made it possible to discover the workings of gravity and revealed the underlying structure of matter.

He proved the bubble universe theory first proposed in the Twentieth Century by Stephen Hawking and others. The field was named after him and humanitie’s second starship based on his theories bore his name. (the first being The Marcus Johnson)

When Max made her discovery about the Gavaskar Field it opened up the galaxy to exploration in ways it never had been before. Max became the most famous person in the galaxy and from then on everyone assumed the Gavaskar Field was named after her and Debendra was almost lost to history.

Tomorrow: Back to stories from Max's youth.

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Winning Yam Recipes

The Kushan Yam Festival: with winning recipes

I understand that on ancient Earth, County Fairs and Harvest Festivals were common. After the Green Revolution they were the primary entertainment on all of Earth outside of Cascadia. The Greenies did not allow anything that did not honor their Green Messiah, Marcus Johnson. Most Earthers lived agrarian lives during the Pax Veridis but the Earth Revolution opened up the old religious wounds and things were different. Back when these religious wars were starting no one would have ever imagined the latest turn in Earth history. The Redemption of Earth has been a wonderful thing to watch.

Here on Kusha we celebrate the Kushan Yam with two harvest festivals. The yams look similar to Earth Yams but are sweeter and more nutritious. Some scientists speculate they may have been genetically engineered by someone hundreds of thousands of years ago since the combination of proteins and amino acids seems to be too good to have been arrived at by standard evolutionary models.

There are two harvests each year. We are just completing the first harvest there will be another one in three months.

My band the Gutterminds played Sunday afternoon for the end of the festival. It was such a beautiful day, just a light breeze and a pretty strong aurora.

I had more than my share of Yam Beer but shied away from the Yam Vodka.

A couple of weeks ago I told you the tale of the great Snowball game of Two-hundred. Well, we don’t have much snow anywhere near Harappa City on Kusha but we still play Snowball. The only rule change to accommodate the lack of snow was a smaller goal. This since we couldn’t build defensive walls in front. It it still a ring but now only about five meters across.

There were some lively matches but I didn’t get to see the finals since I was playing music at the time. I hear a team from Mandan won the tournament.

When it comes to the Kushan Yam competition there are two categories. Savory and Desert.

Connie Wang won the Savory Ribbon, her dish consisted of lightly steamed paper thin slices of Kushan yam seated on a bed of sautéed greens and blues. It was dusted with tadril spice and garnished with edible bolon flowers. Simple, but elegant, and the flavor combinations were perfect.

In the sweet catagory, Indy Wells Kushan yam pie was delicious. The recipe is as follows;

Make crust first. Recipe below. 

Crust

1 hand goat cheese

3 hands grane

Liquid as needed

Blend grane and cheese well. Add liquid as needed to have ingredients stick together. Chill for 1 hour. Roll out to desired thickness and place in pie pan. 

Filling 

2 hands grane

2 hen eggs or  1 ubo egg

1 full dip goats milk

1 hand goat cheese

1/2 dip sweet

1 cooked Kushan yam, mashed

1/2 hand dried tellon berries

1/4 dip yam vodka

Soak tellon berries in vodka, set aside. Mix well the sweet and yam. Add eggs and cheese, mix well. Slowly add milk and grane alternating. Strain berries and save the vodka for a refreshing drink later! Carefully blend in berries.

Pour into crust and bake until done - center should be solid - at       degrees.

Tomorrow: The sad story of Debendra Gavaskar

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479