Division Street

Valley bombs Saddam back to stone age

By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press Editor

Our Valley on the edge of the Mojave Desert has a history of whelping the world's best bombers and cutting-edge military aircraft. I'm saying our desert town whupped the butcher of Baghdad's desert town. "There's no proof he's dead," I hear naysayers say.

President George W. Bush says Hussein the butcher is dead whether he knows it or not.

My pal, 1498th Transport Co.'s Second Platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Martin Arreguy, is fond of quoting Arthur Schopenhauer, one of those thoughty German philosophers. Arreguy, with the National Guard headed toward Iraq, grins impishly and quotes: "Life is just death on loan."

If life is just death on loan, we called in the loan marker on Saddam, torturer of the innocent, jailer of children, murderer of the unoffending. The Edwards AFB-tested bomb that put the crater in the Mansur bunker dropped from a B-1B Lancer built a few miles from this newsroom.

One of the first news stories I did about the Antelope Valley was for The Associated Press, a feature about "the Aerospace Valley," so dubbed by our managing editor, Vern Lawson. I met Vern while working on that piece. He emerged from his office, hauling a box full of AV Press and Ledger-Gazette clippings that predated Chuck Yeager. A friendship was born. It was 1985.

I drove to the edge of U.S. Air Force Plant 42, where a good guy named Joe Davies ran my tour where Rockwell International then was building the world's most advanced bomber, the B-1B. The "chief test conductor" let me climb in the cockpit and work "the pickle," the throttle-and-stick controller with a bomb trigger lodged near my right thumb.

I raise this not to raise "me" journalism to a new low. It's just a point of pride. See, I think I've got a one-in-100 chance of having gripped "the pickel" that sent Saddam and his murderous offspring straight to hell. Better than Vegas odds. I'll take 'em.

Planes developed and tested in this Antelope Valley have saved the world before this. The U-2 that sprang from the Mozart mind of Kelly Johnson took wing over this Valley before overflying Russia to give President Dwight D. Eisenhower the intelligence to prevent World War III. The U-2 and its SR-71 Blackbird sisters yielded similar world-saving dish everywhere from Cuba to the Kola Peninsula. A lot of children grew up to be free adults because of those birds.

Protesters say they hate war. The birds that flock together from this Valley prevent war, or end it.

While our Army and Marines are driving victory laps around Saddam statues, we all can give thanks for aiding the freedom of others. And on a strictly local basis, the Valley takes credit for busting Saddam's bunker. He's as busted as he's likely to get, whether or not he survived. As SecDef Don Rumsfeld puts it, the butcher of Baghdad is either dead, incapacitated or cowering in a cave. Good riddance to bad rubbish, and glad we all helped make it happen.

On another local note, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, in a few days collected thousands of minutes worth of pre-paid telephone "calling cards" for her quickly organized "Operation Call Home." The cards are being carried up to our local National Guard soldiers at Camp Roberts, who are scheduled to depart for the next wave of Operation Iraqi Freedom in a week or so. The Antelope Valley Guard troops will deliver humanitarian relief as Iraq rebuilds.

Pioneer Club members at Mayflower Gardens chipped in nearly a hundred bucks so our troops can call home. Runner's staff bought 14 cards. Other contributions came from Helen Dranow, Jackie Ostland, Shirley and Bill Miser, Lance Hiller, Colleen Schiller, Charles Hildebrand and anonymous donors - all generous souls dedicated to helping "Our Heroes" stay in touch. Pre-paid calling card donations can be left at Assemblywoman Runner's 709 West Lancaster Blvd. office. Information about the program can be obtained by calling (661) 723-3368.

As old "Iron Eagle" Gen. Curtis Lemay put it, we bombed Saddam "to the Stone Age"; now we can help the Iraqis emerge into a new age of freedom from fear.