NORTHERN LIGHTS, UKAHALA–For this week’s From the Desk of the Commander post, Prior Bumble addresses the latest high-flying rumor about RFCP: Did he really buy a plane?
Soldiers of the RFCP,
A warm hello from my office, and my love to each of you. Last week I took some time to go over the Two Phase Plan and review army matters. This week, I turn to my physical life to share with you the reflections I’ve had as I relate the earthly world to this beautiful one we call home. RFCP.
Many of you might remember that I enjoy making pilgrimages to battlefields. It’s common knowledge that the War of Smoke and Sour against LGA in the summer of 2019 was named so because I was visiting the Smoky Mountains when we declared. In fact, I’d be surprised if there weren’t several non-enlisted who knew this historical fact. What you probably didn’t know was that, on that same trip, I visited Stones River National Battlefield as well.
This was not my first battlefield trip, but it was the first after becoming Commander of the RFCP. I suppose everything hit a little different for me then.
And I felt deeper kinship with the ones who walked that ground before me. It became one of ten sites I visited.
Just a couple weeks ago, I added another battlefield to that list: Stafford Civil War Park. By this time, I had retaken command of the army. Hell…I think it was the first new battlefield I’d visited since the last time I was in command. The emotions behind walking among the grounds of the Civil War touched me in a unique way as it had back in Stones River.
I took this photo atop the highest mound in the park with the intention of sharing it with you. An incredible sight, indeed. This cannon would have been defending a fortress and providing artillery blasts into the valley.
But all those trees?
Not one of them would have been there. All the growth, all the life you see in that photo, did not witness these events. Battalions would have harvested all the lumber madly, and the cool, mottled shade I stood in would have been only glaring sun. Those new trees you see are scarcely more than 100 years old. One cannot look around this park and imagine oneself as a soldier–everything looked different then, and everything is different now.
It reminded me that battles do not stay in the ground which witnessed them. The physical artifact of that soil may indeed be sacred, as is our sacred iceberg, but the battle moves on. The battle travels into beliefs, into cultures, into nightmares often, and into you and me. Each battle I fought with you does not belong to the media sites which reported on them nor the servers within which they transpired. They are ours alone–and no one but us can still live them today. The same holds true for the wars in the physical world.
Why do I use the terms “physical world” or “earthly world” over “real world”? Have you noticed?
I once told an ex-RFCP member, “Just because it’s online doesn’t mean it isn’t real.” We know that better than most, don’t we?
As the title suggests, this post promised to address the rumor about Prior buying a plane, though. I connect my battlefield pilgrimages with this, because both occurred due to my love of military history–except this time, it’d be in the realm of aviation. The rumor that I now own a private, twin-engine plane originated because my military passion recently drew me to an airplane exhibition. There, I got to board the German transport aircraft, the Airbus A400M Atlas.
But I also moseyed into an area of the show where there were private planes…
And some of them were for sale….
Let’s just say I fell in love with one.
Instantly, and especially because RFCP soldiers know very well how accessible Papa’s wallet is, chatter brewed in the server over whether I was serious or not.
RFCP Air Force members were particularly excited.
As usual, though, I remained enigmatic.
You’re damn right about that. In some ways, I’m almost satisfied enough just knowing you all did not put this [possible?] plane purchase past me.
What really matters is living like you’re down to fly.
Having no one doubt you’d dare to make it real.
Your reaction to my [possible?] plane purchase, and my responses of love by sharing blog posts like this one with you, which offer a deep part of my soul, manifest what, to me, is so wonderful about the Recon Federation of Club Penguin. It is a place where we not only intimately love each other, but also intimately know each other–the authentic us, in our heart of hearts.
At the end of the day, that is really all human beings want. To be known.
I’ll see you on the battlefield…and in the skies. And I want nothing more than to know you back.
Filed under: From the Desk of the Commander
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