Perspectives

[Pigboatcook]

Perspectives

(Kansas City, Missouri)

"Let me tell you about them Zeros" said the grandfather recalling the time his submarine had been surprised by the warplane.

"The devils were hard to spot and fast as lightning. I was on the boat's AA gun blasting away as it dove on us. The engine screaming, and me sending out firey tracers trying to get it before it got us. Just as he released his bombs on us my aim found it's mark and he crashed not 100 feet off our beam. It was bone shaking scary that fight", he added.

His grandson listened intently with awe and respect for the old man but soon the TV box regained his attention.
.....
(Palm Springs, California)

"Yeah", said the old guy sitting next to me at the bar, "I was standing on the bridge watching that Zero and the pilot had every intention of crashing into our boat for the emperor as he dropped his bombs. Thing was he dropped them too low and the explosions in the water gysered up and knocked him right out of the sky. I bet that surprised that fella flying that plane. He crashed alright, just not into us."

I listened to his war story and wondered if he was ever really a submariner. Yea or ney I ordered him another beer and changed the subject to football.
.....
(Osaka, Japan)

"I was trying to bomb this American submarine not far off of Guam. Down I went, guns blazing at the black shape on the water. Just when I released the bombs my goggles fogged up and was suddenly blind as a bat. The next thing I knew I was floating in the water" said the winkled old pilot of a long ago war.

"Luckily I crashed not far from the beach and the tide took me in. I haven't flown a plane since" he added as he rubbed his old aching right leg.

I bowed to the old man and as I walked away from him I wondered how lucky he had been to survive the great war, if he had really been a pilot that is.
.....
(The Pacific Ocean, five miles west of the beaches of Guam)

Far under the waters of the Pacific was what remained of a Zero fighter. Still visible in it's deteriorating skin were dozens of bullet holes. It's
undercarriage bulged inward as if it had been kicked in by a blast. Only a small fragment of the Divine Wind scarf remained on the rusting floor of the cockpit. All would eventually be dissolved by the sunless deep sea that neither cared nor worried about how it had ended up down there.