Flying under the radar

Being continually on the road travelling from job to job often allows me to see sights that are sometimes different, but always entertaining. This past week was no exception as I left Stanford on a rainy spring day headed to Hazard. Now I always take 150 East through Crab Orchard on my way eventually to I-75. Crab Orchard has always been of an historic nature as it is smack dab on the Wilderness Road that the Longhunters and Daniel Boone blazed as they came across the mountains and through Cumberland Gap to Kain-tu -Wa. Over the years covered wagons would wait out the winter and stay in Crab Orchard until the wild crab trees bloomed as the signal that spring was here and the time to travel westward had arrived. The very name Crab Orchard came from these fragrant flowering trees. The famous Calloway family eventually settled near Crab Orchard from Boonesboro after the infamous capture of two Calloway sisters and Jemimiah Boone by the Shawnee Indians near the Kentucky River. All ended well as Danial Boone and the settlers hotly pursued the girls and reclaimed them from the savages. Later on Crab Orchard was a strategic settlement on a military road used by both the North and South during the four years of the Civil War. As a matter of fact John Hunt Morgan and his calvary often camped out at Crab Orchard and nearby Stanford on their frequent raids into Yankee territory. Crab Orchard then became nationally famous as the location of Springs with reputed healing powers to those who bathed in the water. A large hotel and other related business sprang up around the springs, and often elite social groups would meet ther to socialize and enjoy the therapy. All too soon however hard times fell on the pastoral little village and it just became a speed zone before the Wilderness Road headed on to Stanford and Danville. This laborious monologue only serves to give background on this quaint little hamlet as it finds itself adrift on the sea of past historical significance,and about to be washed ashore on the slippery slopes of relative obscurity. As I was passing through I recalled that the present mayor and council were working on some sort of Veterans Park, and I turned down the little lane by city hall to suddenly turn left and come face to face with Crab Orchard's vision of reclaiming the past! In front of my eyes was this honest to goodness, ass kicking Cobra helicopter gunship! Some brilliant bureaucrat had impaled a stout steel pipe into the fuselage and had suspended the whole thing above a monsterous concrete cube, much like a surreal steel and titanium popcicle!Here we are in the middle of serene little Crab Orchard and the Veterans are paying homage to a killing machine that rained death upon Mr. and Mrs. Victor Charles in the rice paddies of nearly 40 years and half across the world ago. Never mind that nearby Stanford has a gaudy red caboose that drinks gallons of bright fire engine paint every couple of years, or that other towns have artillery pieces. Crab Orchard has trumped the historic game with something so alien and bizarre to its past that it is almost comical. The Cobra, officially called the AH-1G was developed as a fast, efficient way to protect American troops in Vietnam, and really did an impressive job as it could literally turn large bodies of enemy troops into body parts. Armed with a deadly gatling gun in the nose, as well as 20mm cannon and 40mm grenade launchers, the Cobra became quite the legend among the Viet Cong and NVAs. Often painted with fearsome white fangs much like the Flying Tigers, the Cobra could readily provide support to beseiged GIs as they slugged it out in the jungles below.The Crab Orchard Cobra is a remarkable picture of streamlined sleekness as it is only wide enough for the pilot to sit up front like a jet pilot with his gunner behind and slightly above him. I think of how old Daniel Boone could have used the Cobra in his pursuit of those red skinned savage Shawnees over 200 years ago, or how John Hunt Morgan would have struck fear in the hearts of the Yankee aggressors. I can just see General Burnside's troops cowering in fear as the Cobra came screaming over Camp Nelson, its mini guns ablaze and rockets raining on the boys in blue. Realistically I guess its commendable that Crab Orchard has the thing, but it already needs painting , and I can't wait to see the color scheme that the Garden Club and the DARs will come up with! As a matter of fact those in power are already covering the concrete base with what look like brown geodes. The Cobra will perpetually hover over a pile of brown rocks, quite the stirring picture.There will be somewhat of a cultural clash as the numerous Amish use the park to hitch their horses and buggies. What a picture of contrasts!! Do you suppose the Amish, peaceniks that they are, realize the devastation and death this helicopter has rained upon the earth?? Talk about beating the swords into plowshares! I figure some of the Amish brethren are already figuring on how to turn the rotor into some kind of wind mill. I can only hope that the town drunks don't figure out how to arm the mini guns because they're aimed right at city hall and the police station . The one policeman wouldn't have a chance. I guess in conclusion that everything has dreams , even little towns, and that the Cobra gives Crab Orchard some feeling of wholeness. I just hope that Stanford's Mayor doesn't hear about the helicopter. Who knows what we could end up with here in Stanford?? Maybe a decommisioned nuclear sub on the banks of St. Asaphs Creek. Why don't we just steal the rotor from the Cobra and put it on our red, red caboose??Think about Radar Love. "I've been flyin all night with my hands on the wheel........