April 25, 2023 Mentors and Role Models

The Liberty Gazette

April 25, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Over the years, I have received exceptional guidance from mentors and role models. My first flight instructor, Dennis Reece, was a fireman and taught flying part-time. A pilot’s first instructor can make or break the student pilot’s experience. Even though he taught part-time, he worked with me all the way through my private pilot training. I was fortunate to have had only one flight instructor during that formative period.

Mr. Galloway was an instructor who taught night classes in meteorology at Mt. San Antonio College. His methods of teaching a difficult subject made it fun. Dedicated to his students, he let them know they were important. Once, when I missed a class session because I was sick, he called the next day to see how I was and to go over everything he had covered in class. When he passed away, over 400 of his former students traveled from all over the world to attend his memorial service. I wish every instructor I knew was like him. 

Bruce Riggins was a missionary pilot for African Inland Missions who trained me for my commercial pilot certificate. His training was more in-depth than required to pass the checkride. He taught me survival skills, such as how to escape from a narrow box canyon and how to avoid them in the first place.

Chuck Gifford was the former head of the Aviation Department at Cypress College. I was already set to take my checkride for my flight instructor certificate when I began attending classes and Chuck convinced me to wait on the checkride so I could compete on the school’s flying team. Getting my instructor certificate would promote me to professional status, preventing me from competing in college. This benefited me as I honed my flying skills, expanded my knowledge, and learned more about teamwork and mentoring. After completing my instructor checkride he asked me to be a team advisor to pass along what I’d learned.

Travis Flannery, a Designated Pilot Examiner and instructor worked with me for the first twenty hours of flight instructor training. His grandfather-like demeanor and patience belied his 30,000 hours of teaching people to fly airplanes. He took me up in a Cessna 150, taught me, as he called them, “walk-down” stalls. The wing buffets and drops in a stall and the pilot corrects this by properly using the rudder. It’s a kind of dance. He also had me performing very precise steep-banked eights-on-pylons in high winds, building both skills and confidence in handling an airplane in any situation.

My parents top my list of role models. They encouraged my brothers, my sister, and I to pursue our dreams. They couldn’t pay for our college or flight training, but they were always there. They celebrated the highs and waded through lows with each of us. They were always willing to stop and listen, no matter the time or place, they made time for us. They gave us themselves, the best kind of role model.  

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 18, 2023 Wing-Walking School

The Liberty Gazette

April 18, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

If you shake a can of soda pop and open it right away, all the exhilaration contained in the can will burst forth, because some things are just too exciting to suppress. That’s the feeling of accomplishment displayed in victorious leaps and hollers, “Wahoo!” that Mike and Marilyn Mason see nearly every day as they teach wing-walking at Mason Wing Walking Academy.

If you’re over 18, don’t weigh more than 230 pounds, and are physically able, you too can learn to climb out of a Stearman at 3,500 feet above the ground, pull up onto the wings, and strap yourself securely there to join in the graceful dance of vertical climb until you’re weightless (that’s zero-g), pivot, and descend, as your classic dance partner leads you in a hammerhead. 

The Masons have been teaching and sharing their passion for a couple of decades, training wing-walkers to become members of this elite club. Theirs is the only wing-walking school in the world.

They do not use parachutes because if they inadvertently deployed while wing-walking, there could be disastrous entanglements with the aircraft. They do use safety harnesses and safety cables, and they’ve never had anyone fall.

Besides gusto and agility, what does it take to do this? $850 for an introductory course or $1,250 for a full course. The difference is in how many deck levels on which you get to cruise. Successful completion of the introductory course will qualify you to walk the upper wing of the biplane. In the full course, you will learn how to maneuver on both upper and lower wings.

You’ll also receive an unedited video and still photos taken from four GoPro cameras attached to the airplane. Two cameras will be shooting video and two will be shooting stills every half-second.

The adventure happens over scenic Sequim, on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Just imagine the earth seemingly spinning around you as your biplane gently rolls, pausing inverted for a moment of zero-g photo op. Due to the abundance of fresh air and the gentleness of the aerobatics, motion sickness won’t be a problem. You can do this in a day or make it a weekend if you can’t get enough of it. The first four or five hours you’ll be in ground school, practicing on climbing around the outside of the Stearman, attached to the safety harness and cables. When you have that down, it’s time to pirouette with your winged partner in the sky!

If you’re bored in your job, you might even consider wing-walking as a rewarding career. While there’s not a lot of demand for wing-walkers, you will impress friends and strangers at parties when you tell them what you do for a living. 

Is it for you? You’ll never know unless you try. Mike and Marilyn would enjoy showing you the ropes, er, cables, and celebrating with you like a shaked-up Coke bursting free on a beautiful summer day. See what they have to offer at masonwingwalking.com. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

April 11, 2023 Shower Not Included

The Liberty Gazette

April 11, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

In the 1950’s, NASA was looking for a better vehicle to return astronauts from space. Space capsules aren’t real maneuverable, and they’re subject to high re-entry forces due to rapid deceleration. That’s why they relied on parachutes to gently bring the capsules down. Conventional winged aircraft isn’t an option for re-entering the earth’s atmosphere because the wings would burn up during re-entry due to friction. So, in 1957 Dr. Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., designed a wingless aircraft he called a “lifting body.” Lift was obtained from the shape of the body rather than wings. The nosecone shape enabled it to glide back to earth rather than plummet. Its slower deceleration and ability to turn allowed for more landing choices, too.

But nay-sayers said it wouldn’t work without deployable wings and engines. The idea was shelved until engineer R. Dale Reed got permission to make a model to test the theory. NASA called it the M2-F1. It was a low-budget project with a big influence on space travel. To quote Lance Geiger, better known as “The History Guy,” it was “a time when pure engineering enthusiasm could make a bathtub fly.” 

The Director of the NASA Flight Research facility, Paul Bikle, was a man of common sense (and a world record-setting glider pilot). He knew that if they sought NASA funding and involved aircraft manufacturers, there would be so much bureaucracy that it would take too long, cost too much, and have a higher chance of failure than if he kept the project in-house and invited interested engineers and scientists to work on it voluntarily. Sure enough, they built it in just four months. Now they’d need a ground vehicle to tow it at speed to get it airborne. Like running and flying a kite.

After some time in the wind tunnel, and fitted with an ejection seat, the aircraft dubbed by the LA Times as Reed’s “flying bathtub” began test flights. They bought a Pontiac Catalina convertible and had it souped up to make 110 mph in 30 seconds while towing the 1,000-pound M2-F1 experiment piloted by Milt Thompson on the Muroc dry lakebed.

Bikle had put his career on the line with this horizontal landing space vehicle. After almost 80 test flights over three years, 1963-1966, the novel idea that opened the doors to further innovation was finally retired, a success. The Lifting Body program which Dale Reed had championed had proved to be a good bet for Bikle, as the knowledge gained led to the building of NASA’s space shuttles. 

R. Dale Reed wrote a book about his experience in 1997, “Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story.” You can see the M2-F1 at the Air Force Flight Testing Museum at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In pop culture history, Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, was “rebuilt” after a crash of the M2-F2, the successor to the M2-F1. While that aircraft really did crash, the pilot, Bruce Peterson, fully recovered and continued to fly for NASA.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

April 4, 2023 A Guys' Camping Trip

The Liberty Gazette

April 4, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: In the spring of 1979, my friend Dennis and I made a weekend camping trip in the Southern Sierra Nevada. I rented a Grumman American Tiger from my flying club and flew over the city, desert, and mountains, from Fullerton to Kernville, in about 90 minutes. It would have been a five-hour drive.  

Leaving Los Angeles’ crowded and complex airspace behind, we traversed a mountain ridge and a small corner of the Mojave Desert. Edwards Air Force base, where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, was just east of our route. We slid above a nice mountain valley with the waters of Lake Isabella welcoming us. There, in a flat spot on the east shore, was Kern Valley Airport. 

Lake Isabella is fed by snowmelt from the peaks of the High Sierra. The Kern River, noted for some of the toughest rapids of any river in North America, fills the lake to capacity during spring runoff. For months, the south end of Kern Valley’s runway was under water and unusable. A new runway was under construction further up the shore where it wouldn’t be flooded (that runway was completed a year later, in 1980). When we landed, the lake was already lapping at the pavement. We’d stay only one night, otherwise we’d be stuck. 

Dennis and I rented an old, beat-up Ford LTD, unloaded our camping gear from the plane, and after checking out some of the hamlets scattered about the valley, headed up-river to a forest service campground. After setting up camp, we dug out our dinner. Dinty Moore Beef Stew. That’s when we discovered that neither of us had brought a can opener. I don’t remember what “Plan B” was, but we didn’t starve. 

As the shadows grew long, Dennis wandered off along the bank of the river. A while later, I followed. I found him sitting high up on the bank mesmerized by a beaver building a dam on the opposite bank. As I approached, I whispered, “Hey Dennis.” He answered, “shuuu!” and excitedly pointed to the beaver. I again tried to get his attention, and he repeated his “shuuu!” 

“Dennis!” I finally pressed, “You are sitting in poison oak!” His head popped up, he looked around, and jumped. The beaver paid us no mind and kept on gnawing at the vegetation.  

Fortunately, Dennis didn’t break out in a rash. The following day after loading the plane for departure, we had some trouble with the left brake. It got stuck after I had set the parking brake the night before. With the help of all the pilots hanging out in the local airport diner, rocking the plane back and forth, the brake finally unlocked. On takeoff, as we crossed the end of the runway, we could see that in just one day, water was already edging up over the asphalt. Had our brake taken longer to jar loose, we’d have been grounded for some time. As it was, ours was the last plane out. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 28, 2023 Aloha!

The Liberty Gazette

March 28, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The story often begins like this: In 1922, a 16-year-old Canadian girl who had been sent to a convent in Europe found her way out by answering an ad in a Paris newspaper looking for a partner in adventure. 

Idris Galcia Hall Welsh was a tomboy who read voraciously from her step-father’s collection of adventure books and dreamed of sleeping “with the winds of heaven blowing round her head.” She was already an explorer at heart. The gig was run by a Polish adventurer whose name most people couldn’t pronounce, so he gave himself the stage name, Walter Wanderwell. Idris signed up for the deal: to drive around the world in a Ford Model T, and Walter gave her a new name: Aloha Wanderwell. They’d show films from their travelogue, sell photos, and give lectures to make money. 

From that point, her story mostly focuses on the wild tales that came from the years that made her the “world’s most widely traveled girl.” She was a beautiful gal, six feet tall, blue eyes and long blonde hair that twisted and curled like Shirley Temple’s hair did, and she carried a pet monkey. Eventually, the pair married and had two children. Those are a few of the basics. Now let’s get on to the flying – because she did that, too. 

Linda: In 1931, motivated by the desire to search for the lost explorer, Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett, and the Lost City of Z (the legendary city of Eldorado), which he was looking for when he vanished, she and Walter flew a German seaplane called a Junkers to Descalvados Ranch in Cuibá and set up camp. When they took off to fly over uncharted Mato Grosso in Brazil, their plane ran out of fuel, and they landed on the Paraguay River. Walter hiked out to get help while Aloha stayed in the Amazon basin with the Bororo tribe. They all got along well, and Aloha just kept doing what she had been doing (sans airplane), that is, documenting everything on film. Turned out, hers was the first footage ever taken of this tribe, making it an important contribution to anthropology and other studies of humanity and cultures. The tribe performed a ceremonial dance for the camera and men demonstrated having sympathetic labor pains. God bless them! 

Aloha and Walter never found Percy Fawcett or the lost city, but when they finally got home, she edited the film and released it as, “Flight to the Stone Age Bororos.” They later used some of the footage for other films, “River of Death” and “The Last of the Bororos.” The Smithsonian has copies in their Human Studies Film Archives as does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Mike: Aloha had wanted the pages of those adventure books to come alive. I’d say she surpassed her dreams, exploring the most exotic places on earth and taking to flying a seaplane like it was just another page in a story to live out. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

March 21, 2023 Our Friend, Mary Anne

The Liberty Gazette

March 21, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Liberty is a better place because of Mary Anne Campbell. We miss her, that kind, gracious, lady with her beaming, beautiful smile. When I think of Mary Anne, I can hear her voice, the distinctive wayin which she pronounced words, and I see those sparkling eyes. And that desk full of papers. Mail, magazines, notes, gifts, and who knows what else. “I’ve got to get this cleaned up,” she always seemed to say. But somehow, she was able to put her hands on what she wanted. Either that, or she’d call us back as soon as she found it, whatever it was. 

Mike: Mary Anne was a dear personal friend. She kept several copies of all our books at the Chamber office. She was also a treasured friend to the community. And she was a supportive friend to the Liberty Municipal Airport. She encouraged us to keep on keepin’ on, to promote aviation and our little community airport, to keep putting it out there, front and center, so everyone would understand its significance. 

She invited us to address the Chamber in March 2008 to discuss the economic impact of the Liberty Municipal airport on our city as well as it’s crucial role as part of the national airspace system. 

She helped with logistics in the planning and execution of “Hope Flies,” the 2008 fund-raiser fly-in for a local family, the “Trick-or-Treat Poker Run” in 2009, and the “Valentine’s Treasure Hunt” in 2011. 

Linda: I remember Bruce and Andrea joining their mother for the start of the poker run at the Liberty Municipal Airport. More than a hundred people had flown in to play the game. They came in Cessnas and Pipers, a Mooney, and aerobatic airplanes such as an SIAI Marchetti, an F-1 Rocket and several Van’s RVs – kit-built airplanes – some with a passenger or two. One airplane hauled a family of four. Participants in the event were children from as young as 19 months to senior citizens in their 80’s, and some even brought along the family dog. They came from Pearland, Sugar Land, Kingwood, Baytown, Houston, Conroe, and all around the Houston area. And there was Mary Anne, welcoming them and handed out goody bags full of coupons, fliers, brochures, and samples, promoting Liberty area businesses. 

Mary Anne had had the highest bid for four VIP tickets to Wings Over Houston in that year’s Chamber “500” auction, and the family looked forward, as always, to the upcoming air show. Andrea, who already had a few hours of flight training, had the winning bid for a flight lesson at Flying Tigers at Ellington. She also snagged a ride for the poker run, and her mom was excited for her to get another chance to fly. She said it was good.

I can hear her say that, the way she pronounced “good.” It was a word she said often.

Til we see you again, dear Mary Anne, blue skies and tailwinds. You have the real VIP seat now.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 14, 2023 Solo Day Anniversary

The Liberty Gazette

March 14, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: This past week was a fun anniversary to celebrate. This time of year, in 1977, I flew my first solo flight in an airplane. It felt as if the airplane sped up quicker down the runway and leapt skyward, making a skyrocketing climb rather than a saunter to altitude, all because one less person, my instructor, wasn’t aboard; without his added weight, the airplane responded with more zip. He was speaking to me through my thoughts as I remembered the lessons he taught. As I moved controls, he was there (in my head) telling me when to adjust the throttle to change my power setting, raise or lower flaps, push the control wheel forward to lower the nose, or turn it to increase bank angle or level the wings. 

That’s what an instructor does, they take knowledge and skills they’ve gained through their own training and experiences, plus those from other pilots, and share them with new pilots. Experience, in my opinion, is the best teacher, provided you survive to learn from it–the major goal of flight instruction.

I have ten pilot logbooks stuffed with experiences, and sometimes I just look through them. Some of those entries flash images as if I were reading an epic novel. Most flights seemed tame or routine. But none of the flights, even along the same route or in the same type of aircraft, are ever identical. Each had some sort of lesson to teach, or something learned was reinforced. Learning is incremental, not always a big-bang revelation. Gaining skill and judgment only come with practice and time.

What would I change if I had to do it all again with the knowledge and experience I now have? What would I tell my teenage self? A perplexing question, since I gained what I have through the experience, and I would not want to rob myself of that, both the highs and the lows. Pondering that question seems like a waste of time. I’ll just pass what I can to the next generation of pilots. Even so, their experiences will be different.

I encourage young pilots to engage in as many different types of flying as they can, not to just focus on the airlines. They should learn soaring, fly seaplanes, and land at backcountry airstrips. Flying for the airlines may be a good career goal, but pilots need to develop judgement and leadership along with expanding their flying skills. By stretching themselves, they will grow professionally and personally. One point I make, especially with new pilots, is that there is no safe space, no place to go and hide when something goes wrong. Every decision a pilot makes has the potential to either take him or her down a path of success and survival, or, if it’s a bad decision, destruction. We make a lot of life-affecting judgment calls on every flight. We own our trophies as well as our failures.

It’s been forty-six years since I first soloed, and I’m still learning from the experience. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 7, 2023 The Brightest Stars Don't Need a Spotlight

The Liberty Gazette

March 7, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We celebrated my mom’s 90th birthday with a banquet hall full of people. I asked her if she would share some words of wisdom, but instead, she wanted to take the opportunity to express her love, mentioning something special about each person in turn. The evening proved our abundant fortune. Mom is a hero to me, but she never looks for attention. Humble and full of grace, energy, love, and laughter. 

She grew up in the shadow of the Greatest Generation, many of her uncles and older cousins serving in WWII. She remembers her mother keeping a world map on the wall at home, with pins marking family members’ last known location. All of those close kinfolks came home – not all without injury, but alive. We like to pass these family stories down the generations, and I imagine Bill Crawford’s family does likewise. 

Bill was 24 years old when he joined the Army and fought the Axis powers in Italy. When his company faced heavy enemy fire, Bill boldly attacked back. No one thought he survived, so his Medal of Honor was awarded “posthumously.” His citation reads, in part: 

“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Altavilla, Italy, 13 September 1943. When Company I … was pinned down by intense enemy machine-gun and small-arms fire, locating one of these guns … Pvt. Crawford, without orders and on his own initiative, moved over the hill under enemy fire to within a few yards of the gun emplacement and single-handedly destroyed the machine-gun and killed three of the crew with a hand grenade, thus enabling his platoon to continue its advance. When the platoon … was once more delayed by enemy fire, Pvt. Crawford again, in the face of intense fire, advanced directly to the front, midway between two hostile machine-gun nests, one located on a higher terrace, the other in a small ravine. Moving first to the left, with a hand grenade, he destroyed one gun emplacement and killed the crew; he then worked his way under continuous fire to the other, and with one grenade and his rifle, killed one enemy and forced the remainder to flee. Seizing the enemy machine gun, he fired on the withdrawing Germans and facilitated his company’s advance.”

Bill was captured and held for 19 months, but not killed. After his rescue, he re-enlisted and served another 20 years, but no one realized the mistake. In retirement, he worked as a janitor at the USAF Academy in Colorado, and it was there that a cadet discovered the error. Bill simply responded, “That was one day in my life, and it happened a long time ago.”

But word spread, and Bill Crawford was invited to attend the graduation of the Academy’s Class in 1984. Finally, among generals and VIPs, President Ronald Reagan presented the Medal of Honor to Bill.

Real heroes don’t crave the spotlight. They lead by serving, with integrity.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

February 28, 2023 Flying Queens

The Liberty Gazette

February 28, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Along West Eighth Street on the campus of Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas, was a meeting of pioneers. Former members of the Flying Queens, Wayland’s women’s basketball team since 1948, were coming to celebrate the grand opening of the Flying Queens Museum. Welcoming them was a symbol of all those who believed in them: a Beechcraft Baron.

Claude Hutcherson owned a charter company in Plainview and had a fleet of Bonanzas and Barons. He became the team sponsor, naming them Hutcherson’s Flying Queens and flying them in style to every away-game. Their coach, Harley Redin, a Marine Corps bomber pilot in WWII, often flew one of the planes.

Linda Pickens was six years old when her brother told her if she excelled at basketball, she could get a college scholarship and escape the poverty and abuse she suffered at home. She held onto that dream, becoming a Flying Queen, 1966-1969.

The Flying Queens accomplished something no other college basketball team has, men or women. Their record winning streak still stands: 131 consecutive games and four national championships. Some of these women scored full scholarships and earned post-graduate degrees. Many went on to give back, as doctors, business leaders, teachers, coaches. They stood tall and proud, determined to make a way for women’s sports. All they needed was a chance, not those who said, “Your uterus will fall out if you run too hard.” 

After Hutcherson’s Flying Queens were enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, Flying Queens Foundation President, Dr. Linda Pickens-Price, shared her vision: an on-campus museum honoring the history of these trailblazing women.

On February 18, 2023, Wayland President, Dr. Bobby Hall, joined Dr. Price in opening the museum to the public for the first time. Flying Queens who played as far back as the 1950’s descended on Plainview from across the country. Mayor Charles Starnes burst with pride as darn near the whole city filled the building and overflowed out the doors. Among them was Debby Rihn-Harvey. Debby stands far above her competition as a nine-time national champion and winner of more medals in world aerobatic contests than any other person, male or female.

About six months ago, Dr. Price asked if I knew where she could get an airplane donated to their museum project, which she envisioned sitting atop a pedestal at the entrance. I knew just the person.

“You want my Baron?” Debby asked. Yes. It hadn’t flown in a while, and she had no immediate plans to restore it. Once she heard their story, she was all-in. She prepped her beloved airplane for the nine-hour drive, had it repainted with a Flying Queens logo, and hoisted lovingly onto the pedestal, where it looks like it’s taking off for a game.

If you’re out that way, don’t cheat yourself out of a visit, where the airplane of a legend invites you to learn more about the legacies of women who were pioneers on the courts and in the air.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

February 21, 2023 Presidents' Day

The Liberty Gazette

February 21, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Who did you reflect on yesterday for Presidents’ Day? We thought of Barry Goldwater, who would have been an infinitely better choice than Johnson. 

Barry loved exploring the rugged landscape of his hometown. He was born in Phoenix before Arizona was a state. On advice from his high school principal, his parents sent him to Staunton Military Academy in Virginia to learn discipline. But when his father died suddenly of a heart attack, his military career was thwarted, and he left college to work at his family’s Goldwater’s Department Store, starting as a clerk for $15 a week.

He grew with the business, flew his own plane, and always carried a camera for the “wish-you-could-see-this” photos. Eventually, he turned his attention to community affairs, winning a seat on the Phoenix City Council. (Check it out, Tommy Brents: today, Liberty City Council, tomorrow Texas House – because Lord knows we need a decent state representative too – after that, sky’s the limit!)

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Barry was a reserve first lieutenant in the Army with more than 200 hours logged. He couldn’t fly combat due to poor vision, but he served in the Air Transport Command and in the Burma-India theater, ferrying aircraft over the Himalayan Mountains in treacherous weather, over hostile terrain. Flying the hump (of Burma) was not for the faint of heart. When the P-47 was new, he flew it across the cold Atlantic to the UK, a risky mission due to the unknown of the aircraft at that time.

After WWII, he helped form the Arizona National Guard and joined the Air Force Reserve. Besides personal sacrifices and contributions to our country, he cared about humanity. As senator, he preached individualism, the sanctity of private property, anticommunism, and the dangers of centralized power. He listened to real, hard-working, honest Americans and helped present their views on limited government, welfare, and defense. In a nutshell, his motto was: “Live Free or Die.” He thought, “a guy running for office who says exactly what he really thinks would astound a lot of people.” But Lyndon Johnson was well-known for his hefty bag of dirty political tricks and used them prolifically. 

The Heritage Foundation called Barry Goldwater “the most consequential loser in American politics.” If he had been elected President in 1964, here are two things they say would have likely happened: 

First, there would be no “Great Society.” Barry believed in the Constitution and citizens helping each other – no need for government intervention.

Second, we’d have had nowhere near the death toll in the Vietnam War. He did not believe we should enter a ground war in Vietnam. 

Was he perfect? Of course not. While serving as an alter boy at his (Methodist) church, he fired a miniature cannon at the steeple. But the state of Arizona saw fit to enshrine him into the Aviation Hall of Fame and name a few airport terminals after him, so this Presidents’ Day, we elected to talk about Barry Goldwater.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com