My father was a Naval Officer. He served in three wars, and raised four children with the same courage and sacrifice he brought to the service. In 1960 we lived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with coconut trees in the yard, bouganvillea bushes lining the streets, and pineapples growing underfoot. We fished in the surf, and played badminton under the high ceilings of our house. I swam in the surf with iguanas, and enjoyed the best fresh fruit anywhere.
It was just after the Communist revolution had come into power, and relations between The United States and the new regime were very tense. We were practicing helicopter evacuations from the football field, and the Naval base had to install a water desalinization plant as our water supply from the mainland was cut off by the new government. While out exploring one day, my sister found herself in a mine field between the two boundaries. Marines with a map, a megaphone, and a tank rolled out to escort her out safely.
modified image from the internet
When Dad’s tour came to an end it was time for us all to return to the United States. As was normal in the military, Mom and we three children boarded a military cargo plane with a full complement of crew and cargo, as well as Marines, Sailors and Officers.
Due to the changes in international relations we were no longer able to fly over Cuban airspace.
Our course would direct us first south out of Guantanamo, and then circle around the east end of the island, and then head north. This would take us into the Bermuda Triangle, famous for its navigation anomalies and lost aircraft. Compasses can spin wildly there, electrical instrumentation goes blank. Ships and planes have been known to disappear, then reappear, intact but missing all of the crew…
When we were clear of the island we began the banking turn west that would put us on course over Turks and Caicos, and Bahamas, toward Miami, Cocoa Beach, and Cape Canaveral. At this point we were in the south and eastern end of the Triangle. It is as spectacular as anywhere in the Caribbean, and the flight was proving to be beautiful but uneventful. But as we were heading west, an odd green cloud appeared ahead of us. It seemed to have a metallic sheen that glistened from within, independently of the sun. There was no avoiding it— we entered the cloud, smoothly, with only the strange color from the cloud all around us.
Then without notice, very suddenly the plane dropped as if it would fall from the sky, as if all the air was gone from beneath our wings.
Everything that was not strapped in was launched through the fuselage.
My sister reached to hold me in, as her orange juice went airborne, dousing the sailor sitting next to her. Luggage and gear hit the ceiling and flew about. Books and papers were launched as if weightless, only to come crashing back down again in a crazy rain. The brief moment of chaos was followed by an abrupt jolt as the plane swerved upward, righting our orientation again.
Miraculously, no one was badly hurt. Just some bruises and shaken nerves.
The plane fell a full 1,000 feet as if there was no air beneath it. The pilots said later that if we had fallen any farther, our wings would have snapped off of the plane. Cargo airplanes aren’t built for that kind of contingency.
Much has been written about the Bermuda Triangle, much of it speculation about the physical nature of what happens there. Today I have to wonder about its hidden secrets, at this time of changes worldwide, and the refocusing of our goals as one humanity.
Was what we experienced merely an artifact of physical phenomena?
Was it an encounter, as some would suggest?
A rite of passage, a baptism within a warp of time, or an initiation into a multidimensional doorway?”
For me, it was another wonder within a wonderful life. A life full of miracles, awakenings, visitations, and direction. Flying today, I find being in the clouds indescribably beautiful and joyful— I never want to come down.
Don’t believe there aren’t secrets yet to be known; to who we are, why we are here, and what we are here to do. You don’t have to go far to embrace mysteries. Life is at your fingertips— the answers are there, ready for the asking. These are Great Days that we share…
—Engage!
