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Topic: Traditional Story: Ngā Tētēkura o Hautere
Topic type:
In the rugged forests of Hautere in a settlement called Kotare, there once lived two hapu of Ngamarama, the old tangata whenua of Tauranga Moana. The names of these two hapu were Patutieke and Ngati Tai and their chiefs were Te Wakaurua, Torotoro and Te Akakura.
They stayed in the forest, living on berries, fern and other forest foods, and snaring birds and catching tuna and koura in the streams. They were not usually a fighting people and would retreat into the dense bush when threatened by outsiders. The forest was full of tall trees, shrubs, creepers and other undergrowth. It was especially known for its ferns, the tall tree ferns, ponga and mamaku, and the smaller varieties that carpeted the forest floor. Ngā tētēkura are the fern fronds that provided shelter. Nga tetekura are also the chiefs, and this story is about what happened to these chiefs and their people of Ngamarama.
Nearer the coast in the fern country and by the waters of Tauranga Moana lived other hapu who had come much later to settle in the district. These were Ngati Kahu of the Wairoa and their relatives Tuporohe and Tawharangi. They had a fortified place, a pa, which they called Mataiwhetu which was inland a little in the fern country. These people lived mainly on aruhe, fern root and kai moana, all the various kinds of sea food that can be found around Tauranga Moana – fish, crayfish, shellfish, mussels, king, paua, pipi, tuatua and all the rest.
The coastal people decided to make an expedition over the ranges through the territory of Ngamarama to visit their friends and relatives at Okauia. The Tauranga ope carried with them a gift of kai moana, dried fish and shellfish, which the inland people of Okauia really appreciated. This was the Tauranga contribution to the big reunion feast, a hākari, that was going to be held at Okauia. Usually the Tauranga people crossed the ranges unchallenged. This time the ope was ambushed by Torotoro and Akakura and their men of Ngamarama. Because they were on a peaceful expedition to Okauia, the Tauranga people were unarmed and unprepared to fight. Ngamarama quickly captured them and took from them all their gifts of kai moana. Torotoro stood before them and pointed toward the sea, the way they had come and said, "Go back to te akau o te moana, back to the seashore. Be thankful we have spared your lives. E kore koe e puta i ngā tētēkura o Hautere." This was rather a silly boast by Torotoro but he and his people were feeling very pleased with themselves at being able to take all this kai moana so easily from the coastal people.
The Tauranga ope returned home empty-handed and they missed the hākari at Okauia. They were feeling humiliated at being ambushed without warning and unable to fight back. They sought utu, retaliation, in order to get back some of their mana, their pride and self-esteem. It did not help matters that these forest people of Hautere were also cheeky enough to be helping themselves to the fern root, aruhe, in land belonging to the coastal people. Ngati Kahu and their relatives decided to get together a war party and punish these highway robbers of the forests of Hautere. They called on the other hapu on the shores of Tauranga Moana and a well-armed war party moved inland into the bush.
Ngamarama were not really fighting people. It was one thing to ambush an unarmed ope. It was quite another to resist a well-armed and revengeful taua from Tauranga Moana. Te Akakura and his people were driven out of their stronghold of Kotare. They were chased through the bush toward Whakamarama. They were pushed out of the forest into the open fern country toward the coast. There was no place to hide there. They were driven toward the shore between Te Kauri and Ongare. Here they found some canoes drawn up on the beach. Their way back to the forests was cut off by the taua chasing them. Te Akakura told his people to climb into the canoes and sail past Katikati out of the western harbour into the open sea.
Fortunately for the Ngamarama, who were not really sea-going people, the weather was fine, the ocean was calm, and they were able to paddle the canoes to Tuhua. Here they landed on a beach lined with pohutukawa. But Tuhua was already occupied by people called Whitikiore, ancestors of Whanau a Tauwhao, who still own the island. However, Whitikiore felt sorry for these refugees from the forests of Hautere and gave them a place to build their houses and some land to cultivate. There were plenty of birds and other forest foods on Tuhua. And there was plenty of kai moana right on their doorstep. Ngamarama should have lived happily there for many generations but ngā tētēkura o Hautere, the conceited chiefs of Hautere, had not learned their lesson. Quarrels arose between Ngamarama and Whitikiore and it seemed that they would become refugees again.
Ngamarama had overstayed their welcome on Tuhua, but where in the great ocean, Te Moananui a Kiwa, could they go to next? Te Akakura said to his people, "Let us sail away to the land of our ancestors, Hawaiki. Let us prepare our canoes and stock up with food and water, and leave these islands of trouble. We cannot stay here." And so these Ngamarama secretly prepared for their voyage. One dark night they climbed into their canoes and sailed north and east into the sunrise.
Whitikiore awoke next morning. There was no sign of Patutieke and Ngati Tai of Ngamarama. There was no clue as to where they might have disappeared. For many days they puzzled about this strange and secret departure. One night Whitikiore were all gathered in the wharenui. The tohunga was chanting a karakia. Suddenly a thin ghostly voice was heard in the rafters. It was the kupu irirangi of Korora, the guardian spirit of Te Akakura of Patutieke. The thin, clear spirit voice told of the journey and arrival of Te Akakura in the spirit world.
Maybe Te Akakura did journey to the spirit world, but around Whangamata there is a story of a people led by a chief called Te Akakura who arrived from the sea. For many days they were at sea. A fog descended on them. They paddled on but lost all sense of direction. The sun was obscured by day. At night they could see neither moon nor stars. Then a storm arose. Tawhiri matea sent winds which blew the fog away but tossed up waves that carried them into unknown seas. When the wind and ocean calmed down and the sun reappeared, only one canoe remained, the one commanded by Te Akakura. They saw land far in the distance. Was this Hawaiki? They paddled towards it. As they drew closer, their hearts sank. They recognised Moehau on the Coromandel Peninsula. That was claimed by Tamatekapua of Te Arawa. They would find no sanctuary there.
Te Akakura and his people of Patutieke paddled on along the coast looking for a landing place. They arrived off Whangamata and decided to land there, starving, weary and dejected. To their surprise, no one stopped them. They decided to stay and built a pa called Tunaiti. Some of their descendants are still there, although those Ngamarama refugees have long since intermarried with other tribes.
There is a saying about the fern fronds: Mate atu he tētēkura, ara mai he tētēkura. When the fern frond dies, another rises in its place. Just as ngā tētēkura o Hautere, the chiefs of Ngamarama, have long since died, others have risen to take their place around the shores of Tauranga Moana. And so the cycle of birth, living and death continues through succeeding generations.
Other stories are found off the article - An Introduction to this collection (please click)


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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A Fort Worth family was held at gunpoint and robbed. Today the search continues for their attackers.
It was around 4 a.m. when Cynthia Prostok and her husband woke up to find two armed men in their bedroom. The men were demanding cash.
Eventually one of the suspect's took Cynthia's husband to a bank, while the woman and her daughter stayed with the other gunman at their home near Texas Christian University.
The ordeal lasted about an hour and no one was hurt.
While police say they don't know why the home, on Riverbend Drive, was chosen Cynthia Prostok has a good idea. "They specifically told us that it was the cars, in the front, that made them chose our house. And they told us that if our door… if they had tried the door and it was locked, they wouldn't have broken in the door."
The family admits their back door was unlocked and the alarm system wasn't turned on.
The robbers got away with jewelry and about $4,000.
Everything considered Cynthia Prostok said, "We're very lucky. It could have ended up much worse for us."
Police continue to search for the suspects and have increased patrols in the neighborhood.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The History Of Panic
Detroit multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter Gerald Roesser is one heck of a talent. As The History of Panic he embraces his multitude of skills and channels them into stunning songs that are danceable, sugary sweet, and vivacious. History's album Fight! Fight! Fight! is no different and is packed to the gills with synthetic indie dance anthems that are bursting at the seams with and effervescence and catchiness that makes this record stupendous.
Fight! Fight! Fight! is a debut album twelve years in the making, two years recording, and was shaped by History's steady diet of Morrissey, Britpop, electronics and techno. It's a display of Roesser's adeptness at taking all that he knows and constructing masterful pop songs out of those elements. It's gorgeous seductive pop that's shimmery, melodic, and beyond catchy. Featuring a slew of special appearances from bands like Pas/Cal and Electric Six Fight! Fight! Fight! has a larger than life feel to it. It, in a word, is big-time. This is a record of perseverance, of the little guy winning and overcoming insurmountable odds. And how can it not be? It did take twelve years to come to fruition and two years to record afterall. Fight! Fight! Fight! is the definition of dedication and seeing things through and it's easy to understand why the album turned out as good as it did.
I absolutely love this record. Fight! Fight! Fight!'s synth pop styling, kinetic movement, and instantly memorable songs make it nearly impossible to walk away from. I mean the hooks on Fight! Fight! Fight! dig deep and just don't want to let go. For example, listen to, "The Chase," once and I'm willing to bet you'll have to listen to it again and again and still won't be able to get out of your head. Just about perfect, The History of Panic has put together one of the best indie dance records of 2012 with Fight! Fight! Fight! ; this one is easily in my top 25 for 2012.
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Sydney - Australian bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc says he is focused on being ready for the first Test against South Africa after declaring himself available for selection following a grisly training accident.
The 26-year-old suffered deep cuts after colliding with
training equipment at a Sydney ground last month, needing nearly three dozen
stitches to his left leg.
The left-arm pace sustained two gashes just below his knee
and was rushed to hospital where he had surgery.
But after five weeks of recuperation, including wearing a
leg brace, he announced Thursday he was available for New South Wales' first
Sheffield Shield match of the season against Queensland, starting on Tuesday.
"I'm available for (state) selection," he told
reporters in Sydney.
"I'll hopefully be on that plane on Monday to Brisbane
and get some good bowling in and be back playing and ready to go for that first
The first Test against the Proteas is in Perth from November 3, with further Tests in Hobart and Adelaide.
Starc has been sorely missed by Australia, who were
whitewashed 5-0 in South Africa in a one-day series that ended earlier this
He was Australia's leading bowler on their tour of Sri Lanka
prior to the South Africa hammering, taking 24 wickets at 15.16 in the 3-0 Test
series defeat.
Starc said he had been back up and bowling for around two
"Since then it's been fine," he said of his leg.
"I've been bowling off the long run at a net session
with the NSW boys (on Tuesday) and will bowl at them again today and probably
have another session before going over to Brisbane on Monday."


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First look inside Shangri-La London in the Shard
For first-time visitors to Shangri-La's London hotel, which occupies floors 34 to 52 of the Renzo Piano-designed Shard skyscraper, the initial guest experience is likely to be familiar.
I was one of a handful of journalists to visit this morning as part of a hard-hat tour of the site – and the property's ground-floor reception area is impressive, but largely unremarkable.
There's a pleasant all-day café and patisserie, Lang, which should prove popular with passing commuters; the reception area is immaculate and the prerequisite collection of artworks impressive. A dazzling design feature – in this instance a vast chandelier composed of undulating fragments of softly chiming crystal – is already in situ.
The experience changes as the time for check-in approaches, however. Guests who wish to bypass the ground-floor desk will be ushered instead to a lift that takes them to the main, marble-clad lobby area – on the Shard's 35th floor – in 28 seconds.
In less than half a minute, we were taken from the mundane surroundings of commuter-clogged London Bridge to the peak of London, with uninterrupted views of St Paul's and the London Eye, the mottled expanse of central London and the meandering Thames. It wasn't lost on me that this incredible view is one that visitors to the city have been waiting some time for.
A guest bedroom. The carpets shown here - now decided passé - are to be replaced before May's grand opening
Initially scheduled to open in June 2013, the long-delayed hotel (which officially operates under the cumbersome title of Shangri-La Hotel, at the Shard, London) is set to welcome its first guests on May 6.
Reasons for the frequent postponements of the opening date haven't been released but John Sisk & Sons, the contractors initially charged with developing the hotel, were replaced in September. A spokesperson for the developers told the Construction Enquirer: ""Despite our best endeavours, we have not managed to find a way forward with Shangri-La and a decision has been made to end the relationship." Rival firm Chorus has since taken over development duties.
Despite the delays, Shangri-La London will still be able to claim a swathe of firsts and superlatives come May: it will be the tallest hotel in Western Europe; it will be the first hotel in a London skyscraper; it will be the first luxury hotel in London to open south of the Thames. (The Mondrian, in nearby Sea Containers House, will open just a few weeks later.)
Developers are certain that everything will be in place in time for the hotel's opening – reservations can be made from March 17 – but during our visit it was clear there is much to be done.
As is typically the case on hard-hat tours, photography wasn't permitted but we could see work in progress on all levels. Lighting is still being put in place, walls are partially plastered, furniture has yet to be added and last-minute cosmetic changes are under way. A blue, flower-embossed carpet that drew less-than-enthusiastic responses during our visit is, as it happens, being ripped up and replaced with a less vibrant alternative. The hotel manager Darren Gearing, however, remains relaxed, telling us: "everything is on schedule."
Britons keen to see the handiwork for themselves without committing to an overnight stay - entry-level rates at the hotel start at £450 per night, excluding breakfast, which will cost about £30 for a full English – will be welcome to dine at 35th-floor Ting, the hotel's "signature" (and, in fact, only) restaurant. Previously of the Ritz in London and Shangri-La's Tokyo and Maldives properties, Emil Minev is executive chef and will serve a modern European menu with Asian touches. Two afternoon tea options – one British in style, one Chinese – will also be available but reservations will likely be hard to secure. The Shard's tapering form means that space even at lower levels is restricted.
The hotel's 202 rooms and suites run from floors 36 to 50 and each will be configured differently. Sizes range from 323-2024sq ft (30-188sq metres) and are among the largest in London, but during our tour it appeared the building's unique, angular structure has presented some challenges. Awkwardly placed support pillars jut through some spaces and from certain points it is possible to be seen from the floor-to-ceiling windows of neighbouring guests' rooms. Electronically operated blackout blinds are standard throughout; the windows themselves will be washed four times per year, at which point guests can expect cleaners to abseil down the building.
Another issue to consider could be the impact ill weather has on rooms found at such a height. High-rise hotels elsewhere noticeably sway in stormy weather, but management here say that shaking of the façade hasn't been observed at any point.
One of the hotel's marble-clad bathrooms
Other features will be broadly welcomed. Each slick marble-clad guest bathroom will feature heated flooring, Japanese-style electronic toilets with heated seats, mirrors with integrated televisions and Aqua di Parma toiletries; some 80 guest rooms will have freestanding baths positioned by the windows. Each of the hotel's 17 suites will have dedicated butler service and the hotel's three signature suites will have as-yet-unannounced features which the hotel promises will be "exceptionally lush". Due to open in September on the building's 39th floor, the Shangri-La Suite will offer 188-degree views of London, stretching from the Houses of Parliament to Canary Wharf and is expected to be especially popular with celebrities and more discreet big-budget visitors. Guests here will be permitted to park in the Shard's basement levels and reach their suite via the private lifts ordinarily reserved for the owners of the apartments on floors 53 to 65 of the 72-storey building.
The hotel's crowning feature, however, is 52nd-floor Gong. The highest bar in the country, it will specialise in champagne and cocktails and is set to be one of the capital's most exclusive drinking venues. Incomplete and unfurnished today, it should prove a showstopper when it welcomes its first guests – lauded Hong Kong designer Andre Fu is the man behind its looks and Henning Neufeld, previously of Shangri-La Beijing, will be head mixologist.
Due to the restricted space – and space does feel tight at this level, 623ft (190m) above the city – it accommodates just 80 to 90 people at a time and a reservation list will be in operation from Wednesday to Sunday initially, and throughout the week subsequently. This level of the building also includes a small gym (which will be open to residents of the apartments directly above) and a 36ft (11m) infinity pool, which will, of course, be the highest of its kind in the country.
While the pool space and bar are directly beside each other, it remains to be seen how the two spaces will be integrated. It is likely that the pool will be open to families for a limited time during the day before functioning as an extension of the bar space at night. Among other plans, the pool may be covered in Perspex at night so visitors can walk upon it and admire the view; in Hong Kong and Beijing, the Shangri-La hotels' pools have been drained and used as catwalks for fashion shows so, it would seem, anything is possible.
In any case all will be revealed on May 6 – or Londoners may have to wait for many weeks longer. Each Shangri-La hotel opens on a date and time that is considered by the Chinese to be auspicious. Should proceedings by delayed by even one day it could mean there's a significant delay while the hotel group's head office approves another similarly serendipitous opening date.
Room reservations open on March 17. To book a room, email firstname.lastname@example.com; call +44 (0)207 234 8088 or visit www.shangri-la.com/london
New hotels for 2014
Our guide to the most eagerly anticipated new hotel openings this year
Ten of London's best new hotels


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Stainless Steel Backflush Disk
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Blank, blind portafilter insert for back flushing group heads. Used with most commercial machines such as Astoria, BFC, Brasilia, ECM, ECM Manufacture, Expobar, Faema, Fiorenzato, Futurmat, Gaggia, Isomac, La Marzocco, La Pavoni (commercial), Rancilio, Nuova Simonelli, Sanremo, Slayer, VBM/Vibiemme, VFA, Victoria Arduino and Wega.
Does NOT fit Carimali, Cimbali, Dalla Corte, San Marco or Spaziale, nor home equipment models that do not implement a three-way solenoid..
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When I bought my Rancilio Silva almost 20 years ago they did not recommend backflush, and it did not come with the blind filter. I recently learned that they subsequently recommended backflush. I did it for the first time and had to repeat it three times. It made a very noticeable improvement in flavor. I recommend it highly.
If you have a 3 way valve on your machine, one of these little guys will let you backflush the nasty, rancid coffee oil out of the system.
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It's fast. It's concise. It's'Äì
(enter booming radio voice here)
My weekend in a nutshell!
(I'm already sponging away at a well-deserved glass of absinthe, so this list may or may not leave out important events. I'll give it my best at 1am and green fairy influenced…)
So, Friday. I worked on some code. I ate some food. Shit'Äì erm… oh! Neil and I walked to town for a coffee. No, wait… that was Saturday. Friday…
Friday… Oh! Neil's friend Mike came over to discuss podcasting and we had Papa John's pizza. (The pizza was just as good as the Papa John's I used to order in the states. It rocked. We'd been sitting on a mailed menu from them for weeks and finally ordered. Yum.)
Saturday. Neil and I walked to town for a coffee. We avoided most work. Had leftover Papa John's. I introduced him to House of 1000 Corpses.
Sunday. Chatted with Aaron on vid. Lazy, rainy day with a hefty chunk of coding/work time in the evening. I did some super good work. Gorgeous, tight CSS layout. No ADD demons and I am now pickling myself with a sweaty glass of absinthe as I lure sleepiness into my grasp.
It was a darn fine weekend. And, to top it all off, we made money on the Lotto. Only ten quid, but it was more than we spent so we're winners. 🙂
Happy girlie signing off for the night.
Technorati Tags: regularjen


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The next project starts
Drawing challenging themes to take me through the festive period. Here is the first of the drawings for the new project.
Obama and the North Koreans
I just can't believe what the North Koreans have called Obama. It's unbelievable and strongly relates to the work I am doing at the moment on black people working in our factory between 1961 and 2000.
Today's view and back to work again.
One more project before mid January
End of term Christmas lunch today. Claret, not champagne for me, fairly merry I sauntered home to sit by my computer contemplating work. Images of our workers is my next project. What images I can dredge up from memory are quickly noted down.
I think I've done it.
A few days to Christmas, eight to be exact and I have finished the last but one image. Want to see?
Yes, you're right, that is what they are, hairs, of the unappealing variety. Well, I had to describe an aspect of that society that was fundamental, what else could I do?
He told me to man up. Man up would you believe. Quite right too.
When one is under stimulated one can get a little, let's say, excitable, because one either is presented with entertainment or makes some for oneself. I tried wine but it did little to dull the senses and what little theatre I could create did nothing to stem the tedium. Better to stay at home and draw me thinks.
Here is one I made earlier.
The Gym
Here is a page of my book, just arrived from the printers, all ready to take to my wonderful communist leaning artist tutor on Saturday.
Today's view, not so golden now, more like a muddy green.
"The canary bird in the coal mine theory of the arts: artists should be treasured as alarm systems."
Kurt Vonnegut
July 2017
My blog, a thought or two


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Throughout last year, Buffalo police pulled over more drivers and handed more tickets to each.
But the flood began in July – after City Hall created its new "traffic violations agency" to grab more money than ever from traffic fines.
The traffic agency flung open its doors July 1. From that day through December, police issued 30,000 tickets, nearly 10,000 more than the latter half of 2014.
These days, officers don't hand just one citation to a driver, according to figures from Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda. With new software making it easy, they average three.
The torrent of tickets written from July to December, documented by state data and obtained by The Buffalo News, will eventually rain millions of dollars onto City Hall. But the deluge of tickets was so huge it initially swamped the young traffic agency and left it struggling to collect the windfall.
Buffalo is hardly the first city, town or village to squeeze drivers for more government cash.
"This raises a bigger issue," the Rev. James Giles said of the spike in ticket-writing.
Giles is a leading figure in the local "restorative justice" movement that advocates better responses to wrongdoing than punishment alone.
All citizens should obey the law, Giles said. Yet when governments ramp up enforcement chiefly to grab more money, they hurt the poor the most, he said. Hit with traffic fines they can't pay, the poor risk the loss of driving privileges, a job and their financial underpinnings, he said.
"Is this a fair way to gain revenue?" Giles asked. "It may establish something else that government did not intend."
Buffalo's new agency has already moved to suspend the licenses of 4,400 drivers, a city official said.
Shifting expectations
Mayor Byron W. Brown had long sought Albany's approval to let Buffalo enter the traffic-ticket business. He wanted city employees, not those with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, to strike the bargains that allow motorists to protect their driving records and the city to keep more from the fines they were dealt.
The mayor's budget-makers predicted a $5 million haul in the first year, and city police seeded the bounty. While some of their 30,000 tickets cited more-serious infractions and were bound for City Court, the majority went to the traffic violations agency, which inherited another pile of 30,000 pending tickets from the DMV.
The city's new agency was quickly overwhelmed.
Budget-makers cut their first-year revenue estimate to $2.5 million. Now the totals for the first seven months are in: $682,000.
For comparison, when the state Department of Motor Vehicles handled the city's ticket business out of a downtown office, it handed City Hall $500,000 to $600,000 in a typical year. For that, the city didn't have to pay more than $300,000 in expenses.
City officials had once vowed they would be ready to handle traffic-tickets come July 1. But the early months showed kinks needed to be ironed out. And this was after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo delayed the switch for a year because of fears the transition would be rushed.
One remedy
It's Kevin Helfer's job to reverse the trend. He's the commissioner of parking enforcement who doubles as head of the traffic violations agency.
"The logistics of starting a completely new process and a completely new office – those challenges take some time to overcome," Helfer said.
To work out plea agreements, the city's prosecutor could see about 60 people a day Monday through Friday. But the nine police agencies operating in Buffalo were averaging more than 200 tickets every day of the week, with Buffalo cops writing the vast majority.
The prosecutor's appointments had to be scheduled far into the future. Yet until the driver and prosecutor met, no fine was paid.
"There were a lot more than 60 people needing to be seen in a day, and our appointments were being pushed out for months," Helfer said.
He turned to a remedy common with town courts. The agency now sends drivers letters offering bargains based on the seriousness of the infraction and the driver's record.
There are advantages to drivers pleading by mail. It speeds up the moment at which the driver and prosecutor reach their terms. It lets the city more quickly reach the point when it acts against drivers who balk at paying the fine. And drivers need not take time off of work. Unlike town and village courts that maintain late-day sessions, Buffalo's traffic violations agency keeps only business hours.
Already, monthly income is growing. In December, the agency took in $97,000 for city government. That was its best month until January's $163,000.
Helfer said the city hasn't lost money; it's going to collect it later than expected. He predicted that in time, the agency will reliably collect $2.5 million each year.
"You are going to see a significant increase in revenue over time," he said.
The plea bargain
A labyrinth of rules determines whether money from fines stays local or goes to Albany. But local governments keep fines they collect for violations of their local ordinances – parking ordinances, for example.
Michael T. Dwan, a Buffalo lawyer specializing in vehicle-and-traffic law cases, said most of his clients in Buffalo's traffic violations agency end up pleading to parking violations. Under the old system, plea bargains were almost unheard of.
"It's a huge improvement from the way it was before," Dwan said. "When the DMV was running the traffic ticket bureau out of the Ellicott Square building, it was a pretty bleak situation. It's much more reasonable now. It's more consistent with the suburbs."
In almost every case he has seen in which a moving violation was reduced to a parking ticket, the city prosecutor, John J. Hannibal, insisted on the maximum fine: $150 plus a $25 surcharge.
The governor in 2013 tried to limit the plea bargaining going on in local courts because it masked the records of repeat offenders and cost the state money. But Cuomo couldn't get the bulk of his proposal through the Legislature.
In Buffalo, 95 percent of drivers take the plea bargain they are offered, Helfer said, and it virtually always involves a parking ticket.
Big fines, no points
Inertia Huff, a 27-year-old woman with a ready smile, has been there, done that. She was driving on Bailey Avenue, in a hurry because she was running late, when a police officer stopped her to cite her for driving 46 in a 30 mph zone. That was Sept. 24.
Four months later, on Jan. 28, she emerged from her traffic agency conference. She had pleaded to not one but two traffic tickets, at a total cost of $350. She had no complaints. No points would come off her license.
Just minutes after Huff walked out of Room 115, a city police officer was handing a ticket to a driver he had pulled over near Niagara Square, in the shadow of City Hall. It was one of the potential 60,000 tickets that Buffalo police are on pace to write before the end of June.
Don't think that the surge in traffic tickets was timed to coincide with the start of the new traffic violations agency, says Derenda, the police commissioner. He attributes the year-to-year increase to a few factors. One was the months-long flurry of about 1,200 traffic stops on Route 198, the Scajaquada Expressway, where the speed limit was abruptly lowered from 50 mph to 30 mph after an accident May 30 killed a 3-year-old boy in Delaware Park. Stepped-up enforcement there was followed by citizen requests for more traffic enforcement in neighborhoods around the city, Derenda said. Then by 2013 there was widespread use of the new Traffic and Criminal Software system in patrol cars. With a swipe of a driver's license and a few flicks of a forefinger, police can generate multiple tickets.
Still, figures from the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Albany show that Buffalo's ticket-writing rose dramatically beginning July 1. Consider: In June, when the Scajaquada's speed limit was lowered because of the child's tragic death, city officers wrote about 3,700 tickets – fewer than the prior month.
One month later, with the traffic violations agency open, they wrote 5,300, a jump of 43 percent, or 54 more tickets every day.
A form of taxation
"The timing is quite coincidental, isn't it?" said John Bowman, vice president of the National Motorists Association.
The association, headquartered in Wisconsin, has about 9,000 members and says it's "dedicated to protecting the rights of the motoring public."
The association argues that the traffic-ticket system nationwide needs an overhaul. Decisions that police and judges make as they enforce traffic laws and set fines directly benefits their agencies, their personnel and their local governments. How can police and the courts then be impartial as they handle traffic citations?
To take self-interest out of the system, the association urges that all money collected from fines be sent to state capitals and distributed back to local governments based on population.
"Certainly there has to be a revenue incentive there for writing all those tickets," Bowman said, when told of the situation in Buffalo. "I can't imagine that all of a sudden 50 percent more people are speeding or running red lights."
Daniel J. Ward would agree. He's an attorney and a former Amherst town supervisor who in recent years became alarmed by the data collected every day by those cameras you see mounted on many patrol cars. They are high-speed readers that alert officers to, say, a car that has been reported stolen being driving in proximity. The readers also store an image of every plate they scan. Critics say they can potentially document the doctors someone visits or where they sleep at night.
Like the Rev. Giles with the restorative justice movement, Ward said the governments churning out traffic fines to balance budgets hurt the poor the most.
"A lot of traffic tickets are being written everywhere," Ward said. "A lot of them are kind of needless. What it's really become is a third level of taxation.
"Nobody wants to say 'We are raising taxes,' " he said. "But this is a way of doing it."
Post your thoughts below in the comment section.
SOURCE: Buffalo News


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As October brings renewed emphasis on breast cancer detection and prevention, Emory Saint Joseph's Laboratory Manager Eileen Stone, a 15-year veteran of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, shares a first-person account of what this event means to her and to the thousands of survivors, caregivers and loved ones she serves each year through this event. This year, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day will take place in Atlanta Oct. 17-19.
Dark early morning skies and cooler temperatures can only mean one thing. The Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day is around the corner. In a few short weeks, just about everything in the general vicinity will turn pink. I've been involved with the 3-Day since its inception. This will be my 15th Atlanta 3-Day event and yet there's still so much to look forward to.
I'm looking forward to seeing my fellow Co-Captains. Many of us have worked together since the inception of the 3-Day so the event has become more of a family reunion than anything else. We consider this event to be a labor of love. There's a saying "…friends are the family you choose for yourself" and these wonderful people fall into that category. They have become my family of choice.
I'm looking forward to meeting my entire pit stop crew. As in the past, there are returning members and new ones. Some of the crew members live in another state and although we've spoken on the phone, I'll actually get to meet them as a group for the first time on Crew Day (the Thursday before the event). As a captain, there's always a tiny, practically miniscule bit of trepidation as to whether or not they will come together to form a cohesive team. Will personalities mesh? Will they get along? Theoretically, people of like-mind shouldn't have any trouble working toward a goal and if my past experiences hold true, this year shouldn't be an exception. But, I always worry…..just a little. I'd be remiss if I didn't add that I look forward to seeing Amanda and Karen, two of the wonderful nurses that come from out of state to crew with us year after year after year. I've always been blessed to have so many wonderful people come back to crew with me. More of my family of choice.
I'm looking forward to this event because for three days the small world of the 3-Day will be as it should be. People will be doing little things for each other regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, political views, etc. These three days will be filled with kindness, incredible energy and love coupled with numerous and varied shades of pink, delightful creativity and smartly worded slogans. I look forward to supporting the wonderful walkers that have trained and raised funds and trained some more. Despite the Atlanta heat and humidity, they kept on walking in preparation for this event. During the 3Day, they'll walk 60 miles in three days and will sport pictures and stories on their shirts (or signs or buttons). Some will feel the weight of the names of the people they've lost to breast cancer while others will be buoyed by the names of the survivors. I always hope there will be less of the former and more of the latter.
I look forward to the decorations and the myriad ways the color pink can be used – from mustaches and wigs to tattoos and boas. And there will be breasts everywhere and on everyone. There will be small ones and gargantuan ones. Men on motorcycles will wear them (proudly, I might add) and they'll be on the front grills of cars and trucks and banners and tents and signs and balloons. Whenever I think I've seen every conceivable item in pink, someone taps into a wellspring of creativity and there's something new to ooh and ah over. There's lots of hidden talent at the event.
I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces. Some of the walkers have participated enough times as to be recognizable to me. There's a walker named Marge that has been calling me 'Ellen' for so many years that I don't have the heart to correct her. When she walks into Pit Stop 3 and asks to see Ellen everyone knows she means me. And there's Marsha, who I met on the second day of the 3-Day in 2005. She was having a rough time so I gently reminded her that there no shame in stopping for the day and urged her to head to camp early. I told her that if she rested up, she'd be able to walk into Piedmont Park on Sunday (which she did). She continues to walk every year and last year, Marsha's two daughters joined her. In both instances, there's excitement in seeing these old friends and there's lots of picture-taking of hugging. Some people you just don't forget. Two years ago, several women walked up to me and asked "Don't you work at Saint Joseph's Hospital?" This year, someone came up to me in the hospital cafeteria and asked "Aren't you with the 3-Day?" I think I've become recognizable.
I'm looking forward to seeing many of the nurses that I work with at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital. A group of Emory Healthcare nurses have formed a team of walkers in memory of one of their 'own'; a nurse that lost her battle with breast cancer last year. There are three nurses in particular (Joyce, Elizabeth and Susan) that I look forward to helping support. They are care-givers extraordinaire and it'll be a nice touch to take care of them for a change.
More importantly, I look forward to the day when we don't have to walk or crew or raise money or train or get up early or set up tents; a day when October is the harbinger of Halloween and is known more for ghosts and pumpkins than for pink ribbons and sore feet.
I look forward to the day when no one gets that dreaded diagnosis, no one goes through chemotherapy or radiation therapy or loses a loved one and breast cancer is a thing of the past.
If we keep doing this, I know that day will come.
I look forward to it.
Eileen Stone, MT (ASCP), MS
Laboratory Information Systems Manager, Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital


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Mexico stun Netherlands in international friendly, enlarges Dutch crisis
The Netherlands, bronze medallist in FIFA World Cup 2014, lost 2-3 to Mexico to suffer their fourth defeat in last five matches
Amsterdam: The Netherlands, bronze medallist in World Cup 2014, lost 2-3 to Mexico to suffer fourth defeat in last five matches here.
Mexico rode on Carlos Vela's brace (6th and 61st minutes) and Javier Hernandez's strike in the 68th to beat the Dutch team. Star striker Wesley Sneijder (48th) and Daley Blind (73rd) scored for the home team Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
Vela opened the scoring with a long-distance shot. The Real Sociedad player received a pass from Hector Herrera in the middle of the field and lashed a left-footed blast past a diving Tim Krul in the sixth minute.
The Dutch took control in the second part of the first half, without creating major chances. On the stroke of first half, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who replaced skipper Robin Van Persie up front, had the biggest chance, but he missed from close range.
In the second half, the Dutch started well with the equaliser by Sneijder, whose powerful shot made Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa hopeless.
Later, Krul had a magnificent save on an attempt by Javier Hernandez from close range in the 56th minute.
Five minutes later, substitute mid-fielder Jesus Corona picked out Vela with a fine cross-field pass that the striker gave a perfect finish in the 61st minute.
Hernandez made it 3-1 seven minutes later.
The Netherlands managed to reduce the deficit to one goal with a deflected shot by Daley Blind, but failed to go further, thereby suffering fourth loss in five matches under new coach Guus Hiddink.
The Dutch team will take on Latvia Sunday.
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Home » My Dad - Ed Farrar » WWII » Eighth Air Force » 384th Bomb Group » 545th Bomb Squadron » Wallace A. Storey
Category Archives: Wallace A. Storey
AAF Narrative Report of September 28, 1944 Mission 201
The following is a narrative report of Mission 201 on September 28, 1944.
Office of the Intelligence Officer
28 September, 1944
SUBJECT: Narrative for Lead, High, and Low Sections, 41st. "C" Combat Bombardment Wing on Mission Flown 28 September, 1944.
TO: Commanding Officer, AAF Station No. 106, A.P.O. 557.
The following is a combined Narrative and Report by Lt. W.V. HENDERSON, Deputy Wing Commander, Capt. JOHNSON, High Section Leader, and Capt. M.A. BOOSKA, Low Section Leader. Due to battle damage received at the target, Major H.E. FRINK, 41st "C" Wing Air Commander was forced to land away at BRUSSELS, Belgium. All navigational data is taken from the High Section Navigator.
1. Twelve (12) aircraft (without spares) of the Lead Section, twelve (12) aircraft plus one (1) Spare of the High Section, and twelve (12) aircraft (without spares) of the Low Section took off between 0730 and 0818 hours to attack the Steel Works at MAGDEBURG, Germany.
a. Number of A/C taking off (including spares): 37
Number of A/C taking off (less unused spares): 36
Number of A/C attacking (any target): 36
Number of A/C not attacking: 0
Number of A/C returned to Base: 33q
Number of A/C presumed landed in allied-occupied terr: 1
Number of A/C unaccounted for: 2
Number of A/C known missing: 2
Number of Sorties Flown: 36
b. Spare A/C 7703 (Lt. Rice, pilot) turned back as briefed.
c. Due to severe mechanical trouble, A/C 2106 (Lt. Wismer, pilot) was forced to drop his bombs on a Target of Opportunity at 50°45'N.-09°25'E. He then turned back at 50°50'N.-09°30'E., 1130 hours and landed at this Base at 1438 hours.
2. Two (2) of our aircraft are known missing.
Two (2) aircraft of the High Section, A/C 337-822 (Lt. Buslee, pilot) and A/C 1222 (Lt. Brodie, pilot) collided over the target and both ships were observed going down on fire and out of control. No chutes were observed.
3. Assembly of the Group and Wing was accomplished fifteen (15) minutes before departure time from our Base at 0823 hours, 7,000 feet without difficulty. We were ahead of "Cowboy-Baker" but we swung wide on the first control point and got in our correct slot in the Division at 0920 hours over Cambridge, 7,000 feet. We left the coast of England on course and on time at 0937 hours, Clacton, 9,000 feet. Speeds were S. O. P.
4. The route to the Belgian Coast was without incident and we crossed it at 1001-1/2 hours, 50°10'N.-02°44'E., 13,000 feet. From this point into the I.P. the mission was flown as briefed and without difficulty. No flak was encountered prior to the target and no enemy fighter attacks were made on our Wing for the entire mission. [Wallace Storey notes that this information is incorrect and that ten (10) planes were lost by the 303rd Group of the 41st Combat Wing on this mission. Storey references the books "Mighty Eighth" and "Mighty Eighth War Diaries."]
5. At the I.P., we were notified by Buckeye-Red that target weather would be approximately 8/10th's which was accurate. We made our bomb run from the I.P. to the target in Wing formation on PFF. When we approached the target, there was another Section making a run 90° to us on the same target. They passed over the target at the same time we did directly underneath us and we were unable to drop because we would have dropped on them. We therefore made a turn and started a second run in Wing formation. Bombs were away on PFF at 1211 hours from 26,000 feet. However, in the opinion of Capt. Booska, Low Section Leader, it is possible that today's may have been visual as there was a break in the clouds directly over the target one (1) minute before bombs were away. As it is presumed that the Lead Wing Bombardier landed in Belgium, our reports will state that PFF bombing was accomplished. Magnetic heading of bombs away was 265 degrees. Some crews observed the results through breaks in the clouds and they state that the bombs hit in the target area. Flak at the target was moderate and accurate.
6. After we dropped our bombs, and swung off the target, the Wing Leader informed the Deputy to take over as the former had been hit by flak. At this point, the entire Lead Section started to break up. We were on a collision course at the same time with another unidentified Wing and the Low and High Sections became separated from the Lead Section. The High and Low reassembled and flew alone until we finally picked up the Lead Section ten (10) miles ahead of us. I called the Deputy Leader to slow down, which he did, and we assembled back into Combat Wing formation. After this, we had no other difficulties and the rest of the mission was flown as briefed and without incident. We departed the Belgian Coast at 1437 hours, 10,500 feet and recrossed the English Coast at 1508 hours, 1,000 feet.
7. Fighter escort was excellent on the entire mission and close support was given at all times. Contact was made with Buckeye-Red and the information received was accurate.
8. There are no further comments or suggestions.
Major, Air Corps,
Station S-2 Officer
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2013
A Visit to Wallace Storey
When I was a little girl, my dad, George Edwin Farrar, told me the most incredible story. This was not a story from a children's book, and I found it so much more interesting than the usual kids' tales. He told the story over and over, but in a way that was captivating to a child and not overly frightening. He was in a war and the plane in which he was flying was hit by another plane and split in half, spilling him out. He was the only one of the nine boys on his plane who lived.
He was knocked out in the mid-air collision, but came to when he heard his mother calling his name, finding himself free falling from the plane. He had fallen 25,000 feet before he woke up, but managed to hook up his chute in time and landed on the ground. He lost consciousness again, and when he woke up the second time, an old German woman was beating him with a stick. He was unable to walk and was carried to a house. From there, he was transferred to a German hospital by train, where the guards let him sleep in one of their bunks. He was in the hospital for several months, and was then transferred to a regular barracks in a prison camp. He had to learn to walk again, and at first he was only able to shuffle his feet.
Several months later, he and the other prisoners were moved out of the prison camp and were forced to march across Germany. The prisoners would have to march all day, and sleep in the hay in barns or sometimes out in the open at night. They had very little food.
He showed his war medals and told his story to my young cousins and neighborhood friends, too. We would all ask the same questions. "Why didn't you tunnel out of the prison camp? Why didn't you escape on the march when the guards weren't looking?"
His answers were simple so we children could understand. The prison camp barracks were up on stilts and guard dogs roamed there at night. The prisoners were safer in a group on the march. Survival chances were lower for a man alone. He and other prisoners stole a chicken one night while on the march, and he had to trade his watch for some bread.
Those stories not only stuck with me all these years, but with all of them, too.
In May 2011, I received an e-mail from my cousin, Terry. She was living in the Netherlands at the time and she and her husband had been touring American military cemeteries in Europe. That made her think of my father and the stories he told of being in the war. She started doing some internet research and found my dad's information on the 384thbombgroup.com website.
She also found Wallace Storey's account of the September 28, 1944 mission to Magdeburg where he described watching the planes collide. Here was someone who had actually seen the collision that my dad had told me about so many times so very many years ago. I found Mr. Storey's account on the internet and read and reread the story over and over again, not really believing it was possible that someone else was telling me my father's story.
I contacted Mr. Storey and in June 2011 visited him at his home in South Carolina. Hearing Mr. Storey recount what he saw took me back to my childhood, listening to my dad tell the tale, but this time from a different perspective. It added another dimension to the story. Now, in my mind, I could see the collision itself, not just the consequences of my dad's plane breaking in half, and him tumbling unconscious toward the earth.
It also added another angle for me, one I had never considered before. What happened to the plane that collided with my dad's plane? I had always assumed everyone on the other plane had died, but I was to learn through Mr. Storey that three of the other plane's crew survived the collision. And I learned that two of the crew were placed in the same German prison camp as my dad. I wonder if he ever knew they were there or met them. Since my dad was hospitalized for a couple of months, I'm sure he wasn't placed in the same barracks as those men, so he may not have had any contact with them.
Relatives of crew members on both planes involved in the collision have contacted Mr. Storey, and he, in turn, has given me their contact information. I have connected with nephews of both the pilot and top turret gunner on my dad's plane, and the son of the waist gunner on the other plane. We are not related, but we are a family of sorts. We are all the next generation, or Nexgens as I have heard us called, of these brave boys who were as close as brothers in WWII. We all have the same questions and all spend an unordinary amount of time thinking the same thoughts. Is there anyone out there that knew my dad/granddad/uncle in the war and could you tell me about him? What was it like to live through those times? And what would the boys' lives have been like if the planes hadn't collided, and they hadn't been killed or become prisoners of war?
We Nexgens may not ever know the entire story, but it's an interesting journey, and one we seem to have no choice but to take. We learn something new every day about our relatives that were in the war, and somehow that knowledge is a comforting thing.
Thank you, Terry, for starting me on this journey to discover as much as possible about my dad's and our grandparents' lives during this not-so-pleasant time in history.
And thank you, Wallace, for sharing your WWII memories with me. It is my pleasure and an honor to connect with men like you, who lived through this moment in history and are willing to share their tales.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2013
September 28, 1944 – Wallace Storey
The Buslee and Brodie crews were involved in a mid-air collision on September 28, 1944 during the 384th Bomb Group's Mission 201 to Magdeburg, Germany. The Buslee crew flew this mission aboard aircraft 43-37822. The Brodie crew was aboard 42-31222, Lazy Daisy. The two planes collided after bombs away and coming off the target.
Nearly part of the day's tragedy himself, Lt. Col. Wallace A. Storey, USAF (Ret.), witnessed the collision between 43-37822 and Lazy Daisy.
The following excerpt from the book, A Pair of Silver Wings and the Eighth Air Force by Lt. Col. Wallace Storey, USAF (Ret.) and Mrs. Martha L. Storey, is provided for use on The Arrowhead Club website by the kind permission of the authors, who assert full ownership of copyright for the material. Use of this material is limited to the following provisions. This excerpt is intended for unrestricted private use. Please copy and use as needed to support your WWII research. If you wish to incorporate this information in a commercial product of any kind, request authorization from Lt. Col. Wallace Storey, USAF (Ret.) in advance.
September 28, 1944
On this day the 384th Bomb Group was dispatched to bomb the Krupps Steel Manufacturing Plant at Magdeburg, Germany. This was a heavily defended target and a long flight of almost ten hours. On this mission there was a tragic occurrence illustrative of some of the little discussed risks of combat flying that sometimes happened but, fortunately, was never repeated on any of my missions.
After being awakened at 0310 we had breakfast and briefing and were in our planes at 0610 as the "start engine" flares arched from the 384thBG control tower—or "Cherub" as was its call sign. Of course, the radio was not used for aircraft control as the group departed so as to avoid alerting the German defenses any earlier than necessary. Once we were airborne the fact that the 8th was assembling was soon evident to the enemy but any delay increased the chances of deception.
On this mission, I was to follow ship #222, [42-31222]"Lazy Daisy", flown by Lt. Brodie, on to the taxiway leading to the runway. He was to fly #2 position of the high element of our squadron and I was to fly position #3 (i.e. right and left wing respectively off of the lead plane,#941, [42-97941, "Marion"] of the element). Take off went well as we began our roll at 0720. The Group assembled without incident and we fell into line as briefed for the Wing Order of Battle.
Our 41st Combat Wing was made up that day of the 303rdBG in lead, followed by the 379th, with the 384th last. This order, which varied from mission to mission, was to prove fateful on that day. Just a few weeks earlier the Luftwaffe had begun a new tactic which they called "company front attacks". They added extra armor and guns to three or four dozen Focke Wolfe FW-190 single engine fighters. They approached the 8th Air Force Groups head on in wedges of eight to sixteen planes so as to saturate the bombers' defensive fire and sometimes disrupt their formation. Although we did not know it at the time, they had used this tactic against the 446th Group of the Second Division the previous day and inflicted the greatest loss ever suffered by a single group of the 8th Air Force in World War II—-25 B-24's.
The German fighters used this tactic against the 303rd Group, the lead group in our Combat Wing, on the mission to Magdeburg on the 28th. The 303rd lost eleven B-17's in this frontal assault. One of the lead pilots of the 303rd is quoted as saying "When we turned on our bomb run we were attacked by about 50 Nazi fighters en masse, coming at us as a solid bunch. Those guys were like mad men–with one idea–to knock us down in a suicidal attack". There was a total of fifteen B-17's that were lost that day from our Combat Wing. This amounted to a 13.9% loss of the l08 planes–the highest loss in the Wing of any of my missions.
Being the 3rd Group in the Wing we were fortunate not to be as heavily attacked as the other two Groups, but what happened led to confusion as we bombed the target. Flak was extremely heavy that day and the Wing had been somewhat disrupted by the heavy opposition. We found ourselves on a crossing course with another Group and just after "bombs away" the lead ship made a sharp descending right turn. Our high element, being on the inside of this steep turn, had to move quickly by reducing power while climbing slightly. Glancing to my right, I saw that "Lazy Daisy" was sliding toward me. I pulled back on the control column to climb out of her path while keeping my eye on the #2 ship of the lead element, Lt. Buslee in #337 [43-37822], on whose wing our element was flying. I yelled to Gross to watch for him to come out on the other side and, sure enough, he slid under us and right into Buslee in the lead element.
I watched the two planes as they collided. It cut #337 [43-37822] in half and the wings on #222 [42-31222] folded up and both planes fell in a fireball. They were 18 men lost in those two ships. We didn't see any chutes as we continued our turn to the right.
Some of the formations were broken up, both because of this and because of the fighter attack, but we did not have any further problem as we headed back home. Even though the 1st Division lost 23 planes, the Germans did not come out unscathed. There were 10 confirmed fighters destroyed, 7 probables, and 5 damaged by the B-17 gunners. Our crew was extremely lucky that day as "Lazy Daisy", by all normal odds, should have collided with us and must have crossed under with less than five foot clearance as I pulled up. And for Buslee, flying on the last of his 35 missions, and for Brodie, and their crews it was the unluckiest of all days.
We were all happy to be safely back at Grafton Underwood as we touched down on the soil of England. Upon inspecting our plane we found two sizable Flak holes but, fortunately, they missed our fuel tanks and other vital points. Fighters and Flak were not the only dangers of combat flying. Taking off, assembling, and landing in extremely bad English weather (such as grounded the 8th frequently in 1943 but not later) formation flying in weather where only the adjoining plane could be seen and maneuvering large formations required great competency in the flight crews and, often, great luck as described in this mission.
Copyright (C) 2002—Lt/Col. Wallace A. Storey
- I have included clarifications of aircraft serial numbers and names in brackets above.
- Correction: John Oliver Buslee, pilot of 43-37822, was flying his 16th mission on September 28, 1944.
- The William A. Johnstone crew was aboard 42-97941, Marion.
- The Kenneth E. Gross crew was aboard 43-38548, name unknown. Co-Pilot Wallace A. Storey, was flying the plane and was able to see Lazy Daisy coming toward him from the co-pilot seat on the right side of the cockpit. His quick reaction saved his crew from an otherwise certain collision. The Pilot, Gross, may never have seen Lazy Daisy from his vantage point on the left side of the cockpit.
- The Richard H. Groff crew was aboard 43-38615, name unknown.
- The Harold M. Toler crew was High Group Lead aboard 43-38016, Lorraine. Robert M. Mitchell, who had served as Ball Turret Gunner twice with Buslee crew waist gunner George Edwin Farrar, was on the Toler crew on this mission.
Wallace A. Storey provided this diagram depicting the formation of the aircraft just prior to the collision:
To read more about Wallace A. Storey, click here.
With the exception of material in this post copyrighted by Wallace A. Storey, © Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2013
Wallace A. Storey
The following biography of Lt. Col. Wallace Storey, USAF (Ret.) is provided for use on The Arrowhead Club website by the kind permission of the author, Wallace A. Storey, who asserts full ownership of copyright for the material. Use of this material is limited to the following provisions. This biography is intended for unrestricted private use. Please copy and use as needed to support your WWII research. If you wish to incorporate this information in a commercial product of any kind, request authorization from Lt. Col. Wallace Storey, USAF (Ret.) in advance.
Following the outbreak of World War II and the entry into the conflict of the United States, Wallace A. Storey joined the US Army Air Force on August 13, 1942. Upon being called to active duty in February 1943, he went through pilot training in the Central Flying Training Command in Texas. Preflight was completed at San Antonio, Texas and Primary Flight Training at Jones Field, Bonham, Texas. After Basic Training at Perrin Field, Sherman, Texas and Advanced Training at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, Aviation Cadet Storey graduated in Class 44C and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Army Air Force.
Storey completed B-17 Flying Fortress Training at McDill Field, Tampa, Florida and was sent to England in June of 1944, joining the 8th Air Force. His service in the 8th was in the 545th Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group. His service there involved attacks on the V-1 sites in France, support of army and paratroop attacks in Operation Market Garden, the breakout at Metz, and during the Battle of the Bulge. The majority of his missions were against German Chemical and Synthetic Oil Refineries.
Storey flew 16 missions as co-pilot and 19 as first pilot with the same crew.
Upon return to the Zone of the Interior, Storey served in the Air Transport Command as a Ferry Pilot until the end of the War. Subsequent to active duty service, Storey served in the Air Force Reserve until retirement as a Lt/Col. in February of 1969.
Military Service History
1. U.S. Army Air Forces – 1942-1945.
2. USAAF Central Flying Training Command – Rated Pilot – 1944.
3. B-17 Transition School – Rated four-engine Pilot – 1944.
4. Pilot USAAF 8th Air Force – European Theater – Heavy Bombardment. Recipient of fifteen (15) medals and battle stars for thirty-five (35) combat missions.
5. Rated Commercial Pilot – Single and multi-engine – 1945.
6. Graduate Squadron Officer's School USAF – 1959.
7. Qualified Base Engineer USAF – 1959.
8. Graduate Civil Engineer Administration School USAF – 1961.
9. Rated Communication/Electronics Officer and Pilot Tactical Bomber-1961.
10. Rated Development Officer (Special) USAF -1964.
11. Graduate Command and Staff War College- -1965.
12. Retired Lt/Colonel United States Air Force Reserve – 1969- Present.
13. Member of the U.S. Air Force Association.
14. Life Member of The Retired Officer's Association.
Copyright (C) 2002—Lt/Col. Wallace A. Storey
Original Crew:
Pilot – Kenneth E. Gross
Co-Pilot – Wallace A. Storey
Navigator – Kenneth J. Nelson
Bombardier – Robert Clock Hassard
Radio Operator/Gunner – Dean R. Hepner
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner – Wilbert G. Brickner
Ball Turret Gunner – Kniland E. Tod
Tail Gunner – Allen G. Carson
Flexible Gunner – Jesse L. Johnson
Flexible Gunner – Edward B. Stone
Crew Last 19 Missions:
Pilot – Wallace A. Storey
Co-Pilot – James E. Sweeney
Rest of Crew same as original crew except Johnson
Lt. Col. Wallace Storey lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina and can be contacted through e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.
With the exception of material in this post copyrighted by Wallace A. Storey, © Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2013


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Carol has been a part of our Pontchartrain family since 2009. She is a fun loving person who enjoys spending her free time with her family and pets.
Carol enjoys spending time with her tuxedo cats.
Not long after graduating from Remington College with an Associate Degree in Graphic Arts, Cristina joined our Pontchartrain family in 2007.
In her free time, she enjoys collecting video games, playing guitar in her band, and taking care of her best friend, Sandy, a Jack Russell terrier.
Nina Byrd was born in Louisiana, but raised in Virginia. She has 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 goats. She is currently enrolled in a pre-vet program at Nunez Community College and hopes to become a veterinarian in the future.
Nina enjoys spending her free time catching up on TV shows and giving her cat, Fiona, all the love in the world.


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Do you want a binary options broker that offers accessible banking procedure? Then the IQ Option banking options might be exactly what you need.
General risk warning
The financial services provided by this website carry a high level of risk and can result in the loss of all of your funds. You should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.
The IQ Option banking options
Banking is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of binary options trading. In the quest for ever higher payouts and new binary options types, many binary options traders forget to thoroughly check broker's basics such as banking policy.
Without an option to transfer money to and from your broker quickly, and smoothly, all the other features of a broker are useless. To help you find a broker that offers trustworthy banking, we have tested the IQ Option banking process thoroughly.
IQ Option banking offers three general payment options:
1: Credit Card: You can receive and send money from and to IQ Option trading account. For most brokers, credit cards are the natural choice to make an online payment. IQ Option supports this choice by making credit card banking accessible and quick. Deposits via credit card will be booked into your account immediately, withdrawals are executed within a day. Here are the available credit cards:
- Visa
- Visa Electron
- Maestro
- MasterCard
2: Wire transfer: For those of us who do not own a credit card, wire transfer might be the best alternative as a payment method that can be used with IQ Option. Wire transfer is the only banking method that does not require you to have an account with a third party provider. Wire transfer is, however, the slowest banking option, with deposit and withdrawals taking up to 10 business days, depending on your bank, even though IQ option processes withdrawal in one working day. Also, there might be a fee from your bank provider so you have to check this information before your proceed.
3: Online payment providers (E-Wallets): Online payment providers allow you to conveniently store all your financial information conveniently in one place and make payments with the click of a mouse button. Online payment providers share much of the same advantages as credit cards, being free, accessible, and quick. Here are some of the available E-Wallets you can use while transferring the money with IQ Option:
- Skrill/MoneyBookers
- Neteller
- Boleto
- Qiwi
- WebMoney
- CashU
- iDeal
- Fasapay
To keep your banking more secure, IQ Option encodes all communication with their clients through SSL standard certificates. The SSL security is one of the most popular encoding methods the web has to offer and the same tool all the big banks use to encode their online banking.
Additionally, IQ Option employs a verification account process that tries to make sure that nobody but you can withdraw money from your account. This verification process is a must for every trader that registers with IQ Option. Traders that decides to trade with this broker has to provide their valid ID document, proof of residency and if it is a credit card withdrawal, a picture of the credit card.
Combining these features, IQ Option offers a solid banking process.
*The financial products offered by the company carry a high level of risk and can result in the loss of all your funds. You should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.


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We're Online - Share Our Website!
We went live with our new website yesterday and are very excited to share it with you! A little information about the company, since our establishment ,Triple J Coil Tubing Products has been closely and actively associated with Engineering, Manufacturing and sales of Coil Tubing Hangers and Tools for the Capillary and Coiled Tubing markets - Nationally and Worldwide. If you would like to learn more please look around on our website and on our new social media accounts. Feel free to get in touch with us, we look forward to hearing from all of you!


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The Rolex Watches
New Rolex Deepsea 2018
Rolex is unveiling the new Oyster Perpetual Rolex Deepsea. It features a 44 mm case with redesigned lugs and sides and a broader Oyster bracelet, as well as a correspondingly adapted Oysterlock folding safety clasp. This professional divers' watch, is equipped for the first time with calibre 3235, at the forefront of watchmaking technology.shop now
The world had entered the Atomic age and scientists wanted a wristwatch to cater to their needs. Diver's watches needed water-resistance, pilot's watches needed legibility and scientist's watches needed magnetic-resistance. I've written before on the history of anti-magnetic watches but here's a quick primer: High strength magnetic fields can bend and wrap the most crucial parts of a watch and prolonged exposure to magnetic fields will mess it up for good. Most watches of the time were only resistant to between 50 to 100 gauss, around the strength of a fridge magnet and a small children's magnet. If a small fridge magnet can affect a watch, imagine what a hydroelectric dam or power station generator could do.