ESTESBOG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TANGLED TRAILS

 

Peter Walker

 

 

I grew up a-dreamin’ of being a cowboy,

and lovin’ the cowboy ways.

Willy Nelson “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”

 

Dreams of riding the range are not restricted to kids in the western North America. Nor are they limited to little boys. In my rural Maine grade school in the 1950s many of my daydreams were of going west when I grew up. My big loves in those days were hunting and fishing. Maine is a big timber state and, in those days, moose were still relatively scarce, and deer hunting for the most part consisted, it seemed to me, of wandering around in dense cover hoping for a chance encounter with an equally disoriented buck. I wanted to go west where the animals were abundant and the land so wide open that every hunt resulted in success.  

 

Pursuin’ the life of my high-ridin’ heroes,
I burned up my childhood days.

  

 

 

From sixth through eighth grade, Joanie Welch and I always sat in the rear of the room near the window (Walker then Welch). Joan was a down-to-earth country girl as naïve about the world as me. Joanie was a horse woman (and the best dancer by far of any girl in our school). So Joan had the same types of romantic notions about the West as I did. We shared our dreams a lot – usually when we should have been paying attention to the lesson. She wanted to go west to ride horses all day. I wanted to go there and shoot grizzly bears. The cumulative hours that we spent speculating over the relative merits of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho were many. But then, the lessons, dummied down to the lowest common denominator by our middle-aged former one-room school teachers, could have been made a lot less boring. Read more…

What do the three ships in the photo have in common? They are all fully commissioned warships in the United States Navy. From left to right they are USS Constitution (42-gun frigate), USS Halyburton (FFG-40 – guided missile frigate), and USS Ramage (DDG-61 – guided missile destroyer).

F-18 Hornets of the Blue Angels fly escort overhead as the grand old lady of the U.S. fleet made her way under her own sails in June, 1997 for the first time in 116 years.

Constructed in Boston from 7′ thick live oak and copper fittings and plating forged by Paul Revere, Constitution was first commissioned in 1797. Her unique internal bracing made her sides nearly impregnable to solid cannonballs of the day.

Superior design coupled with equally superior crew training humbled the Royal Navy repeatedly during the War of 1812. “Old Ironsides’” most famous battle was a one-on-one shoot-out with the comparable HMS Guerriere off the East Coast in 1812. Constitution deflected British shot meant to stave in her sides while her own gunners expertly sheered off the British frigate’s masts in one pass. Guerriere surrendered in just half an hour!

Constitution served as a training ship in the Civil War and a floating barracks until her 100th birthday. Public sentiment saved her from destruction and led to her recommissioning in 1925. She now resides on public display at Boston Navy Yard.

The 1997 voyage from Boston to Marblehead and return marked her 200th birthday and demonstrated her complete restoration to battle fitness. She now makes two scheduled “turn around” voyages each year.

SOMETHING WENT BUMP IN THE NIGHT

By Peter Walker

The human brain is a complex organ. There is still so much about this natural computer with its enormous capacity for data storage and retrieval that is a mystery to science. Obliquely, my story today is about a little used function of the human brain stem.

Evolutionists believe the human brain stem represents the original brain possessed by our reptilie-like ancestors millions of years ago. As such, it was not capable of very much thought, but it served to keep body functions like breathing and heart rate steady. It was also capable of conducting certain instinctual reactions to external stimuli – reactions like fright response.

Scientists today tell us that this thickening of the nervous tissues at the base of the human brain still serves these same functions. The brain stem tells the heart how fast to beat and maintains our breathing without our having to think about it.

But what about instinctual behavior? Is it possible to react to fright without thinking about it? Can the brain stem, in response to certain strong, primitive stimuli, take command of our bodies and attempt to deal with a situation while bypassing conscious thought? I’m here to tell you that it can. Read more…

White Terror

by Peter Walker

A few weeks ago I went out to my garage one day and discovered a white dog about the size of a Volkswagen standing by the door. Luckily he had that “I’m glad to see you” look about him. It was a Great Pyrenees – an Old World breed originally intended as guardians for sheep and goats. The friendly old boy probably weighed 100 pounds and was covered in several inches of fine, thick, wooly hair.

Most of the Great Pyrenees dogs we find in American suburbia are latter day strains bred as house and show dogs and have consequently lost much of their herd protection instinct. If you have ever been around a working Great Pyrenees, you would wonder how that could have ever come about.

The original working version of Great Pyrenees is a strange beast indeed. With respect to other dogs, even their own kind, and their human overseers, they are aloof loners. They would rather be out amongst the herd or the flock.

When riled, a Great Pyrenees makes a formidable adversary. Woe to the wild dog or coyote or even a bear that approaches a flock of sheep under the watch of a Great Pyrenees. Often the huge dogs blend in so well with their flock that predators never realize the danger until it is too late. Read more…

A HERO’S STORY

By Peter Walker

One morning in 2003 I heard on KUNC that the hospital ship USS Comfort had embarked from the East Coast for the Persian Gulf. I am a student of history. This was by no means the first time a USS Comfort has set sail to offer care and shelter for American service personnel in time of war.

The present USS Comfort  (hull number TAH-20) is the third such ship to bear the proud name. She was converted to a hospital ship from an oil tanker in 1987 and might still be in reserve had she not been activated for the first conflict with Iraq in 1990.

The first Comfort (AH-3) was converted from a liner in 1906 and brought wounded soldiers home from the Western Front during World War I.

In 1943 USS Comfort (II) was built from the keel up as a military hospital ship. At just under 10,000 tons displacement, she was a large ship for her time. Resembling an ocean liner, Comfort (AH-6) was painted white with large red crosses and carried no armament of any kind.

During World War II, USS Comfort was jointly operated with a U.S. Navy crew and Army medical personnel.

I am going to leave the USS Comfort for a few moments to explain why this seemingly benign auxiliary ship means something to me. Read more…

I made the front page of our small town newspaper today with an account of my talk at the Brush Museum last Friday.