Fighter Pilots

Lately we have all watched in wonder and some distress as Russia’s Putin announced that he was going to invade the Republic of Ukraine. Reasons given were sort of vague. President Putin said he was going in there and get rid of the Nazi’s that he said had taken over the country.

I didn’t really care all that much, as I wasn’t too sure where this place is, and I thought it was already a part of Russia. Well, I guess I was wrong about that. Turns out that the Republic of Ukraine was an independent democracy and as such a free country. Putin slowly gathered his army and sort of in an old biblical manner prepared and executed his invasion. Since then, many of us watch this war like it was some sort of “continued” event while Putin directs his forces here and there and much to everyone’s amazement fires cannon and tank fire into giant high rises, filled to the brim with people. The surprised locals flee as best they can for a place called Poland. Strange enough, trains still run to Poland and so far about three million people have fled all the shooting and slaughter. It’s been an unbelievable and strange carnage and continues right along as I write this.

The USA is helping the Ukrainians quite a lot, but President Biden fears angering Putin so much that he might get mad enough to fire a missile our way. He would like to help out more than what we are but, as my cousin Corky used to say, “it’s just a case of there you are.” Putin has, however, been acting strange. A lot of “what if’s” have come up. These things are exacerbated by Putin himself. He is frightening.

You see, a few of us (me) have been alive for a long time. Alive, for instance in 1941 when a bad boy named Adolph Hitler enjoyed taking to the airways and making threatening speeches to his adversaries. And everyone was his perceived adversaries. Just about the whole world.

My dad had this big Zenith Radio console with a big, illuminated dial on its front. One of the “bands” printed on this dial read “Radio Berlin.” Radios were like that in those days. One night Hitler was scheduled to make an important speech and my dad tuned him in. I can still remember hearing him raging along, an English interpreter telling us what he said. His voice, to me initiated a great fear. Here was the voice of the devil himself. Fear was in our house. Fear was in my heart.

Nowadays hearing Putin raging about his enemies reminds me of Hitler. Main difference is this: Hitler could start a war and rage, but he couldn’t actually deliver a bomb to Oklahoma. Putin can. He has A-weapons and rockets. Long range ones that could hit Oklahoma. We need to be very careful during this time. Hitler was able to get us in a war.

As a 2 ^nd grader I was ready for Hitler. After seeing some newsreels up at Centrahoma School most of my 2 ^nd grade class turned out to be great make-believe fighter pilots and we shot down lots of German fighter plans. My grandpa loitered around our grocery store a lot and my interest in war news caused me to listen to him read the Daily Oklahoman aloud for my benefit. His reading and coaching soon had me able to read some of it myself. He taught me how to read by word recognition. Words like “war” and “Nazi.”

I soon learned that the Germans favorite fighter plane was a Messerschmidt. I considered this warplane so important I learned how to spell it. Since my teacher, Mrs. Lewis had been so critical of my academic abilities and in particular my poor spelling she heard me say this word once to another kid and I heard her say sort of to herself — bet he can’t spell it. But I could.

Not too long ago, one of my grownup grandson’s (Braden) become engaged to a Texas girl named Amy Messerschmidt. I got an email this weekend and they are engaged to marry. And you guessed it, thanks to Adolph Hitler and my grandpa, I can spell her last name.

Wayne Bullard, DPh cwaynebullard@gmail. com