A FLIGHT THROUGH HISTORY
Richard L. Watson
September 27, 2001
Yesterday I took my neighbor for an aerial tour of the nearby Texas
coast. This morning, I realized the present day importance of the
historical sites that we flew over in the light of the terrible
terrorist attack on our country.
We flew northeast from Aransas County Airport at Rockport up Matagorda
Island over the bombing ranges that trained our Airforce from WWII to
the early 70’s, over the long closed military airfield on the
north end of Matagorda Island, and circled the huge Civil War
earthworks near the abandoned lighthouse on the north end of the
island. Those earthworks were erected from the Gulf to the bay to
protect the Confederate fort on the north end of the island. As
we flew on, we passed Pass Cavallo where the French explorer LaSalle
lost one of his ships. We flew on to Matagorda Peninsula over
another WWII training airfield and then over the site where LaSalle
lost the Belle, his flagship.
A short distance further we passed over Palacios and its WWII airport
which is still in use for general aviation. Flying west we looked
at the Fort St. Louis excavation where LaSalle and his men built a
small fort for protection after they lost their ships. We looked
at the shoreline of Matagorda Bay, where Indianola was once one of the
most important ports in Texas and where many of the German immigrants
landed on their way to settle on the coastal plains and hill country of
Texas. As we returned to the airport at Rockport, we looked off,
over Copano Bay to the site of El Copano, one of the first ports in
Texas. It was built by the Spanish to serve the mission at
Refugio and the mission and presidio at Goliad. It later served
the Texians during the Texas revolution from Mexico.
From the early efforts of LaSalle, to the brave aviators of WWII who
were training to defend us from the monstrous threat of Hitler and
Japan in the 1940’s countless men and women risked their lives
for their futures and eventually the future of America in this small
part of the Texas coast. We are now facing the greatest threat to
our country and to our freedom and security since WWII. This time
the enemy is among us, but we are many and they are few. There
are three hundred million of us. The attacks of September 11,
2001 managed to kill only about 7000 of us. That is only 7 people
out of three hundred thousand people. Let us not be afraid.
Above all, let us honor all of those who risked their lives or died for
freedom by not relinquishing ANY of our rights and liberties in the
name of security. Once gone, they will be gone forever and the
terrorists will have won. The men who died at the historical
sites we flew over, or died later after being trained at those sites
would expect no less from us.
Benjamin Franklin was prophetic when he said: “Those who would
sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve
neither liberty nor safety." Let us honor his memory and the
memory of those who have died for our freedom and refuse to allow any
of our liberties to be curtailed.