Blog #8 Randell Cook, Bombardier

After my meeting for Boy Scouts was over, Rebecca, Azadae and I decided to stop at the A&W/KFC on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy to take part in the $2 Any Size Root-beer Float deal that is currently being offered there. I had originally planned on asking the late-night cashier what animal he would be after he took my order, but another customer hovered behind me to partake of the services and I decided to wait. I'm very glad I was met this crossroads because I spoke with someone much more interesting. An elderly gentleman sat by himself, two booths away from the door, next to the window announcing the special painted on the windows. He too sipped on a large $2 Float along with his creamy mashed potatoes and 3-piece chicken dinner. He picked up one of the chicken wings and began to gnaw on the meat, freeing it from the bone. I could see his gold filling flash as he took another bite off of the wing, careful not to drop a single crumb onto his plum-colored sweater, on which an American Flag lapel pin was attached. I wandered over to him, unsure how my approach would be accepted. "Excuse me, sir, but may I ask you a few questions for a school project that I am doing?"
"What sort of questions?" the gentleman responded, slightly squinting at me through his glasses as he lowered the wing from his lips.
"Well, a few questions about yourself and if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?"
He fired right back at me with the answer, as if he had been expecting to tell someone all night, "Husky."
I quickly scribbled down the answer on the back of my German thesis that I had been reviewing, "and why?" I prompted.
"Because that is where I went to school. I went to University of Washington." This I hadn't expected. I was looking for a trait or advantage that an animal might have.
I decided to pry a bit more. "What did you do in college?"
A half smile crinkled up his face. "I did a lot of stuff."
Randell Cook is a native to Portland but decided to go to UW for college. While he attended, he was part of the Crew Team. "This is a great sport," he expanded, indicating that I knew little about the art of synchronized rowing. "It is all about coordination and working together. If one person gets off the rhythm, everyone has to stop and restart." This was not the only recreation that Mr. Cook took part in. He was a member of the ROTC at the college and joined the Air Force in June of 1941. Only six months before the bombing on Pearl Harbor during WWII.  During his military time he instructed Bombardiers. "Do you know Doolittle's Raid? I flew after that and helped with the training of bombers taking off from carriers." Mr. Cook did see some action during the war. "I flew in a B-29 on bombing runs over Japan."
"That was the Super Fortress?" I inquired.
"That is correct," Mr. Cook continued. "We couldn't see much of anything when we flew though. Sometimes the clouds would be so dense that we couldn't see the ground. Only the lead plane would be able to see and tell us where we were."
"Wow," I interjected dumbstruck. My page of scattered notes was starting to fill. "I bet you have some amazing stories."
"Oh I do." He said humbly. He then proceeded to ask questions about me, if I was an Oregonian, what I studied in college, how old my daughter was in the car seat. I'm sure I could have spoken with him for hours, about the war, about his job and family after the war, why he was at KFC alone, but I knew that I had to leave. Before I left I brought my daughter over to see him. "What is...oh, I thought that she just had a ton of hair." He was referencing the flower headband that Azadae was wearing as she stared back at him. He continued to eat his meal as we parted. "God bless you," I said to him.
"Did you get enough for your project?" He quickly asked.
"Oh yes, I think I have enough," thinking I probably had far too little. "May I take a picture of you for the project."
"I won't call my lawyer," he chuckled. "Would you like one with me looking right at you or off to the side?"