Astronaut Steve Austin and the Air Force Academy Chapel

The Chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado is a beautiful place, both outside and in. On the day we visited, clouds filled the sky, and falling rain made it hard to take photographs outside without water spotting the camera lens. Inside the Chapel, the cloudy sky prevented the stain glass from radiating at optimum brightness and color. Still, the building's beauty was apparent.

We all idolize people like Air Force Colonel Steve Austin in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man for his accomplishments as an aircraft pilot and astronaut. Our reverence for him stems from his real life counterparts, such as the young people who attend the Academy, and go on to  brilliant careers in the United States Air Force. Even the interior of the Chapel reminds us of their highest aspirations: to fly a jet or spaceship at incredible speeds, defend our country, and explore the unknown. But do we recognize the price these heroes pay to achieve these lofty goals?

Like this monumental Chapel, each cadet's future achievements are grounded upon their experiences--and sacrifices--at the Academy. During their Academy years, everything the cadets have ever relied upon, and called their own, is stripped away from them. Chief among these losses are freedom of choice, freedom of time, freedom of movement, and even freedom of speech, perhaps our most cherished right of all. 

Like Colonel Steve Austin after the wreck that ended his career as a test pilot, the cadets are stripped down to their component parts, and gradually reassembled according to the Air Force Academy model. Perhaps they don't leave the Academy with artificial organs or bionic limbs, but they graduate only after a substantial transformation. To paraphrase Oscar Goldman, the director of the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), they leave "better, stronger, and faster."

Every aspect of popular culture teaches nonconformity. To be a great person, first one must be popular, and therefore different. To become popular, one must be irreverent and disrespectful. To get ahead, one must step on toes and break the rules. Only then can one achieve great things. 

The Air Force Academy teaches an older, more staid approach. To become great, one must first learn to be respectful, to obey the rules, and to pull with the team. Only through submission, conformity, and respect for others, can one in turn gain respect and become a leader. 

Religion can also share in this older, time-honored approach to greatness. I speak not of religion which allows all influences, and therefore empowers disruption. Nor do I speak of religion in which participants and leaders play off one faction against another. True religion respects all, especially those who have traveled before. True religion doesn't merely allow or okay, but seeks to understand the meaning underlying all choices. True religion views compromise and conformity as a way of navigating the present toward a better future for all.

I don't know how cadets relate to the Air Force Academy Chapel on a daily or weekly basis, but I'm guessing that an "anything goes" philosophy plays no part whatsoever in their teachings and worship services. If the introductory film shown at the Academy Visitor Center is anything to go by, I suspect that the Chapel enhances cadets' Academy experience by helping them belong more fully to their fellow cadets and superiors, and craft a spiritual life which makes them better, stronger, and faster leaders. Based on the people we admire, like Colonel Steve Austin, I imagine the Chapel plays a strong role in fashioning them into Air Force officers, fighter pilots, and astronauts. 

Out of all who join the Air Force, and train to become officers, only a select few are chosen to attend the Academy. Hopefully, the applicants are chosen according to merit, and for their ability to achieve greatness. They have their course to pursue, and you have yours. Which path to greatness will you choose?

Dragon Dave

Steve Austin in Palmdale

After studying the SR-71 Blackbirds at the Blackbird Airpark, we walked across to the adjacent Joe Davies’ Heritage Airpark, where we saw a large number of other aircraft.  They had been parked out on the desert in this arid environment, which should preserve them from rust and decay better than if they were left in a more cold and humid area, such as San Diego.  It was interesting to see these planes up close, read about them, and see the engines that powered them.

Another plane being readied for display.

After our tour, we ate lunch, and then walked into the museum gift shop.  As we had a long drive ahead of us, we intended to have a quick look around.  But Bob, a retired wiring specialist who had worked on the SR-71s, noticed my “Six Million Dollar Man” T-shirt.  He told me that he had met Lee Majors once, the actor who played Steve Austin, while the TV show was filming an episode nearby.  The conversation gradually shifted to the space shuttles, which he had also worked on.  He confessed that he cried when the decommissioned Endeavor arrived in California to become a display piece in a museum.  He had helped the space shuttles embark on so many missions, and taken great pride in his involvement with the program.  Now that grand era was over. 

Bob had told me that Frank, the man sitting behind the counter, had piloted the SR-71s on some of their secret reconnaissance missions.  But he was talking with a family, and my wife had signaled her readiness to leave.  As I stepped into the doorway, Frank broke off his conversation and called to me.  He told me that he had known Bruce Peterson, the pilot who had piloted those heavy lifting test vehicles like the M2-F2 and the HL-10, just as Steve Austin had in the TV show (and in Martin Caidin’s original novel Cyborg). 

Peterson flew the HL-10’s first test flight.  According to Frank, Peterson had been preparing to land when the vehicle suddenly turned upside-down.  During preflight simulations, he had been forbidden to use any controls unless specifically directed by ground control.  But at this point, he started working with the controls, and figured out to right the aircraft before it touched down.  After that, Frank said, the “wiring folks” had some sorting-out to do!

In addition to his two previous flights, Peterson flew the sixteenth and final test of the M2-F2.  These heavy lifting bodies minimized the wing structure by shaping the fuselage to maximize its lifting capacity, but the M2-F2’s shape was rounder than that of the HL-10.  The vehicle began to roll from side to side, and while Peterson fought for control, he spotted a rescue helicopter in his path.  As it turned out, he wouldn’t have hit the helicopter, but by changing course while wrestling with the controls, he touched down before the landing gear had fully extended.  This was the crash made famous during the opening of “The Six Million Dollar Man” TV show.

After that, Frank and I spoke about the X-2 and X-15 rocket plane programs, and the missed potential of the Dyna-Soar X-20 rocket plane program that was cancelled to make way for the space shuttle.  Intensely interesting stuff, but my wife was waiting patiently in the doorway, and I knew we had spent far longer in the gift shop than we had planned.  Still, I felt enriched by those two conversations, neither of which would have occurred had I not worn my T-shirt advertising a forty-year-old TV show.

Isn’t it amazing how the stories we love help us connect with others?

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Daleks on Vacation

The Blackbirds of Palmdale

Related Internet Links

Joe Davies Heritage Airpark

Blackbird Airpark

Daleks On Vacation

Recently, we took two of our Daleks with us on a weekend excursion.  They are named Salt and Pepper.  As this was their first trip away from home, they were understandably excited.

Salt: Long John Silvers, home of master's favorite fish!
Pepper: Remain calm.  Daleks do not get excited.

Salt: You don't think they'll shake us, do you?
Pepper: I hope not.  If my gun goes off, 
I might accidentally exterminate their food.

Salt: Mountains!  I see mountains!

Pepper: Joshua Trees really put the yuck in Yucca.

Salt: What are you researching, master?
Dragon Dave: Just our itinerary for tomorrow.
Pepper: Could you tell us a story before we go to sleep?
Dragon Dave.  Sure.

The Bears of Muroc: A Bedtime Story for Daleks

Once upon a time, three pioneers traveled into the wilderness.  Their names were Clifford Corum, his wife Ellie, and Clifford’s brother Ralph.  They settled on Rogers Dry Lake, built a house, and operated a store and post office.  When the Post Office objected to them naming their store and local post office Corum, they reversed the spelling, and called it Muroc.

Salt: Were they related to Corum Jhaelsen Irsei?

Dragon Dave: No, that's a character Michael Moorcook created for his novels. 

Pepper: Wasn't he an aspect of the Eternal Champion?

Dragon Dave: That's right.  Now shh. 

A few years later, a family of bears traveled to Rogers Dry Lake.  Their names were Army, Air, and Corps.  They had visited other dry lake beds, but either they found the dry lakes too small, or the clay of the beds was too soft.  They decided that Rogers Dry Lake was just right.  Initially, the bears used it for bombing practice, but later they used it for testing experimental aircraft, which they called Flight Test.  The bears called their new home Muroc Army Air Field, after Clifford, Ellie, and Ralf.  Later, they renamed it Edwards Air Force Base, in honor of Glen Edwards, who died testing an experimental Flying Wing bomber.  This was where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his Bell X-1 rocket plane.  Later, the X-15 rocket plane helped the Bear family with the space program.  They also tested experimental lifting bodies, like the Northrop M2-F2, which helped NASA, one of the Bears’ children, design the Space Shuttle. 

Salt: The M2-F2 was the “flying bathtub” that Steve Austin crashed in, 

before he received his bionics arm, legs, and eye, right?

Well, the real pilot was Bruce Peterson, and while he lost sight in one eye, he didn’t get any bionics replacements.  It sometimes bothered him that the TV show featured his crash in the opening scene, but he kept a good attitude about it, and often joked that he should be called “The Five Million Dollar Man.”

Pepper: What happened to the Bears?  

The descendants of the original bears still live there.  The two oldest brothers are called Edwards and Dryden. 

Salt: And that’s where we’re going tomorrow?  

Only if you get your rest, and we can smuggle your guns past Security.

Salt: We will sleep!  
Pepper: Agreed.  Daleks will sleep!

Dragon Dave 

What Might Have Caught Steve & Jaime’s Eyes

Artists enhance Ojai's natural beauty.

A community is more than just a cluster of houses and buildings.  It does more than provide necessary goods and services.  A village, town, or city radiates the spirits of its inhabitants.  Ojai’s downtown shines with an unconventional artistic vision.  Murals and statues mingle with the town’s natural beauty, inspiring residents and visitors.  With so much to draw the eye, one’s footsteps naturally slow when walking the streets of this high desert community.

They celebrate Ojai's heritage.

In the Six Million Dollar Man story “The Bionic Woman,” written by Kenneth Johnson, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers reunite after several years apart in Libbey Park.  During their hour-long walk through town, I suspect their attention remained mostly upon each other.  Yet they must have stopped occasionally, perhaps near statues and fountains such as these.  

Art pours from the creator’s heart.  It radiates ideas and emotions.  In its presence, we may find ourselves overwhelmed by joy or sadness.  Tears spring to our eyes unbidden.  Our hearts beat faster.  Thoughts race through our brains.  In such moments, we not only reinterpret the past and present, but glimpse potential futures.  The artwork in Ojai—whether it was a painting, a statue, or a fountain—increased our appreciation for everything else we saw there, and fired us with possibilities for how we might enhance our own house and yard. 

They fire us with
possibilities

I’ve never seen the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman reunion movies, but apparently Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers married in the final one: "Bionic Ever After?" Perhaps Steve and Jaime set up house in Ojai, and still walk through (or speed through, or leap over) its downtown.  Perhaps they sometimes linger beside the same creations that stilled our own feet, reconsidering their present, and glimpsing possibilities for their future together.  It’s a pleasant thought, even if it’s only whimsy.  

Ojai is a thriving town, and provides welcome escape for many Los Angeles residents.  The whimsical nature of Ojai's inhabitants finds its way into their artwork, landscaping, and buildings.  The community's attractiveness suggests that everyone needs a little whimsy now and then, don’t you think?

Dragon Dave

Walking in Steve & Jaime’s Footsteps

The entrance to Libbey Park.

Do you know how it is when you reunite with a long-time friend and it feels as if you have never been apart?  You still feel the weight of all those years without the other in your life.  Yet you also feel the closeness you once shared.  It’s such a relief to not just talk, but to share the deepest, most personal thoughts and feelings.  Suddenly, from your mouth come admissions you would never tell those with whom you work and regularly interact.

In the Six Million Dollar Man story “The Bionic Woman,” written by Kenneth Johnson, that’s the way Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers feel when they reunite in Libbey Park.  A connection sparked between them long ago, and time has not extinguished it.  They talk about the busyness of their lives, and crow their accomplishments, yet they also feel an aching emptiness.  They realize that, despite all they have done—so many mountains climbed, so many goals achieved—they are incredibly lonely.  Thus it feels natural, as they walk together, for each to put an arm around the other.  Time passes by unnoticed, and suddenly they hear the honking of a car’s horn.  They find themselves at the park entrance, and in the street a man steps out of his car.  Her ride is here: Jaime has to go.

"Let me tell you about my accomplishments!"

As we wandered through Libbey Park, a woman walking her dog noticed our cameras.  She stopped and asked, “Are you holidaying this weekend?”  We smiled and told her yes.  “It is beautiful here, isn’t it?”  We had to admit it was.  “There’s so much to see in Ojai,” she told us, and after talking a little more, she wished us well, and resumed her walk with her pet.  In “The Bionic Woman,” Steve and Jaime’s feet carry them all over town.  We don’t see the majority of their walk, or what they see along the way.  I suspect that they didn’t notice the surroundings much either, as their eyes, and their hearts, were so focused upon each other.

"Walk along with me,
won't you?"

I’m not sure what most of the locals thought as we strolled through the park, taking photographs of what, to them, must have seemed rather ordinary.  I’m sure we stood out as visitors: being so close to Los Angeles, the population of Ojai swells on weekends.  But we didn’t travel to Ojai solely to relive moments from a TV show.  We were also celebrating a special moment in our lives, one that will link us forever.  Unlike Steve and Jaime, we didn’t feel the crushing weight of years apart.  Instead, we celebrated lives spent together.  So, in addition to talking, we also took photographs, so that in the future we could look back and remember how much we enjoyed visiting Libbey Park, and walking in Steve and Jaime’s footsteps. 

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Libbey Park