My Phantom Father

Greetings to everyone! By this time next week, I’ll be spending the night in London prior to leaving for Leipzig, Germany enroute to Torgau and Elsnig. My dear friend, Ernst Eberle, a member of the German team, will meet my flght and drive us to Torgau. The JPAC team is expected to begin the preliminary organization of the field on Monday, 15 August and we will arrive the evening of 17 August ready to do whatever is required on Thursday morning. The Der Spiegel television crew arrives the next week which means things should be pretty operational by the time they show up. On my prior trips, the local press has done daily stories about “The American Pilot’s Daughter” complete with front page photos and commentary Ernst will read to me upon request. This may well be my 15 minutes of fame or just a surreal experience. When I was there last time, I stopped at a local florist to order flowers for the beautiful cross one of the local farmers built and placed in the field. A picture of me holding a photo of my father was posted on the wall of the flower shop. It was a humbling moment in which I knew I was in the process of accomplishing the impossible. A lifetime ago, I worked for a private investigator in Indianapolis whose name is Chuck (Chuckles) Keenan. He always said, “the difficult will take a little while, the impossible takes a little longer.” This is a classic case of “a little longer” but it is definately happening!
For the map lovers among you, I have included a map of the area where the field is located. This might give you an idea of how remote this area is, how rural, and how far away from any major city except Leipzig, about an hour away by car, and Frankfurt, a full day’s drive. Shopping is minimal which is probably a good thing but there’s cool castle, a famous bridge, and a decent Italian restaurant. Hopefully, the weather will resemble Washington state in the summer. I love receiving your emails in response to this effort and I take comfort in knowing you are out there supporting this daring quest. I’ll be in touch and hope you are, too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2005 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.