The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1944-11-30
OTIS CARNEY
CHAPTER Nv

OukA1 En-
Barred from the Navy's VT
program because he lacked two
wears of college math, Lester
Dowd tries to enlist in the Coast
Guard but is turned down because
of a facial squirt" The doctor
refuses even to examine him.
Commander Whitman, an old
friend of the family, endeavors
to get waiver for Lester so he
can join VT, but after weeks of
waiting Lester learns they still
insist on two years of college
math. He is successful in joining
the VS. Naval Aviation and is
sent to Anacostia Naval Base.
Six weary weeks of preliminary
ground school pass by and he is
finally driven to a flying field.
Before the war Hyde Field had
been operated by a pioneer avia-
tor known in flying circles as AL
Manning. He called his field Aps
Airport and attracted clients by
doing breath-taking aerial stunts
on Sunday and then teaching his
magic to young aspirants during
the week. The populace was be-
coming increasingly air-minded,
and Al left a pretty good thing
when the Navy evicted him.
I dwelt for minute on the
romance involved. Manning span
ned the period between the last
war and this. After World War
he returned and eked out a
living as a transformer, risking
his neck to prove that aviation
was really here to stay. The field
was laboratory in which the ex-
pertinent developed slowly from
year to year, and now that Al had
passed along, myself and countless
others stood by to carry on. It
was a grand heritage.
Swaying a little in this emo
tional gust. took time to mock
the withered sages of my school
days who shook their learned
pates and preached that adventure
had died in the glorious long ago.
They were sorry about this, but
told us frankly that our genera
ton was doomed to find the world
in its senility and our only con-
ISOLATION was that it would get
worse and worse.
I hadn't noticed much improve
ment myself until this moment.
The sight of planes, lined in even
rows, speeded the pulse. The sun
had risen higher and shone on the
rich green woods acorss the way.
The roar of the planes was pow
erful roar. There was a youthful
surging in the bright morning,
and there was adventure enough
for any young man who pulled
goggles over his eyes and dared
climb in to the sky.
I was gulping down satisfaction
like lotus when David Munk,
stoop shouldered, slow speaking
lad from the West Virginia hills,
ambled up, his hands in his pock-
cts. had come to know him well.
He was, from point of service,
two weeks my senior, and since
sleep and way of life that lean
ed radically toward leisure were
his chief concerns, he had been
forced to discover low ways of
by-passing Naval routine. He glad
ly passed these secrets on to a
newcomer whose philosophy was,
in many respects, in harmony with
his own.
''Dowa; o. K, SON." he drawled.
"Ah see you have ole CLOSEUP for
an instructor"
what sort of fellow is he?"
asked, still suffering from visions
of Drake and the new Elizabethan
era that had sprung up underfoot.
Hes a nawthun boy" he COM
mented as if it had important
bearing on thesis of his, 'and
he's full of slime and vinegar"
'FHe sounds pretty bad" Even
Adventures fret now and again.
"Ah had him at first" Munk
elaborated, "and that ole roach
made me so mad ah told Captain
Miller to give me a new instruc-
tab. All volunteahd into this out
fit, and if ah listened to much
more of that ole boy ah wuzz
goin' to volunteah out"