Mood:
quizzicalTopic: "Terrible Swift Sword"(6)
Frodo repeats himself only when he forgets that he has already told a tale or three. That is, until now.
The Men of Gondor spent a luncheon with a whole gaggle of West Point graduates. The guest speaker was the man who is now the last remaining survivor of the flight of the Enola Gay; he who served as Navigator. The tale that was told that day contained intrigue, history, comedy, and it left Frodo in awe. He stood in silence afterwards, listening to the comments of those who approached the Navigator. One Marine, now a bit less formidable than he was in 1945, told of his days on Okinawa, awaiting the orders to land on the Japanese mainland, and how grateful he was for the gift of life he had been given by those who ended the War before that fateful day arrived. One, from the men of Gondor, asked about the horror that happened upon a basically civilian population, and if it was a memory that haunted the crew thereafter. The responses were heartfelt, and honest.
Frodo never knew that the mission was potentially a suicide-run. The amount of time available to the Enola Gay was considered not sufficient to allow the ship to out-run the enormity of the explosion. It was truly hair-raising to listen as the Navigator spoke about the passage of time, and the uncanny skill of a pilot with only moments to spare.
Frodo has thought many times about that meeting, and he listens with an open-mind to those who have deep opinions, and great pain to share, about the events that took place and led to that day, 65 years ago. Frodo believes that he was in the presence of the Man who has, indeed, come closest to the hand of God. Despite the rantings of those who feel a calling to clarify what God said, it was this one Man who truly witnessed "the terrible swift sword," the ending, if you will, as opposed to the beginning.
He works in his garden, in the town of Stone Mountain, Georgia.
