Catholic Singles

Being Brave
BY: MARK ANTHONY ROSOLOWSKI


Picture this, it was June 1979, a young, handsome, athletic, intelligent man is waiting to get on a plane to go to boot camp. (It was me in case you could not tell from the description). There were five others with me.

We boarded the plane, for the flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Chicago, Illinois, we were all nervous as we took our seats and buckled up. The stewardess gave us the in flight instructions, it started with “In the event of a crash”, that was all she had to say three of us yelled out, “Let us off the plane”, she just smiled told us to sit down we were already taxing out to the runway.

Okay, I’m cool, just sit down, buckle the seat belt and listen to the rest of the instructions, “In case of sudden cabin pressure loss, the oxygen mask will drop down...”, we were up again, "what do you mean sudden pressure lost, that is not good, and what if our masks don’t drop down”. After assurances that there would be no problem this was all just routine we returned to our seats.

Listening attentively she continued, “You will see that some windows are emergency exits...”, we were up again, “Why don’t we have emergency exit windows, why do they get them and we don’t”. After a lengthy explanation we were sent back to our seats and we sat down, not liking this at all.

As she continued, “Your seat cushions can also be used as flotation devices”, now this really got us, “wait a minute”, we all said in unison, “there are no large bodies of water between here and Chicago”. In a calm manner she told us that on take off we do go out over the ocean and when landing we will come in over the Great Lakes”, we sat back in our seats talking amongst ourselves and figured we were going over the water in case we crashed, that put us into another frenzied state and we all asked for a drink.

After take off, we were served our drinks, and our meal and they started the movie. Now I do not know who decides what movies will be shown on planes, but I want to get my hands on the person who thinks Airport is a good movie to show on a plane.

Suddenly everyone we saw sitting next to an old lady who was carrying a briefcase must be the lunatic with a bomb, not that there were that many of them, I think the exact count was zero, but we were looking, we also questioned the stewardess if she knew how to fly the plane, when she said “No”, it did not put our fears to rest.

Finally, we were told to put our trays up, put our seats in full upright position and to buckle our seatbelts, I looked at those that were with me and we were all holding our breath for when we went under water, but the pilot did manage to land safely and we were breathing again.

After we landed, the pilot came on to make the announcement we were in Chicago, he told us the time and the temperature and then added “To all passengers, it is my pleasure to inform you that we have six brave young men on the flight, who are on their way to Navy Boot Camp, let’s wish them luck as they begin to serve our Country.

The passengers did applaud as they let us deplane first and all I could think of was, “They all must feel good knowing such brave men will be defending our Country”.