Tarac Ridge Poems - Of Equal Importance Nick Armbrister

Tarac Ridge Poems - Of Equal Importance

Nick Armbrister

RIP the pilots...

Of Equal Importance

What happened at Tarac Ridge

Is just as important as

What happened at Castleshaw Moor

Bang!

In they went...

Tarac (for Stone and Kurosawa) We busted our balls To get up there Over a kilometre high Where the warplanes live And die a violent death Meeting their end up above On towering lonely slopes As did Lt Stone and Sgt Kurosawa On the same day seventy six years ago To the day we went there As others before had For we had a job to do The missing answer to find To locate the remains of a lost pilot Named Stone from America Who flew a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk In mortal battle with his nemesis Kurosawa from Japan With his Nakajima Ki-27 Nate Both died that day February 9 1942 And both haunt those inclines One is angry and lost One found wants to go home One likes Hello Kitty But not the one you think For my drink tumbler fell And the guide missed it It stopped where Stone said And there we dug dug dug And found his airplane Or what was once his warplane In pieces that were scrap But had meaning to our group For it was this plane That brought us here Many hours of climbing Swearing and sweating To touch the clouds And be where both hit At what cost? Two planes smashed Two pilots dead The American protecting Villamor The Philippines' best pilot Who flew his biplane A Boeing Stearman On a recon mission The same type that flies today With sexy English wing walkers From Clark in Bataan The same field Kurosawa flew from Yes synchronicity is here Eagle Has Landed style What does this mean now? In 2018 right now Is it the pilots' ghosts Or God or fate or karma That brought me here To Tarac Ridge to look To try to find Stone's bones? When so many have looked And failed to find him Did we really find Lt Stone? So he's no longer MIA And captive here This beautiful mountain side Where the sky and sea become one Where Bataan and Corregidor Are visible The old battlefields Where hell occurred Where there are more MIAs From both sides Both pilots hunted here And both became the prey Paying the ultimate cost Bent metal and broken bones Telling a story Their story If you listen You will hear it...

Girl Love Stars(for Kurosawa's wife)

Beauty

Gal

Stars

Plane

Wife

Sky

Love

Mountain

Nate

Sex

Together

Apart

Wait

Soon

Separated

As one

My Hayabusa girl

Japan

Pilot

Plane

Air force

Philippines

America

War sky fight on till my end!

Hold my hand

Love my heart

Gal stars wife dear

I love you always

Always always always

Stay close

Till we meet again

Gal with the stars

Happy thoughts

Hearts day dear wife

My end darkness

Never see my star girl

Again again again

I want to go home…

Dreamstate

It was the emotions within the dream

A prisoner to the situation

Images within his sleeping mind

Never to be released to the world

Like the pilots returning home

The feelings in his head

Mixed up with facts were there

But upon waking are lost

Like both aircraft were

Along with their crews

Forgotten on the high mountain side

By all but a few

He does his best to remember

And find answers

But this is hard

So he says

Let the evidence speak for itself

And then we will have the answers

But will they be the ones we need?

If the bone he briefly held was real

Then the American pilot would no longer be MIA

And answers provided

But for one person

The answers are too late

Lt Stone’s brother died

And left this world

Wes never did know the fate of his brother

At least not in this world

Are they together now

On the other side?

I actually believe so…

Warhawk and Nate

The Warhawks took off and flew upwards

Like angry hornets looking for trouble

Covering the frail old biplane

A flying camera with brave crew

Tasked to look for enemy locations

Flying here and there warplanes they were

American flown Curtiss fighters

Guarding the Filipino crewed Stearman

On a mission of war in the second global war

The Japs were ready and scrambled planes

Nates took off and headed for battle

Each side had skilled determined pilots

Men would die today and planes be wrecked

Like something from Hollywood they clashed

Vicious little snappers reeling about the sky

Rolling turning diving climbing shooting dodging

The battle went till fuel and ammo was gone

Two planes and pilots never made it back

Both fought like demons and paid the price

Each side lost a pilot and plane

They both came to grief on the same mountain

And left comrades and loved ones behind

Bits of broken airplanes on the mountain

Lost forgotten unwanted for decades

Till the wrecks were eventually found

Some answers revealed more questions posed

Only the pilots' ghosts and God knew the truth

In this Tarac Ridge battle February 9 1942

The day Stone and Kurosawa died...

Friends

It does not matter who shot each other down first

Oh how people argue this silly fact

A pissing contest to be won won won!

Who hit who and won or lost is mute

Only God and the pilots know

Who got the 'kill' that day

The day both were killed

And 2 planes wrecked

Warhawk and Nate

2 pilots dead

Stone and Kurosawa

Nudging a mountain

It doesn't matter who won or lost

The result is the same

Tarac Ridge is a silent witness

Or maybe it was a mid-air?

With angles...

Tarac Ridge Warplane crashes February 8-10 2018 write up by Nick Armbrister

I have had an interest in aeroplanes and history ever since my dad got me into planes back in 1980. He took me up to air crashes on the Pennines/Peak District/Manchester/Yorkshire/Lancashire area of England in the early 80s. There are over fifty crashes alone here ranging from the war years and later. We also went to wrecks in the Lake District and Wales.

In 2014 in the Philippines I went to more wrecks. I Googled Bataan warplane crashes and found out about the LT Stone P-40 Warhawk and Sgt Kurosawa Ki-27 Nate dog fight and subsequent crashes. This read like something from a Battle or Warlord comic.

Over the coming weeks I put together an expedition there. I talked to Kevin Hamdorf who was one of the group who found the P-40 wreck. He gave me much info and introduced me to the guide, Noel. Without his help the trip wouldn’t have been possible.

We went to the crash area at Tarac Ridge on February 8-10 2018. This was the 76th anniversary of it. We went to the P-40 on Feb 9 and the Ki-27 on the 10th.

The crashes are over a kilometre up altitude wise. We had to hike many hours through the forest/jungle and mountain to the area. We camped at the lower campsite. There is an easier site at the top of the mountain near Kurosawa’s Nate which is less than a hundred feet below the area. Because we never camped there we had to ascend the final hour to the summit each day.

The Warhawk site of Stone is hundreds of feet below Kurosawa’s in the forest on the mountain side. Little remains today but bits of alloy, Perspex, glass and other small fragments. We found these. Lt Stone is still listed as MIA Missing In Action. One of our group, Mike, searches for MIAs. We took hundreds of photos of the area and of our search.

I ventured up to the Nate site of Sgt Kurosawa on the last day of our three day stay. It was at the summit. We had to go through thick brush/jungle to the location. Kurosawa hit a rock face and his plane was fragmented. The engine used to be there but has since been removed. There is less at this site than at Stone’s P-40. We found bits of metal, Perspex and bits. Looking at the closeness to the summit, I realized that Kurosawa almost made it.

Nobody but God and the pilots know who shot down whom and who was on the other’s tail that day. The result is the same: two warplanes wrecked and two pilots dead. Maybe more answers will be found on future expeditions. It was a great experience to go there to Tarac Ridge, Mariveles, Bataan. In time I hope to return. This was my first international warplane trip. I want to go to a Grumman F-6F Hellcat at Capas next.

concepcion

...my beginning

interest from father

...all that flies

higher influence

...bigger than myself

google (bataan) plane crashes

...out of curiosity

found out of dog fight

...it's meant to be

idea of trip

...i'm going there

trip/look for pilot

...he's still mia

alleged bone find

...did we really?

examine alleged bone

...wait wait wait

yes

...mystery solved

end of

...start of more

we will succeed

unconcepcion

...my beginning

interest from father

...all that flies

higher influence

...bigger than myself

google (bataan) plane crashes

...out of curiosity

found out of dog fight

...it's meant to be

idea of trip

...i'm going there

trip/look for pilot

...he's still mia

alleged bone find

...did we really?

examine alleged bone

...wait wait wait

no

...we keep looking

mystery unsolved

no end yet...

...so much more

Bridge Building

We dug in the mud we used sticks

When we found bits of wreckage I was happy

When I heard the soldiers talk of ghosts I was in disbelief

When I realized I was here by fate I was fine

When I knew my Goddess guided me I was chilled

When my Hello Kitty tumbler fell I knew

When we knew this was the spot I cried

When we found a bit of bone I was elated

When I knew we had succeeded I was a girl

When I knew the big wigs had failed I smirked

When I hear it’s true what we found I’ll believe

When I hear that we found Lt Stone I’ll drink

When I drink in memory of Stone I’ll invite him

When I drink with Stone I’ll invite Kurosawa

When we all drink together we will all smile

And say how silly mad bad sad war is

But how cool aeroplanes are

Then we will all be fine

And laugh and enjoy our destiny

For we have all lived

And walked this green land

And flown in its blue skies

iron

we fought against the japs

but they won in the end

we went inland

away from the coast

do you see the mountain there?

we gotta climb that!

up we went

we found a crashed american plane

and the pilot

we buried him by the wreck near a big tree

we found his wallet with a calling card

we were the last to see him for decades

his location became a mystery

the lost american air ace

who defended bataan from the japs

so many looked for him and his plane

over a dozen teams and expeditions

they found his nemesis first

the smashed jap plane and pilot

rations

one expedition found a key

from one of our iron rations

this was real evidence

it showed we were there

why would a fly boy eat our chow?

they ate in hotels

from bone china

and silver cutlery

served by waiters

those were army iron rations

eaten by us in the trenches

but food aside

we had one thing in common

we all hated the japs

and had killed many

before our time was up

small nate was so high/huge cost is what it was then/lose death race crash fight