We've had a few great opportunities to do this, while checking out at a Costco in Colorado my husband noticed an elderly man wearing a cap stating he served in WWII, he made a bee line for the gentleman before he exited the building to make sure he shook his hand and thanked him.
I recently had a client who won a Purple Heart in World War II and I made sure and brought my daughter to my last meeting with him to make sure she was able to hear his story and meet a real life hero.
Make sure to take time to thank someone who has served or is serving this Memorial Day in honor of those who have sacrificed for our country. This National Holiday always make me think of my Grandpa Jack. I wrote about him previously and he certainly was an entertaining figure, a family legend we all end up talking about with a gleam in our eye.
So here is the finger-biting account of the night it took a community acting together to help save Jack from a perilous disaster.
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| Jack Koch with his 2 eldest sons, Jim and Bill |
Jack seemed to run on his own clock. You would often here the double tap honk of his car horn announcing it was time to go while long goodbyes were dolled out by others. He was a speed demon, peddle to the metal kind of guy, even when others didn't feel the need to rush.
Jack liked the draw of adventure, he grew up rollerskating the hills of Seattle Washington, daring his friends to enter haunted houses, riding Harley Davidson motorcycles and flying airplanes. It seems Jack looked for the fun in life, caution was cast to the wind more than a few times in his lifetime. We all liked to tease that Jack scared his own guardian angels on a regular basis.
One fateful September night in 1949 Jack not only scared his guardian angels, he, and I quote from the newspaper article, "scared the wits out of Osceola" (a small town in Wisconsin). Jack was enjoying his latest pastime, flying his small prop plane, putting in air time hopping from small town to small town that dotted the countryside. Jack must have forgotten to wind his clock correctly because he miscalculated daylight time and arrived in the town as the sun was setting and the landing strip had no landing lights installed.
How does a pilot get the help he needs when there is no radio contact and he is literally flying by the seat of his pants? Well, Jack was a smart whippersnapper, he had crazy wit at his side not to mention guardian angels that were in dire need of a break when the thought to incessantly buzz the town square where business keepers were locking up for the night may get him the attention he needed.
As miracles often happen, the right people at the right time noticed and heard the low flying distress call as Jack repeatedly passed back and forth like an annoying fly. Enter good Dr. Simenstad who was also the Secretary of the State Aeronautics Commission and an experienced pilot who knew exactly what his fellow flier needed. He promptly gathered available townsfolk who owned cars and lead them like gang busters to the airport landing strip where he lined them up opposite each other down the strip, told them to flick on their headlights and create their own landing lights.
Needless to say Jack landed with a "sigh of relief"gave his guardian angels a much needed break, thanked God for a community that was alert and ready to act in a critical situation and called it a good day.
Ahh, Grandpa Jack, you've been gone for some time now, but you are a legend that still lives in our families' heart!
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| Jock Koch's Memory of Service in the Armed Forces |
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| 1949 Newspaper Article by: Linda Jensen Gordon |
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