ZAZOO
30th Sep 2002, 23:29
I know this is not the place to post this message, forgive me guys I will try to be as brief as possible.
My holiday has finally come to an end and my beautiful Anna is back home in Copenhagen and so I find myself running up and down London trying to get all my shopping done for all my family members, friends, relatives, colleagues and so on, the list is long but this is how it is in Nigeria everybody wants you to bring me something so I try to get something for everyone no matter how small.
I got in late last night, opened a can of beer and swithced on the wings channel, its been a while since I had it on because Anna just could not have it anymore ! okay enough of that lets get to the point.
A program was just starting and it was the story of Jesus Christ Airlines. Although I have a couple of times heard stories from people talking about the mercy flight operations that had been flown into the republic of Biafra during the Nigerian civil war bringing in so much aid and assistance to the suffering people in Biafra especially the children who had turned so bad due to starvation I never understood the scale of this operation and what people had to go through during the war and to be honest with you did not have any interest.
I was born in Lagos about six months after the end of the war and most of the stories I know of the war I got from my dad who worked at Igbobi in Lagos as an MD during the war and they are not nice.
All this changed last night, last night I got a front row seat with the help of the wings channel to see things with my own eyes and listen to all those involved in the flights and how they went about it.
over a thousand flights flown into Ulli and Ugah airstrips and with so much danger involved for the pilots, crew, missionaries and all those involved in the whole operation and at such a large scale.
Watching the program made me feel like ice, I watched with so much emotion the black and white film footage that they had taken during the war in the sixties, the children and the look they had on their faces when those big iron birds turned towards the small bays bringing with them tons of food and medicines parked in their bellies. I also listened to the pilots and their unimaginable stories of what they had to go through to get in the planes and how they had suffered the loss of their colleagues most of them shot down by the Nigerian Migs flown by Egyptian pilots, but still decided to continue because they new their flying down into ulli and ugah made a big difference. And that they did with so much courage, bringing in flights until Biafra was occupied.
They brought in tons of aid and so many of them died, they flew out so many kids to Sao tome for safety with the priests and ooh the face of those kids dancing with so much joy with the priest will forever remain with me. What a night I had after watching all that, I became .........................hmm well lets stop here.
If any of you ever come across this posting I would like to say how grateful we are to you.
I will tell Nigerians about you and what you did for this country. I believe that no story about the civil war in Nigeria will be complete without mentioning you and the magnitude of your life saving efforts for the children of this country, I cant imagine what life would have been without you in Biafra.
You know I have asked myself many times after watching the programe what makes men like you do what you did in Biafra, maybe one day I will find out, who knows maybe if I have the opportunity to meet you, you will tell me why !
Pilots like you will seat with God in paradise with angels wings.
Thankyou so much and God Bless you.
Zazoo
My holiday has finally come to an end and my beautiful Anna is back home in Copenhagen and so I find myself running up and down London trying to get all my shopping done for all my family members, friends, relatives, colleagues and so on, the list is long but this is how it is in Nigeria everybody wants you to bring me something so I try to get something for everyone no matter how small.
I got in late last night, opened a can of beer and swithced on the wings channel, its been a while since I had it on because Anna just could not have it anymore ! okay enough of that lets get to the point.
A program was just starting and it was the story of Jesus Christ Airlines. Although I have a couple of times heard stories from people talking about the mercy flight operations that had been flown into the republic of Biafra during the Nigerian civil war bringing in so much aid and assistance to the suffering people in Biafra especially the children who had turned so bad due to starvation I never understood the scale of this operation and what people had to go through during the war and to be honest with you did not have any interest.
I was born in Lagos about six months after the end of the war and most of the stories I know of the war I got from my dad who worked at Igbobi in Lagos as an MD during the war and they are not nice.
All this changed last night, last night I got a front row seat with the help of the wings channel to see things with my own eyes and listen to all those involved in the flights and how they went about it.
over a thousand flights flown into Ulli and Ugah airstrips and with so much danger involved for the pilots, crew, missionaries and all those involved in the whole operation and at such a large scale.
Watching the program made me feel like ice, I watched with so much emotion the black and white film footage that they had taken during the war in the sixties, the children and the look they had on their faces when those big iron birds turned towards the small bays bringing with them tons of food and medicines parked in their bellies. I also listened to the pilots and their unimaginable stories of what they had to go through to get in the planes and how they had suffered the loss of their colleagues most of them shot down by the Nigerian Migs flown by Egyptian pilots, but still decided to continue because they new their flying down into ulli and ugah made a big difference. And that they did with so much courage, bringing in flights until Biafra was occupied.
They brought in tons of aid and so many of them died, they flew out so many kids to Sao tome for safety with the priests and ooh the face of those kids dancing with so much joy with the priest will forever remain with me. What a night I had after watching all that, I became .........................hmm well lets stop here.
If any of you ever come across this posting I would like to say how grateful we are to you.
I will tell Nigerians about you and what you did for this country. I believe that no story about the civil war in Nigeria will be complete without mentioning you and the magnitude of your life saving efforts for the children of this country, I cant imagine what life would have been without you in Biafra.
You know I have asked myself many times after watching the programe what makes men like you do what you did in Biafra, maybe one day I will find out, who knows maybe if I have the opportunity to meet you, you will tell me why !
Pilots like you will seat with God in paradise with angels wings.
Thankyou so much and God Bless you.
Zazoo