A Letter I Wrote to Bush #1 in 91 (when I was 7)

 Random memories just come back to you sometimes, out of the blue seemingly without a trigger.  They just come back.  Odd how the brain works.  But I recently remembered how at some point when I was younger had sent a letter to Bush Sr. regarding some matters I thought were especially important.  After a couple of weeks I managed to find some old scrapbooks at my Dads house and inside, the letter to Bush.  I had remembered some sort of big point I had about the Air Force needing to use remote controlled fighter plans so our pilots didn't die, that's the main idea that I remembered writing about.  

The letter is dated Jan 14, 1991 putting me at 7 years old.  I wasn't very skilled as a writer at that point (little has changed) so I dictated to my big brother so Mr. Bush could make out the very important information I had to offer. Here are a few excerpts from that letter:

I was thinking about the war that is going to start against Iraq.  I think you shouldn't use Jeeps because they don't have a roof and windows and it is too easy to shoot the men inside of the Jeeps.f  There should be a really thick metal roof and clear plastic windows because glass windows are too easy to break.  I also think that they should paint all of the bottoms of the airplanes blue so that it would be hard for the Iraq people to see them and then they wouldn't be able to shoot the airplanes because they wouldn't know where to point their guns.  Then the people inside of the airplanes wouldn't be killed.  

Another think that would be good would be to instead of build big huge airplanes that cost big huge piles of money and when they get shot some people get killed, to have small remote control airplanes that have video cameras and machine guns and maybe small bombs in them that soldiers fly from a long way away.  Then if they got blown up it wouldn't cost as much money and no people would die. And  what they could do is have a little machine bird thing that is really a remote control airplane with a camera in it and they could fly it over the Iraq people and take pictures of them.  Then we wouldn't have to spend so much money on satellites and airplanes that fly really high. 

The next time you talk to all of the people in the government, you should say the stuff in this letter to the government.  But make sure no Iraq people are there so that they wouldn't know about the things for the war.

Sincerely, 

     Andrew 7 years old Durkee

Could you imagine how excited and important I must have felt when I got a letter from the president himself? 

While the Humvee had thoroughly replaced the Jeep in the US Military by 1991, unmanned areal vehicles or drones weren't widely used until Operation Enduring Freedom in the early 2000s.  I'd like to think I played a pivotal role in the US Military widely adopting the use of drones as Bush clearly appreciate my thoughts and concerns and likely thought long and hard about what I had to say - eventually leading to a "remote control fighter airplane." ; )

You can read all about the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program on the Wiki page HERE. 
YouTube Video:
 


While going through my scrap books I also found a little drawing I made at something like age 5 which I particularly like:

On Serious Afterburner!

I don't particularly remember being a little airplane nut of a kid, but it's sort of fun to see that my fascination with aviation may have started when I was younger than I thought.  Or, maybe all kids are just as enamored with airplanes at a young age and I just never gave it up.  Regardless, I don't mind finding out that I was thinking carefully about aviation, even dreaming about aviation from a young age.  I know we lived near an air force base with formation training jets flying low over our house, that certainly could have contributed to my lasting fascination.  I still instinctively look up whenever an airplane passes overhead.  

 Even if it's just a stock letter, it's cool to have received a letter from the president.  Maybe I should write the current president and let him know that he needs to put more student financing in place for professional flight training because last time I wrote the president - it worked!