Since this is National Aviation History Month, it seems appropriate to mention one of our more colorful and diverse figures in the world of flight. Roscoe Turner was born in Mississippi on September 29, 1895, and died in June 1970, just before his 75th birthday; fairly young by today’s standards but amazing when we consider the perilous life he led.
Roscoe ran away from home at age 16, and a few years later, attempted to join the aviation section of the Signal Corps. He was turned down because he lacked the requisite two years of college education. Tinkering with cars and other machinery took him gradually into the world of aviation. Within a few years, he had, among other things, become qualified, as a balloon pilot, operated a flight school to train pilots and airplane mechanics, took daring risks working as a test pilot and a stunt pilot performing in air shows. He served as a stunt man and actor in Howard Hughes’s movies “Hell’s Angels” and “Flight at Midnight.”
Roscoe owned and piloted some of the earliest commercial airplanes and owned (and lost) at least two fledgling airlines while still competing in various air races, which served to challenge and improve the technology of air travel in much the same way that auto racing has benefited the performance and safety of automobiles.
In the years prior to WWII, he worked to promote the incorporation of aeronautics into the Army. In spite of his dream to be a wartime fighter pilot, the war ended just before he completed his training. During his flying career, Turner won many awards, both military and civilian, for air races and other daring achievements including, by a special act of Congress, the Distinguished Flying Cross, presented to him at the Pentagon in 1952. A true “barnstormer” of his time, Turner performed many daring and record-setting feats and flew for some time with his pet lion Gilmore as co-pilot.
In case you prefer trains over air travel, you can celebrate National Model Railroad Month for all of November. This is also National Native American Heritage Month, a subject that deserves a lot more study and consideration than most of us can devote to it in just one month. I blame those grade school Thanksgiving pageants and early movie Westerns for the ignorance most of us exhibit concerning the various native cultures we have thoughtlessly ignored and damaged since we first intruded on their way of life. It is a topic deserving much more study and research than I can present in this column.
There are several observances that have been assigned their own special days in November. National Bison Day was November 4th. Also known as American Buffalo, the huge bovines can run up to 35 miles per hour, their main predator is the wolf, their average life span is twenty years, and on May 9, 2016, they joined the bald eagle as our national mammal and symbol of our nation. Chosen partly to celebrate the success of efforts to save the bison from extinction, these great, shaggy animals represent our efforts to conserve many other native species as well. Ironically, the bison’s near-destruction was partly due to the government’s campaign, in the early 1800’s, to drive out native Americans by hiring hunters to kill off the vast herds that they depended on for their existence. At the time, people were led to believe that the slaughter was meant to prevent the bison from damaging the telegraph poles that the railroads relied on. There were almost thirty million bison living in North American plains and woods150 years ago. By the 1880’s there were fewer than 1,000. There are now only about 30,000 wild bison. and because of the great reduction in numbers, they are considered to be ecologically extinct.
This month, you can also celebrate Love Your Lawyer Day; World Jellyfish Day; National Housewife Day; Cliche Day; National Candy Day; Use Your Commonsense Day (my favorite, it covers much of the above) and World Numbat Day – if you can find out what a numbat is.