Lo! I was doing my morning crossword today and what
do you suppose 17 Across' clue was? ..."Spry"! That's 17... ...and it said
"Spry"! Way cool, yes? Well, since we
have you here... ...how `bout a quick story while "Estate Sinclaire" compiles...
...I was reminded of this the other day during an ad for A&E's "Investigative
Reports" series. The series covered a story that was very familiar to me and one
that's worth a "No shit, o' Wonderful Levelord?!".
It was back when I was in the Navy and was leaving the
U.S.S. Detroit and heading for Norfolk, Virgina to attend Ocean Systems "A"
School. The Detroit was dry docked in Bath, Maine for a major overhaul and I was stationed
on her waiting for the school to open.
Anyways... ...I was home with the folks in Riverside,
Connecticut watching television... ...NBC as I recall, when they broke in with a news
flash about a dude that hijacked a bus at JFK airport and was demanding a large sum of
money and an airplane to Jamaica. The guy boarded the bus, shot a man in the neck so that
everyone knew he meant business, and made his demands.
The ordeal lasted a few hours, during which time I
believe he shot another person in the leg, before he gave up. I, like any upstanding
wanna-see-all-the-gore American, hung on every news break as they streamed acroos each
major network. When they finally caught the dude, they gave his name.
The dude's name was Louis Robinson and he was a not only
a shipmate of mine on the Dirty D, he was also a roommate (we lived on 'the beach' since
the ship wasn't going anywhere for a while)for a while. I still have a Polaroid of me and
the other three roommates taken by Louis and it was only days before that I last saw him
face-to-face.
What a rush it was to be sitting at home, watching this
story unwind, and not hearing the perp's name until the very end and realizing I had known
this guy so well for so long. As usual, he seemed like such a nice guy... ...very quiet,
very intelligent, good humored, and seemingly well-balanced.
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