A TRIP TO BERMUDA

The following was first written as an Essay for a course numbered English 100 taken in Fall 1972 at the University of Hawaii. I was stationed in Hawaii as a member of the United States Air Force from March 1970-December 1973. The events described in this essay occurred in 1968 or 1969, when I was stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida, and was permitted to travel to Bermuda on a training flight, even though my job did not relate directly to aircraft in any way, whether flight or mechanical. Although a couple of items in the essay are stated as facts and I understood them as such at the time, I don't know for certain that a C-130 is designed to withstand a maximum landing wind speed of 40 knots and I do not know what is the black percentage of the population of Bermuda, either today or in 1968 or 1969. The instructor did make some red ink editorial suggestions. In some cases, I have made the changes indicated by such; in other cases, I have chosen to stick with my original wording. The paper was assigned a grade of A - , with the editorial concluding comment, "An interesting account which enables the reader to identify with you much of the time."



Looking out the window of the aircraft, I could see nothing but clouds. But somewhere down there was Bermuda. And if all went well, in a few minutes we would be on the ground, and I would be able to add another locale to my world travel record. The flight from Florida had so far been very smooth, but ominous weather reports had warned of gale force winds up to 75 knots in Bermuda.

Now, as we began the slow descent in preparation for landing, the wind began to turn the plane about as if it were a toy. There had been some talk during the flight of diverting to San Juan, Puerto Rico, if it proved to be impossible to land in Bermuda. This would certainly have seemed the advisable thing to do, as the C-130 in which we were riding was built to withstand a maximum wind speed upon landing of 40 knots.

However, our pilot insisted that as the commercial jetliners were still going in he'd be damned if he wasn't going to take this military crate in. The wind got rougher and rougher as we got lower and lower. It became impossible to stand any longer, so I found a seat near the rear of the plane and strapped myself in. I knew it was all over when the navigator left the cockpit, came back and sat down beside me, and strapped in.

He must have noticed the questioning look on my face, and he remarked as calmly as possible, "Looks bad up there. If this thing goes down, I want to be back here." There was a priest on board the aircraft, and I'm sure that had I been Catholic, I would have demanded that he administer last rites. Somehow, in spite of the weather and the pilot, the plane eventually did find the runway and made a good landing.

As I stepped off the plane, I was more or less blown into the waiting bus. Surveying the area, I noted that the water surrounding the island was amazingly blue, even on this overcast day. The bus began to roll, and in a few minutes, had deposited everyone at his appropriate dwelling. After getting into my room, I immediately fell asleep and awoke the following morning.

After eating breakfast, a friend and I teamed up and caught the bus for a ride into Hamilton, the capital city. Upon entering the bus, the first thing we noticed was the large number of black people. We were later to find out that as much as ninty-five per cent of Bermuda's population is black, and for the most part, these people control the island. Even more peculiar to us was the British accent with which these black people spoke.

The bus ride into town was not much less exciting than our landing of the previous day had been. Rock walls lined the sides of the street, and the driver seemed to be attempting to come as close as possible to the walls without hitting them - often missing by inches. Also, there were a large number of motorbikes on the road, and the bus driver would get as close as he possibly could behind them, then maintain the fastest speed possible. We did, however, arrive in the town without incident.

The town was quaint and small, and we had completed our tour in less than half a day. An old fort being indicated on the map as being just a short distance from the downtown area, we decided to walk out to see it. This walk proved to be very interesting, as we got a firsthand look at how the people of Bermuda really lived.

Just outside the town, we noted that the houses were generally quite small and located very close to one another. There were few streets wide enough for automobiles to traverse, but as the majority of the people either walked or rode cycles, this would have been of no great significance. Many paths were interlaced in this area, and we eventually became lost.

Stopping to determine in what direction we had to go to get back into town, we finally agreed and set off up one of these paths. We had gone no more than a hundred yards when we heard a group of people running behind us. A voice sang out, "We've got whites on our property."

Deciding it was time to exercise some diplomacy, I turned to face the mob to discover that it consisted of about twenty children; however, they were wielding sticks. As I turned and began to walk toward them, they stopped. I asked the leader how to get back into town. He pointed the way, and my friend and I slowly began walking up the appropriate path. In a few moments, the group behind us had disbanded, and we continued an uneventful walk back into the business area.

Boarding the bus for a ride back to our plane, we were forced to sit in the rear as all other seats were taken. This time, we were the only two whites on a bus with over fifty blacks, and it somehow seemed ironic to be sitting in the back. The people on the bus, however, seemed much more friendly than had those outside the town, and we were able to converse with them and learn a great deal about Bermuda that is not revealed in the travel folders.

We reached our destination, stepped off the bus and onto our plane, and in a few minutes were airborne, winging back to Florida.