OZABO

Ozabo - King of the Ladder

Growing up in a rural farm cooperative near the western boarder in 1918, I was witness to our brave and glorious flying comrades being shot down daily by the Huns horrid three winged beasts.  Then and there I resolved myself to practice for the day when I could avenge our fallen comrades! I went so far as to mount cross hairs on my bicycle and practice defection shooting with my trusty sling shot.

As a single educated young man in his twenties, I turned my attention to more important things like women and drink, or was that drink and women?  Any way, one evening at the local pub, having a little too much to drink, I found my self in a compromising situation (get you mind out of the gutter!).  Thinking I was signing my bar tab, I apparently pledged myself to "Uncle Joe's" fledgling air force! 

After many months of learning skills to be a flying officer and a gentlemen, I was transferred back to the western border as a rookie pilot with the =69.GIAP= Squadron. My first few days at the unit were relative easy, since I accidentally forgot to report into Maj. ROSHKO, and spent the whole time lounging around the local pub drinking homemade potato vodka.  Luckily, several high ranking officers found me and marched me directly into the Commanders Office. But to my good fortune the Major had just came back from a hair raising mission and had pounded a few libations himself.  After the formalities, he broke out a new bottle from his side board liquor cabinet and proceeds to pour us a drink and tell about his most recent mission against the horrid JG-51 Squadron.  He claimed that he and his wingman were lucky to be alive after being jumped by no less than eight 109's.  As he drank, ROSHKO sat in his revolving chair and flung his arms in a wild manner, trying to imitate the air battle in which he almost lost his life, and then suddenly he passed out from exhaustion.

With the passing of several weeks, I became one with my P-39.  On my fifth mission, I was tasked to fly one of the old I-16's and recon a suspected enemy location.  After gaining the information, I was returning to my side of the line when the engine just froze up! So I crash land near a suspected enemy airfield, thinking I could borrow one of their planes. But I was captured by a squad of enemy soldiers.  They decided to take me to their dreaded commander STURTZ of JG-51, who was known for his ruthless behavior-gulp!  But on the way, I pulled out two of Kadet STENKA's exploding frogs and killed or wounded the whole squad.  Jumping from the truck, I ran to the closest aircraft, which was a 109G-2 and fired the puppy up and taxied for take off!  I guess the noise of the plane woke five members of the squadron, so they jumped into their planes and the chase was on.  After ten minutes of flying I was up around 3000 meters, followed closely by five hungry hounds. With a big smile on my face, I knew I would be over my own airfield in short order with valuable information and STURTZ's 109 prize to boot.   But to my amazement my own AAA was shooting at me!  What to do?   I couldn't land.  So my only hope was to show my comrades that I was friendly.  Quickly, I turned around 180 degrees and engaged the five enemy with deadly accuracy.  In the confusion, I witnessed one 109 mistake another 109 for me, and shot his own squad mate full of holes.  And after three short minutes I was able to destroy three of the four remaining birds, but the last one was the highly skilled Baron VonDOOM.   We twisted, rolled and turned with neither getting the advantage.  Suddenly the separation grew great enough for a head to head pass.  As we approached each other, I could stare straight down the barrel of that "elephant gun" of a cannon pointing through his nose.  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!  The sound of bullets and cannon were deafening as we passed with in less than one meter of each other.  Quickly, I released the breath I had been holding several minutes and saw that parts were falling from VonDOOM's plane and he was starting to smoke.  But I also started smell smoke, and quickly realized that my prized kite was quickly turning into a burning coffin!  But as luck would have it, STURTZ had left his parachute on his seat, so I strapped in as quickly as possibly and bailed.  Safely landing on the ground, I was quickly surrounded by TOOZ and CHAP, who at first mistook me for a German flyboy!  After realizing it was me, OZABO, they shook my hand and starting asking me a million questions, but I had a mission to complete!

Sir, OZABO reporting for duty..C!