WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Friends of Liberty VOL 35
by Jim Clonts, 2009

12/15/2009

When I was a boy and we ran out of peanut butter, my mother would send me downstairs to get another jar off the shelf. Usually there would be two more jars behind that one. My mother, just like her mother before her, always had months of food on hand at any given moment. I grew up assuming this was normal, yet as an adult I don't shop this way. After shopping "big" we might have two weeks of food on hand, but never three jars of peanut butter, eight cans of pork and beans or six loaves of frozen bread. I once asked my grandmother why she always had so much food in the house and her answer was, "Just in case." Now middle-aged, with children of my own, I'm beginning to understand her answer.

My grandparents grew up during the Great Depression and World War II. They and their peers saw our fragile economy collapse in 1929, the market crashing, banks folding and an entire way of life threatened. During World War II they experienced rationing of sugar, gasoline and consumer goods. Of course the war effort required sacrifice and they lived in constant fear of an Axis victory. When the war and rationing ended, they stockpiled and never stopped.

My family relies completely on the ability to go to our local grocery store and pick up whatever we need on a moment's notice. I drive around with my tank on empty, knowing I can stop and get gas any time I need it. The gauge on my grandfather's old Buick Wildcat never fell below half a tank. I rely solely on my utility company to bring gas and electricity directly into my house. When I lived in Iowa, my family would have frozen to death in the cold Upper Midwest winters without these services (after all the furniture in the house was burned, of course). These are all normal modern day expectations, citizens completely relying on others for basic survival, the assumption being the dollar will always be able to buy these goods and services. We assume money is as close at hand as the nearest ATM and the value of the dollars we withdraw will be stable, both dangerous assumptions.

On September 11th , while New Yorkers were pulling together for the common good and fire and police agencies all over the country were sending people and equipment to Ground Zero, what was the rest of the country doing? Many were sitting in their cars, in long lines, waiting to fill their tanks with $4.00 gasoline. People wanted to hoard gas in case it became suddenly scarce. Price gouging occurred as some store owners saw a chance to capitalize on people's fears. Luckily 9/11 was a one-day affair and no follow-on attacks occurred. The price gouging didn't spread beyond gasoline. Ironically, the gouging actually stabilized the situation by slowing demand of the product, preventing hoarding. At normal prices, the panicked populace would have drained the gas stations' tanks dry in a matter of hours, maybe leading to a real panic when gas was suddenly thought to be scarce. If we had endured another day or two of attacks, would the hoarding and panic have spread to food or other consumer goods? If there had been a sudden run on banks, would the ATMs have been shut off?

Imagine the aftermath of a catastrophe, natural or otherwise. A man whose family lives paycheck to paycheck finds himself standing in line at the local grocery with a ten-dollar bill watching food disappear from the shelves before his very eyes. He has maybe two days of food in the house and he has to do something. So he throws the ten dollars on the counter, grabs what he can and runs from the store. Looting begins, followed by men carrying the only currency still honored, firearms. The store is emptied within hours and will not be restocked. What store owner wouldn't board up the windows after his inventory is looted? Couldn't happen? Look at the looting that occurred after the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles, during the power outage that swept the northeast a few years ago, or that occurred during Hurricane Katrina. Civilization disappears along with power, water, and food. Words on paper (or read from a teleprompter)--- even disaster response plans -- cannot feed the masses, illuminate the dark or purify water. The City of New Orleans learned the true value of their city's emergency plan was less than the paper on which it was printed. Relying on a faceless Federal government, headquartered a thousand miles away, to swoop in and save us in times of disaster is a fool's strategy.

The most stable, civilized nation on earth is only three days from anarchy, or at least martial law, at any given moment. Our constitution, our laws and our public institutions are the framework that bonds this nation together, but when the power goes off, the water is polluted, and food becomes scarce, we are divided, and divided we fall. Ironically, the more technologically advanced a nation is, the more vulnerable. We rely heavily on computers, electricity, petroleum and vehicles for all aspects of our daily lives and when those technologies fail, or are unavailable, our system breaks down. In this country we expect others to pick up the pieces for us when disaster strikes. It's not that we're lazy. It's just the way we've been conditioned to have these expectations. Big Brother will rescue us. Disasters, and our survival in general, are in the hands of others: the City, the State, the National Guard, FEMA, the utility companies, etc.

Our economy is sitting stagnant at an estimated true unemployment rate of 17% and still increasing. We have amassed $12 trillion of debt and another $106 trillion in unfunded liabilities. We rely on other nations investing in our debt to keep the whole thing afloat. With tax revenues way down due to major corporate losses, the Administration is proposing massive new taxes to fund healthcare. The EPA is poised to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions , ensuring industry will not be allowed to expand production or create new jobs. (The Government is going to regulate fire.) Most companies make profits of 5%-10% in good times, on which they pay the second highest corporate income tax in the world. With massive new taxation looming, companies on the margins will fail. Those making profits will see them dwindle. Unemployment will rise. Tax revenues will fall even further and the Government will inflate the dollar to pay its debt, meaning your life savings becomes pennies on the dollar. Panic will ensue. I'm afraid we may see conditions that will make September 11th seem insignificant. Our normally robust economy is now incredibly fragile and on the edge of the cliff. Left to its own devices the People will bring it back from the precipice, but the Obama Administration seems bound and determined to give it that final push.

During times of crisis the human condition can lead to behaviors as destructive as any terrorist's bomb. Many laughed when the Bush Administration's Homeland Security gave us tips such as keeping jugs of water on hand or fresh batteries in our flashlights, but when disaster (natural or economic) strikes it is no laughing matter. The unprepared citizen will find himself in that grocery store, amongst the looters, risking his life for scraps to keep his family alive.

When our ancestors moved west to tame a new frontier they took no government promises. They did take horses, covered wagons, casks of water and food, rifles and ammunition for hunting and protection, axes for chopping wood, etc. They provided for themselves and their communities come hell or high water. We have to recover some of that pioneer spirit -- that need to accept responsibility for ourselves first, then our friends and neighbors, rather than expecting someone else to tow the line.

We will have more power outages, earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes and, yes, terrorist attacks. We may also see the collapse of our economy or at the least the social safety net a large portion of our population depend upon. Now is the time to prepare, to plan, to ensure our families' survival, and, yes, maybe those extra jars of peanut butter would be a good place to start.

Merry Christmas

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