They were angels. All in white; they would suddenly appear, speak quietly, gently; and then disappear for a time. He knew they were angels; because he knew that he had died; just as his mother had died. A great noise, a shaking, the walls breaking apart above him and his family; coming down on his mother and sister in an instant; just as he had looked at them; and then the sudden blaze of heat from fire so intense it shocked rather than hurt; and brought oblivion and darkness...and now light. A soft white light, with women appearing from nowhere and touching him softly, murmuring words of hope and sympathy.
They were angels; he could tell; because if he strained despite the pain, he could just make out the source of the greatest light; like sunlight, and he could see for himself, passing far below, the forests and rivers of the earth. He was flying. Flying without any effort or noise, like drifting among the clouds. The priests at his school had talked about this; telling him that if he were just a little bit better; why then, he just might get to paradise. So, he had died; and they were angels; and this was Heaven, flying high above the world he had known. Still, he couldn’t understand why he was in pain; and so he sought to ask the angels...
His name was unknown to them; one of hundreds that they had seen and treated and helped during the last frantic week. But he was a special one, that boy. He kept murmuring to them, calling them and addressing them as “angels”. They smiled at one another, for in their hearts they knew he was right.
The nurses kept a watchful eye on this patient; one of several who had suffered from severe burns as well as the impact traumas caused when the bricks came down from unreinforced walls during the earthquake. These were special cases and were being moved to the burn ward at the U.S. Navy hospital in San Diego, California. At their present rate of speed they would arrive there in another thirty hours. A long time in some regards; considering the distance. It could have been covered in much less time by plane, but it had been determined that these patients stood a better chance if they were moved as little as possible; and so they were kept on board and were to be flown directly to the United States. It was yet another validation for using this means of transport; for moving from rescue helicopter to hospital to ambulance to airplane to a second ambulance to still another hospital would have killed rather than comforted.
Solace was a one hundred bed hospital that could fly.
Fly anywhere; land; and deliver comprehensive, immediate medical help to the most remote places on the planet. She could carry over sixty tons of foods, clean fresh water, emergency generators and other equipment to stranded peoples or survivors of natural disasters; land and take them on board as needed for emergency medical care, then fly the most needy to faraway cities and other hospitals.
Solace had her beginnings in the mid 1950’s; back in the post Korean War days when the Military Sea Transport Service had still docked up at pier 39 in Seattle; when Turtle Airships president Darrell Campbell had been a boy; and while visiting his seaman fathers’ MSTS freighter at the docks, he had first seen the hospital ship Hope. It was an impressive thought to the boy; that a hospital could move about the world and take help and hope to those that had none.
That image stayed with him all his life; and became part of his vision for Turtle Airships’ future. How magnificent it would be; to create a fleet of airships that were flying hospitals; able to go where roads might have been washed out, or where airplanes couldn't land, or where there simply were no helicopters available to save lives.
Why not airships? They were roomy enough to have staterooms; why not operating rooms?
Instead of carrying hundreds of tourists; why not carry hundreds of patients? Free from the constraints of the sea; this new kind of ship could travel inland; to any place. Unlike airplanes, it could land any place. Unlike helicopters, it would cost little to fuel; and could lift more. Why not build hospital airships?
A mural had been painted on a wall inside the great room of the airship Constellation soon after her construction in 1993; which depicted the growth of Turtle Airships as it had been envisioned by Darrell Campbell. At one end, a number of historic airships were shown, as well as the overgrown hulk of a derelict airplane. As the mural progressed along the wall, the size of the Turtle Airships were shown to be increasing; and each was shown in its’ future employment.
There was little Thistledown, hovering over a pod of killer whales with Alaskan glaciers in the distance; and Constellation, flying along with a small airplane embedded in her hull, and a large airship landing at the South Pole. There were airships of giant size shown landing at piers and collecting hordes of happy tourists; and airships painted in military insignia flying over Navy ships. At the farthest reach of the mural was a picture of an airship hovering over the smoking rubble of a city; with a huge red cross painted on it’s side. The ultimate goal for Turtle Airships.
That mural has been duplicated in each of the Turtle Airship hangars; and workers vie for the chance to participate; gratis; in this ultimate use of their airships. It has become a source of pride for every Turtle Airships worker, to see their aircraft gain worldwide attention as especially effective succor to those suffering from natural disasters, or needing medical facilities in remote areas. There is an almost competitive edge to their enthusiasm to serve on board the hospital airships; vacations are given up; worker teams donate work time credits to team members to permit one of their own to leave the job and to go volunteer to fly and serve and staff the hospital airships.
The people of Turtle Airships have seen the world change because of what they are involved in; the creation of a new type of transportation which needs no roads or bridges or docks; which can take economical and versatile mobility to every people and any clime. The share a global vision of magic impact; but nothing ties the so close together as knowing they can be part and parcel of airships that save lives and salve hurts around the world.
In 1908, when the Count Von Zeppelin’s new airship LZ-4 had suffered an accident at moorage and burned near the village of Ecterdingen; the German people came forth and donated money for greater airships, in what became known as “the miracle at Ecterdingen”.
One Turtle Airships wag in Hangar Two in Arizona is credited with naming the run of events surrounding the creation of the hospital airships as “the miracle at Orlando”; which happened thusly: Turtle Airships president Darrell Campbell had written a children’s’ story long ago; which he had thought at times to translate into feature film. The story was an adventure which was set in the Puget Sound area and involved a small group of young girls; who decided to build their own airship (much like Darrell had built Thistledown). Their inspiration came from reading about early day airships at the turn of the century; when solitary adventurers would build flimsy gas bags of varnished silk and bamboo.
The girls elect to build one too; with the help of a curmudgeon uncle. They succeed, and begin flying about; only to become entangled with drug dealers who kidnap them and steal the airship in order to smuggle drugs because the airship cannot be seen on radar. The story tells of the girls’ witty escapes and the tense search for the airship and missing children by their parents and the police; and ends with the girls saving the day and saving the whales too because of something they see from on high while they are flying their homemade airship....
Skip to late 1994, and the “miracle at Orlando”. Darrell had been flying Thistledown, sporting a large red cross on her sides; across the country; stopping here and there to tout the idea of using airships as flying hospitals. A stop in Orlando, Florida brought a visit from some officers of the Disney company making known their interest in making a movie with airships as a central theme in some manner. Darrell casually mentioned his story; and the Disney people right away latched onto it as something with immense appeal; something new; something do-able and potentially highly profitable. The only catch is that Darrell had a copywrite on the story; and so they proceeded to woo him with offers to buy; thinking that they might be in for a tough sale.
To their surprise, Darrell was eager to sell; and made them a wildly exciting offer to their good...they could have the rights to the story; without any cost to them; if they will guarantee that they will make a feature film that will play nationwide within a year; and that twenty-five percent of all gross receipts will be donated to a non-profit organization set up by Turtle Airships for the purpose of building and operating hospital airships.
Now, they can’t lose. They get the story virtually free, along with Turtle Airships’ technical help; they get a tax write off from their donation to the non-profit hospital airship use; and they get public relations angle that can reap a whirlwind of good will for Disney. So they agreed.
Just six months later, after a few screenplay changes, and after a fabulous advertising campaign had driven interest in the movie to airship heights; “The Great Black Gasbag Adventure” opened in theaters around the country. The film cost just $700,000 to make; and grossed $63 Million in it’s first weekend. By years end, “GeeBeeGeeBee” had earned the studio over $310 Million.
The “miracle at Orlando” came about because of the publicity given to the plan to dedicate a quarter of the money from the box office receipts towards the building of hospital airships. People felt good about going to see a movie and that their money was going to a grander purpose; and the result was an overwhelmingly positive response to the film; and towards the Disney organization, and Turtle Airships. So, “the miracle at Orlando”.
But the greater miracle is this....not only the money from the movie came; but dollars came pouring in from all quarters; from wealthy trusts, from civic organizations, from large businesses and government grants. Large endowments came from estates; and tiny single donations of a few cents along with letters from elementary school classes. Along with everything else, support came from the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent, from foreign countries; and from the United Nations. Everywhere; everyone wanted to be a part of the hospital airships; and a good many times, it had been suggested that angelic intervention had been involved....
In the blimp hangar at Tillamook, Oregon; all this support brought forth a new class of Turtle Airship; and so were born: Solace, Serenity, and Seraphim. Each airship a flying one hundred bed hospital.
Each doctor, nurse, pilot, cook, engineer, mechanic, or any other of a hundred persons who made up the crews on the hospital airships were volunteers; and they never flew with anything less than more than enough people to staff them. It was simply something special to be involved with these three great flying lighter-than-air wonders; and each person on board could justifiably be considered as “angels”; for all the good they gave of themselves.
They, and all the millions of people who could not fly with them; but who donated enough money to fund them completely; every single piece of equipment used; every drop of medication or bandage or teddy bear; everything was paid for with money freely given to help others; and so the “miracle at Orlando” kept growing and growing; making more and more “angels” out of “ordinary” people.
The Amazon basin covers an area larger than the continental United States; most of it in unexplored jungle. There are few cities; and fewer roads. Each new year brings some announcement of newly found deposits of immense mineral wealth; a new proposal for building hydroelectric plants on some unnamed river; perhaps the discovery of a type of rainforest plant that can become a new wonder drug. Brazil is expanding; and as her peoples continue to invest time and energy into taming the Amazon Basin, they are met with the problems associated with the severe lack of transportation.
Knowing this, and knowing that building roads takes time, money, and makes for touchy environmental concerns; the Ministry of Transportation began to look into providing the far reaches of the Amazon with air transport that would eliminate any need for constructing roads or bridges or airports; they began to consider airships.
Unfortunately, at the time they began their search, the only airships available were blimps. Even the famed Zeppelin company in Germany was just beginning to build their “new technology” airship; which was essentially a blimp with a bare minimum frame inside; and which would still need a small ground crew to serve it in landing. At the very best, this new type of airship would need a spot already prepared with winches and mooring anchors, and so Brazil was frustrated in it’s search for an airship that was adequate to the task at hand.
That was until Southern Cross flew up from her historic journey to Antarctica and landed in the harbor at Rio de Janeiro. If a Turtle Airship could fly across barren ice fields and land anywhere; why not fly across the jungle and land in some totally unprepared clearing? And, if Southern Cross could land on the water under the towers of Rio’s downtown area; why couldn’t similar airships land in the water of the Amazon River?
In early 1996, Turtle Airships sold eight Southern Cross class airships and over twenty airships similar in size to Constellation to Brazil; which were employed as regular air shuttles in a great triangular area of the western reaches of the Amazon jungle; bordered on the north by the Amazon River between the cities of Manaus and the Peruvian city of Iquitos, with the third point of the triangle located at the Brazilian town of Porto Velho, five hundred miles to the south of the great river. This area covers approximately 320,000 square miles; the very heart of the rainforest. There are few roads, most communities hug the shores of the rivers.
The airships serve there hauling cargo and people between places that have no other outside means of transport. Not only has the use of airships been of great economical benefit to Brazil; their use has also brought about a totally unforeseen benefit that is without equal; namely, the worldwide respect and admiration accorded to the Brazilian government for it’s sensibility towards protecting precious rainforests. Because of the airships, entire towns have been built and natural resources utilized which never could have been achieved without destroying miles upon miles of forest. The airships make it possible to settle and to develop, in a far more ecologically acceptable manner than ever before
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In December of 1996, Solace had been sent to Brazil to assist in taking help to flood victims in Minas Gerais state, southeast of Rio de Janeiro. The rains that season had been unusually bad; and thousands were left homeless. Rescue by other means was possible because of the close proximity of major cities, and yet Solace alone was able to provide much needed medical help to outlying areas; especially in light of a growing danger of disease being spread by floodwaters
The use of helicopters had been limited to emergency rescues; leaving scores of villages and hundreds of people without adequate long term support. Landslides and washed out roads cut villages off from outside help; and while their plight did not require the immediate emergency attention of some areas; there was still a great need for assistance. It was in these many isolated pockets of need where Solace could best be put to use; because she could travel continually without the huge expense in fuel that the helicopters would have required; and, she could land anywhere to linger if need be, and tend to the sick or injured at leisure.
On January 11, 1997 an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale struck the Andes Mountains of Peru. The epicenter was located twenty miles south of the city of Pucallpa. The single highway linking the oil fields of the Ucayali River in that district with the rest of Peru was destroyed in over sixty places by landslides triggered by the earthquake; the steep mountainsides even more susceptible to damage due to the recent rains and deforestation. Coupled with the destruction of the roadways; the earthquake severed natural gas and oil pipelines which then exploded into flames and sent immense clouds of toxic smoke and fumes into the small towns all along the river bottoms.
The scope of the problems quickly overwhelmed the limited resources of the Peruvian government to respond. Not only had virtually every mountain road been rendered useless; but the simultaneous loss of microwave communication towers made assessing the damage almost impossible. It was two days after the main shock of the earthquake that the immensity of the damage began to sink in. The entire town of Iparia, with over 30,000 residents; was destroyed by a combination of mudslides, falling buildings, and flooding; all happening within hours. Loss of life was incredible.
The burning oil fires caused thick black smoke to settle into the valleys; which obscured the damage caused by the earthquake; and caused hundreds of people to suffer terribly from breathing the toxic materials in the air; with symptoms ranging from severe burning of the eyes and blindness; to death from nerve damage and scarring of lung tissues.
Solace was sent into this desperate situation within eighteen hours of the first shock of the quake. By good fortune, she had been released from working near Rio just four days before; and at the time of the tragedy in Peru, she was in the middle of taking on supplies meant for her sister airships operating out of Manaus. By the time Solace had completed the twelve hour flight up from Rio de Janeiro; she was heading a small flotilla of seven airships.
The airships floated from valley floor to alpine meadow, searching out isolated homes and villages; and rendering assistance to hundreds of people. The six smaller airships began to ferry people out of danger areas and to fly up through the gorges of the Andes to cross them and take their charges to hospitals in the cities of Peru west of the mountains. Solace took up a station near the ruined town of Iparia; where the greatest amount of damage was. It was as if an entire mountain had suddenly collapsed upon the town; there were no intact roadways; no fields around the town that were not totally obstructed with debris and mud. Over 11,000 lives had been lost in the tragedy. The worst damage had been caused by mudslides; each street in the town was buried under many feet of mud; the homes crushed and burning from ruptured gas lines.
The great hospital airship could hover over the damaged areas without landing; using her Global Navigation System receivers and directed thrust to maintain a position in the air that was exact to within mere inches. This enabled Solace to use winches and cables to lower equipment or to receive victims directly through the bottom of her hull. A welcome side effect from doing this was that the great expanse of the hull overhead acted like a giant umbrella; and gave relief from the constant rain which hampered the efforts of the rescue and medical personnel below. It was a simple thing; but made a great deal of difference since it lessened the effects of the mud in which all rescue work had to be done.
In just a few hours; Solace had taken on; treated; and released over a thousand victims. The size of the airship meant that she had been able to carry hundreds of physicians and nurses and enough supplies and equipment to make up a dozen field hospitals in addition to Solace herself. This enabled these hospital airships to multiply the scope of help available for relief immediately. This was yet another great advantage of using these airships; they could carry huge loads, beyond what any helicopter could carry; and deliver them with pinpoint precision to any spot.
Solace and her sister airships saved thousands of lives the first day they were on the scene of the disaster; and they were able to continue serving as needed transportation for many months afterward.
Solace herself carried hundreds of injured people across the Andes into Lima in several trips. This last trip out, however, she was taking some of the worst cases north to the United States for treatment. Among these were many who had suffered terribly from the toxic smoke caused by the oil fires; and who were suffering from symptoms reminiscent of veterans of the Gulf War. For this reason, they were being transferred to a military hospital; where it was felt that they would receive the benefit of previous experience with their particular type of injury.
Finally, there were the victims who had been burned and who needed extensive treatment that was not available in Lima. Among these was the boy who had been unconscious when he was taken on board; and woke to find himself surrounded by his “angels”
He was correct. By any definition that could be applied to the simple, ordinary people who gave so much by serving their fellow man on board the hospital airships; they were, indeed, “lighter-than-air angels”; and their great airships the crowning achievement of the Turtle Airships Corporation; and all the many people who had brought them to be.
End
