John O'Brien - Chaos

“Copy. Where in Kuwait if you don’t mind my asking? I have a sister stationed there.”

No freakin’ way , it couldn’t possibly be, I think. Lynn had, or has I guess, a brother who was a pilot flying out of Ohio. “Four Juliet Golf, your sister wouldn’t happen to be named Lynn would it?”

“Um, Otter Three Niner, that’s affirmative.”

“You wouldn’t by chance happen to be Craig would you?” I ask completely amazed and a little befuddled by this seeming happenstance.

“Okay, this is weird and perhaps a rather strange coincidence. I’m going to hazard a guess that you are Jack.”

“Yeah, Craig, I am. This is an amazing coincidence and I’m glad we met up. I’ll tell Lynn when I see her.”

“Have you heard from her lately?” Craig’s question comes into my earphones.

“Not in the past couple of days. How about you?”

“About the same,” he replies back.

“You mentioned we, who else do you have on board?” I ask leaving the hope that she is still okay open.

“Mom and two feline friends. Do you know how hard it is to buckle two cats up?”

“About as hard as trying to herd them I guess,” I say chuckling. “You’re welcome to follow us into Brunswick Naval Air Station. I can give you the coordinates if you like. I’ll leave the lights on for ya.”

“Love to, Jack, but I have to check on my other sis and dad. What’s your plan after?”

I tell him about out plan to return to McChord in a few days and we continue to talk for a bit back and forth, at one point Mom getting on the radio, “You find my girl and bring her back Jack.”

“Will do, ma’am,” I reply.

We didn’t want to get off the radio after having made contact, however, each of our duties calls and we agree to meet back at McChord in five days.

“Good luck to you Craig. I wish you and Mom the best.”

“To you as well, Jack. Tell my sis hi.”

“Roger that. See you in five.” And as quick as he came, he was gone.

It is quite the miracle we came together like that. Like the bubbling realm of possibilities in my mind and the quantum world came together to form a piece of reality. The realm of possibilities are endless and don’t surface into to the realm of reality until observed in some fashion; whether through direct observation or through a conscious or sub-conscious factor. Was meeting Craig like that, and the fact that he happened to be Lynn’s brother a direct manifestation of my mind and sub-conscious want? I drift into thoughts of the quantum world and energy until my brain bleeds. I shake my head bringing myself out of my reverie and into the current reality.

Beginning our descent, I switch our primary route to Robert’s nav instrument and the approach I designed to mine after accomplishing our checks. The moon looms large in the sky above, casting a ghostly, silver blue light on the landscape below. Nowhere does the light of man show and only the drone and vibrations of the engines keep us company.

Having descended a little out over the Atlantic, I turn back to the west, centering the localizer needle, flying toward the naval air station. Three miles from final approach fix, where we will start down toward the runway, with our flaps at 50 percent, I call for the gear. The deep rumble vibrates the aircraft and then comes to a stop as three green lights are illuminated by the gear handle. The horizontal needle on the instrument starts its downward trek toward the middle. I pull the throttles back and flick on the landing lights as the needle centers with the vertical needle already centered. It looks much like a crosshair and that’s the way we want it.

The moon disappears behind the clouds from the far away storm as they trek slowly eastward and the moon continues on its westward journey, leaving the land and sky around only very dimly lit by the stars above. Too dark to see any buildings or runway. I can only hope we are on the right path, that I have set up the right coordinates, and that the GPS is still accurate.

Continuing down the glide path, Robert calls out the airspeed and altitude on the radar altimeter for practice should we need to use the night vision equipment. My eyes alternate between the nav readings, the airspeed, altimeter, and outside hoping to pick up the runway soon.

“500 feet,” he calls out through the microphone. I can feel the tension from the girls. Well, I can feel it from me as well. I have been a long time out of the aircraft and here I am flying a night, GPS only approach to a foreign airfield that has no lights. What could be more relaxing?

“300 feet.”

Suddenly, the lights pick up the threshold of a runway with the white threshold markings, then more of the runway and its surroundings illuminate as we draw closer. “I have a visual,” I call out transitioning to a total visual approach. “We’re going to do a low fly-by to check out the runway.” For all I know, there are wrecked aircraft all over it or deer deciding the runway is a good place to gather and I have already had enough surprises for one day.

About 100 feet off the ground, I push the power up leaving the gear down so we can have the lights. We lumber down the runway for the length of it. I try to get a visual on the wind sock but it is lost in the darkness when I realize forgot to have Robert check the nav system for wind direction and speed. Well, it’s not like I have a choice on which runway to land on. I can’t exactly circle around to an unlit runway. I mean, I could but it is just like any other dark patch of land below us and winding up on an exact final would be a matter of luck.

We climb away after seeing the runway clear and clean up the aircraft, turning once more towards the markers I set in the nav and align with the runway again, this time with the intention of landing. I pick up the runway at about the same point as the last time with our gear down and call for full flaps. Robert checks on the wind and it shows that we have a very slight tailwind. Nothing to worry about. This time, rather than powering up, I pull the throttle and control wheel slowly back, flaring over the threshold. I wouldn’t so much call what we did scant seconds later a landing but more of an arrival. Thump! Welcome to Brunswick! Night landings can do that but at least the wheels stay on the ground and the wings are still attached. Lowering the nose, I pull the throttles over the detent and apply reverse thrust. The aircraft leans forward and our airspeed diminishes.

“Holy shit!” Both Robert and I say at the same time as there is suddenly someone standing in the glare of the lights. I mean, just standing right on the runway and just to the left of our path. Idiot , I think pushing on the brakes. We still have a bit of momentum and they can overheat in a hurry causing the tires and gear to disintegrate. There’s no way I’m going to stop in time, and, as quick as they appeared, they are lost below the windows and down the left side. The aircraft lurches slightly to the left and, very quickly, so quick as to almost be non-existent, a vibration and buzz saw noise comes through the cockpit. I quickly correct the direction and take the throttles out of reverse, applying brakes to bring us to a taxi speed.

“Was that what I think was?” Michelle asks from her seat.

“Yeah, I think so,” Robert responds.

“Should we go see if they are alright?” Nicole asks.

“I’m not sure that’s going do any good Nicole,” Robert says still incredulous.

“Besides, we’re not going out at night. I’m pretty sure that was one of those things because no sane person would be standing in the middle of a runway with a plane landing,” I add.

I exit off the at the end of the runway and turn the aircraft around so we are facing the runway. I would just park on the runway ready to take off again but there is the off chance that someone could come in and try to land. The runway wouldn’t be the best place to be if that were to happen as they won’t see us until too late. Shutting down but shunting the electrical power to battery and setting the parking brake, we head to the cargo area. Drawing curtains across the cockpit, I also put covers over the cargo compartment windows. The covers are for blackout operations and allow lighting within the cargo area without emitting any outside. With the cargo compartment lights on, I check the doors and have everyone else ready the sleeping bags and get some food out. There are three cots available within.