100 Years of AIR WAR

We visited the National Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Field in Dayton, Ohio today. In three hours time we saw most of the planes but had no time to spend at any one exhibit.

I could have spent a day, and a true aficionado of diving death from the sky could have spent a month or more of days.  But admission is free, so why not?

There were exhibits of every kind of warrior aircraft used by Americans neatly arranged by thed war, police action and terror attack they were used in. And a few from our adversaries.

There were milestones of all kinds throughout the several huge hangers and halls.

And there were displays of the way some of the men and women who flew these machines dealt with the death they wrought upon other warriors and civilians alike.

But nowhere did I notice the milestone that struck me most as I entered the first hanger where the first instruments of flying war were displayed. 

It was in 1914, the start of the Great War, soon to be called World War 1, that the airplane went from toy and novelty of the rich, to the most destructive weapons carrier ever known to man.

And of course this year is 2014.  We now celebrate 100 years of death from the sky. 

This is a museum.  The ways of death described here are all obsolete, and replaced with even more destructive ways to kill humans faster and from farther away.



I believe it was Jesus, God Himself, who said, "Love God, and love your neighbor, even if your neighbor is your enemy." 

Three hours here was fascinating, and I'm not a pacifist, but being forced to go to seminary so I could get paid to talk alot for God has made me realize that you cannot know human history without wondering how 2,000 years of Christian tradition could have produced the last 100 years of AIR WAR, and all destructive behavior by followers of Jesus that has gone on before, or happened elsewhere than in the air.

My nephew Scott has been raised in a good Christian home and we are proud of him for having served a tour in Iraq during that war. My grandson Kaream has been raised in another strong believing family and he has just enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard.

Dear Lord protect them, and protect us all from ever having to rely on them to fight, kill, or die, for us.  You already died, and rose again. As the Vietnam War song asks, "Where have all the flowers gone?"  When, oh when, will we ever learn.

-Ken