The True Adventures
Of
Youthly Puresome


Many, if not all, of these stories first appeared in the The Hook: Journal of Carrier Aviation Magazine. Those that did, are presented here by permission of "The Hook".

Reluctant Shellbacks The Night Thing Doggus Delecti

Dead Sojers The Great Firepower Frabbup Blood Brothers

First Blood The Night I Got ... Seagull-O-Rama

Oral Tradition #406 Bouncing the Spider




The Strafer

Diving down through monsoon rain
gunsight centered on the train
cannons firing, red tracers find
the locomotive and the cars behind

Clouds of smoke, clouds of steam
roiling up as in a dream
floating fireballs firing back
search to stop the fierce attack

Pulling up and zooming clear
jinking because the flak is near
But rolling over and coming round
to finish killing what he's found

Rending metal, burning cars
tracer bullets like flying stars
that flare and flash like little suns
the enemy engine no longer runs

Then the firing comes to an end
no more ordnance to expend
cursing now because it's done
with more to do before he's won

He beckons others who have the taste
to pick iron bones, and not to waste
the leavings of a strafer's skill
airborne vultures to the kill

Beneath the flares on another night
he knows he'll find another fight
certain to win, perhaps to lose
it's his to do, it's fate's to choose
- - -
Sez Puresome, 16 December 1999