Pi-Pies and Pi-Kues

Once upon a time, the U.S. House of Representatives really did something: they passed HR 224.

H. Res. 224

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

March 12, 2009.

Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter;
Whereas the ratio Pi is an irrational number, which will continue infinitely without repeating, and has been calculated to over one trillion digits;
Whereas Pi is a recurring constant that has been studied throughout history and is central in mathematics as well as science and engineering;
Whereas mathematics and science are a critical part of our children’s education, and children who perform better in math and science have higher graduation and college attendance rates;
Whereas aptitude in mathematics, science, and engineering is essential for a knowledge-based society;
Whereas, according to the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics, American children in the 4th and 8th grade were outperformed by students in other countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, England, South Korea, Latvia, and Japan;
Whereas since 1995 the United States has shown only minimal improvement in math and science test scores;

Whereas by the 8th grade, American males outperform females on the science portion of the TIMSS survey, especially in Biology, Physics, and Earth Science, and the lowest American scores in math and science are found in minority and impoverished school districts;
Whereas America needs to reinforce mathematics and science education for all students in order to better prepare our children for the future and in order to compete in a 21^st Century economy;
Whereas the National Science Foundation has been driving innovation in math and science education at all levels from elementary through graduate education since its creation 59 years ago;
Whereas mathematics and science can be a fun and interesting part of a child’s education, and learning about Pi can be an engaging way to teach children about geometry and attract them to study science and mathematics; and
Whereas Pi can be approximated as 3.14, and thus March 14, 2009, is an appropriate day for ‘‘National Pi Day’’:
Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) supports the designation of a ‘‘Pi Day’’ and its celebration around the world;
(2) recognizes the continuing importance of National Science Foundation’s math and science education programs; and
(3) encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.
Attest:
Clerk.
Math Happens
It seems that they are telling me that pi is an “irrational constant”; that’s a great description of the House of Representatives, I think.
For example,  their Resolution doesn’t mention that March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. Duh.
Einstein’s 4-ton statue in front of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Celebrate pi in so many ways: Five great ideas include composing a pi-ku. Or baking a pi-pie.
Instead of the traditional format of a Haiku (three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each), a pi-ku is 3-1-4 (for March 14). So, here goes:
MATH is, so
Run!
Circle the pies.

Or trying to figure out if Pi is capitalized or if pi is not. Go read a style manual.
Or go pi yourself: Get a tape measure; circle it around your waist; mark it and draw a circle of the circumference on a poster board; use the equation “circumference = (pi) x (diameter)”; remember that Pi is 3.14 and goes on to infinity. You figure it out. If your waist is, say, 36 inches, then you’ve been eating way too much pie.
Image from Wikipedia’s entry,  Irrational number. RUN!

Technorati Tags: House of Representatives,Pi Day,Pi-ku,3.14,March 14,Spittin' Grits,Einstein's statue

The Moral of the Story

I almost didn’t go. Here’s what would have happened had I not gone:
The situation that almost held me back from going would have unfolded anyway – it is still unfolding – and I would have missed two big events. I would have missed standing at the edge of the Pacific Ocean while reunioning with my AHS Class of ’61 pals in Lincoln City, Oregon, and coming home to a memorable Welcome Home party.
Standing at the edge of the Pacific

Welcome Home

Despite having grown up as an Air Force brat and lived a bunch of places, I’ve only stood at the edge of or seen the Pacific Ocean once before, in San Diego, where the Pacific’s sanguine nature lures even the most timid of temperaments. The Pacific of the Oregon coast can be phlegmatic, boisterous, hostile, even angry. Only the bold venture beyond the beauty of its shoreline.
First, what is unfolding: I mentioned in my last post that on September 1 last year a cold-contact e-mail popped into my in-box, from some stranger in Austria, which I almost deleted. Thank goodness I didn’t, as that one e-mail has led me, my sister, Susan, and my cousin Emory on a fantastic journey to discover the real story behind my father’s World War II bailout over the Alps, the plane’s crash, and dad’s eventual survival. There will be lots and lots more to come on that story.
Second, I would have missed our mini-reunion in Oregon. The year before, June 2011, the AHS Class of ’61 held its 50^th high school reunion in Anchorage, Alaska. A group of us from the lower 48, many from the West Coast, met in Vancouver, Canada, to begin a cruise to Anchorage via Alaska’s magnificent Inside Passage to Seward where we boarded a bus to the reunion. Last year I had a lot to say about that.
And third, Joanna Leigh had a wonderful surprise party waiting for me when I got home. I walked in the house at 8 p.m. from the Birmingham airport. She threw open the door from the kitchen to the dining room, and THERE IT ALL WAS, in all its splendor. My husband said she had gotten started on this surprise on Saturday after I left on Thursday. She had roamed around the dining room in the china cabinets, buffet, drawers, everywhere. And VOILA.



She had decorated with silver, china, crystal, the cake plate, these funky footed cupcake holders, a Happy Birthday Princess banner I had used at her birthday party, ribbons, her bandana, you name it. The whole scene was topped off with her Dora umbrella sticking out of my grandmother’s silver water pitcher. She embellished everything, like putting princess and fairy stickers on the crystal wine glasses. And a present from me that she had gotten on Monday at her ballet store: A DIAMOND bracelet in a gift sack.

She is a Priss Pot, embellisher, accessorizer, decorator, none of which she gets from me. Honest.
Then came the scary part. Bright and early Thursday, 7:30 a.m., after finally getting home late Wednesday night from Portland, I had to go in for an appointment with my internist. Oh, shit, I thought. What is he going to find in my system?
I really didn’t want to have to get on blood pressure or cholesterol medicine, but I knew he’d put me on it if I really flunked bad. So, I had it all mapped out what I would say. “Look, about the blood alcohol level, the weight gain, the cholesterol, my blood pressure. . . .”
“Yes,” he said, “your numbers are great. You’ve dropped 50 points on your cholesterol, lost a few pounds. . . .” I sat there dumbfounded. “What do you attribute this to” he asked. I sat there.
Then I said, “Well, laughing my head off for five days in Oregon.” What else could I say? I am NOT making this up.
The moral of the story is: If you want to shine in your internist’s office, go somewhere fabulous to meet up with old friends; then eat, drink, and laugh. It works wonders.

Technorati Tags: Pacific Ocean,reunions,grandparents parenting,Oregon coast,Lincoln City

Mission 788, 22February45

On February 22, 1945, Lt. John T. Cravey, my father, went to the morning briefing at San Severo airdrome, Italy, to learn what the day’s mission would be. He and 50 other fighter pilots of the 309^th Fighter Squadron of the 31^st Fighter Wing then climbed into their P-51 Mustangs, got the engines warmed up and propellers moving, and took off from the poor excuse for a runway. Dad was flying wing for Capt. Roger Zierenberg. That mission, number 788 of 22 February 1945, was to “escort the 49^th Wing [bombers] in an all out attack on enemy transportation facilities.”*

Lt. John T. Cravey, flight training

It was the birthday of George Washington, America’s first President, and those fighter pilots were climbing skyward to do their part in stopping Adolph Hitler’s dream of Aryan world domination. It was cold day, with a thick layer of clouds, but it would get much colder for dad that day.

After escort, as the briefing ordered, the fighters would peel off to strafe mainly rail transportation yards. The fact that this mission was a small facet of a larger – and secret --strategy called “CLARION” was not likely covered in the morning briefing. These fighters were among the nearly 11,000 Allied planes in the air that day over Germany. CLARION’s purpose was to bomb the last breaths out of the Third Reich’s war machine. As my father later recounted in a taped conversation, the flak was so thick that day that he thought he could get out of his Mustang and walk on it. The targets were Regensburg and Freising, near Munich. Dad strafed over Freising. According to the official War Diary entry for that day, the mission was successful: “4 locomotives destroyed and 9 damaged; 2 MT [German fighter planes] destroyed and 1 damaged; 24 railroad cars damaged; 2 power plants damaged; 1 barge damaged; and 1 railroad station damaged.”

Two men did not return to San Severo that cold day as recorded in the daily War Diary: “Lt. Roraus after strafing struck out for Switzerland or France with engine trouble and has not been heard from. Lt. Cravey was hit with flak and on return dropped down through undercast over Mid-Alps and is MIA.”

Capt. Zierenberg returned without dad. He filled out the required forms, including the MAC report and the narrative statement; they were filed on 24 February 1945. According to his report, he was leading Blue Section with dad as his wingman; they had taken off at 0940 hours to provide cover and strafe in Freising, Germany:

            "At 1400 hours in the vicinity of Innsbruck at an altitude of 16,000 feet, Lt. Cravey was seen to jettison his canopy and disappear into an overcast, at a 30 degree angle of dive, pouring gasoline or glycol and dark smoke. The mountains in that area were covered by an overcast and his plane was not seen to crash or his parachute seen to open. I circled for 15 minutes hunting for any sign without any results. Damage observed on his airplane was a hole in his canopy and fuselage.”

Captain Zierenberg didn't know, of course, that there was also a small hole in dad’s lower left leg, where a piece of flak penetrated. His plane did crash on a glacier about 25 miles from Innsbruck. He did bail out, landing somewhere on Zuckerhutl, Sugar Mountain, at 11,500 feet the highest in the Stubai Alps. The odds of his survival on that mountain were worse than slim.

The story of my father’s harrowing survival, the real story rather than the “action hero, comic book” version that we knew as kids, began emerging only six months ago, September 1, 2012, when an unlikely, cold-contact e-mail from a stranger in Austria dinged into my inbox. That e-mail, which I nearly deleted, propelled me, my sister Susan, and our first cousin Emory (dad’s nephew) on a quest for the real story; we continue to fill in missing pieces.

Sixty-eight years later on this George Washington’s birthday, I will honor Lt. John T. Cravey as my father and as a man who fought for America in World War II by beginning serious work on a personal narrative of his story of survival. I will remember not only him, but also Lt. Roraus, who, according to Emory’s thorough research, also went down that day and also managed to survive. Both dad and Lt. Roraus were captured and spent the remainder of the war as POWs of the German Army.

Lt. John T. Cravey's Nazi mug shot taken in a processing center before his arrival

 by forced march to Moosberg POW camp.

* The details of his February 22, 1945, mission are housed at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, in Montgomery, Alabama, which holds more than 500,000 historic Air Force documents: http://www.afhra.af.mil/. I drove there to see these original records on microfilm after e-mailing in advance a request for mission reports from that date. The staff had made copies and had them on the reading desk when I arrived. I am especially grateful for their help and support. [AFHRA’s IRISNUM call numbers for these documents were 00248401 and 00248402].

The AFHRA database is searchable on the web at: http://airforcehistoryindex.org/  

The Lt. Col. John Thomas Cravey WWII USAAF and USAF Careers Collection^© is the copyrighted property of Joanna Cravey Hutt and Susan Rebecca Cravey for their sole use. The collection includes but is not limited to the contents of three scrapbooks displaying letters, pictures, icons and other visual matter; 35 mm slide transparencies contained in the original storage tins; black and white photographs related to Lt. Col. Cravey’s USAAF and USAF careers; e-mails and letters donated to, given to, or addressed to the owners regarding the careers; private records; and other visual and audio materials.

Lt. John T. Cravey, P-51 flight instructor after WWII, Key Field 

training young pilots in the P-51