Old Warbirds: What Fascinating Stories They Tell
FORWARD:
In an earlier article I suggested this essay would present a true story. I said I’d somehow weave together an Air Force C-123 airplane I once crewed, Doan's Headache Pills, Tom Cruise, Ayatollah Khomeini, “The Fat Man and the Fat Lady,” Richard Nixon and Watergate, FBI, José Fernando Canales Aleman, CIA, a USAF 439th TAW Honduran beach bar with wings, Ms. Fawn Hall’s September 2025 wedding, Dennis Hopper, Pablo Escobar and lots of cocaine and money.
Plus, for extra credit, Ronald Reagan and jelly beans. “Now there you go again.” If you wish, simply
return to this paragraph to check off players, events and other items as the story evolves. All this = one story. And true!
I freely admit this is a long and detailed read, but it happened with terrible consequences. I guess I like to hear myself type almost as much as hear myself talk, however I'll try to keep this short enough my printer won't choke on it.
Things like this shouldn't have happened but seem to bite us sharply in our national politics again and again. Maybe our poetical parties need an ethics and morality device, kind of like Spock’s Star Trek tricorder. That would be so cool!
Everything began to unravel on October 5, 1986, when a Nicaraguan soldier downed an American plane carrying arms to “Contra” guerrillas, exposing a tightly held U.S. clandestine program. A month later, reports surfaced that Washington had been covertly selling arms to Iran (our sworn enemy and a state sponsor of terrorism), in exchange for help freeing hostages in Beirut. The profits, it turned out, were going to support the Contras, despite an explicit ban by Congress.
In the firestorm that erupted, shocking details emerged, raising the prospect of impeachment, and the American public confronted a scandal as momentous as it was confusing. At its center was President Ronald Reagan amid a swirl of questions about illegal wars, consorting with terrorists, and the abuse of presidential power.
DATE AND SETTING: Western Hemisphere, 1982-1988
Chapter One, Ronald Reagan: (continued below)
"Now there you go again." President Reagan's mild censure of his White House press corps gave every reporter in the briefing room fits of frustration at his evasiveness and those smiles that the Old Man does so effectively.
