Joe Sr., Joe Jr. and the Star

Everyone who comes to The Great Plotnik World Headquarters and Meatball Kitchen comments about the star. The star was once on the wingtip of Joe Sr.'s training airplane in the Army Air Corps before World War II. Joe Sr., who was The Great Ducknik's father, decided flying these rickety machines was far too hazardous to one's health. But there was only one way he could avoid having to fly them anymore: he would have to wash out of flight school.

This was not a simple task. What Joe Sr. decided to do was to put the airplane into a dive in front of the flight school commander. He pulled it off, and that was it for flight school for Joe Sr.

A few years later, though, he still ended up in the middle of the soup, on a lonely destroyer doing picket duty in the Pacific Ocean, a target for Japanese kamikazes swooping down out of the sun. Fortunately he and his ship survived the war, and they ended up in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese occupation began.

When Joe Sr. left flight school, his flight mates cut the wingtip off his training plane, and gave it to him as a parting gift. They each signed their name and home town on the wingtip. This is a long time ago now. Those names and hometowns have faded almost to invisiblity. But you can still see a few: A.F. Joss, Altoona, PA. ___ Kanchasezski from Worcester, MASS. They used to be a lot easier to read.

Ducknik took the wingtip and mounted it on a backing so it could always be displayed. Plotnik has it right outside his office door. Every time he sees it he remembers Joe Sr. He also remembers how thankful he is to Joe and Joss and Kanchasezski and all those other millions of soldiers and sailors who did what they all had to do. He is especially thankful Joe Sr. made it on through, and so are The Great PD and The Great BZWZ.

Joe Jr., Ducknik's brother, has always looked a little like his dad, especially when you see their photos side by side, each wearing their dress white uniforms. Joe Jr. saw combat off of Vietnam, also on a destroyer, but in the 1960s, which seems like a long time ago now too.

Like most ex-military personnel, Joe Jr. does not voice his opinion about military affairs, like Iraq. The loudest and shrillest voices always seem to come from people who never served. Which is why Plotnik tries to be careful about his own point of view. Just like he is suspicious of non-writers telling him how to write, he is equally suspicious of civilians telling the military how to run their wars. No matter how convinced he is that the U.S. has blundered mightily in the Middle East, he never wants to forget that he is not there. He is here, where it's a little chilly, and a little windy, but that's the worst it gets.

All of this is apropos of nothing. It's nice to have Joe Jr. and Pat here. Maybe Joe will teach Plotnik how to drink beer.