 Bruce Smith Aviator, Sailor and Writer By Glen WILLARD |
Bruce Smith is a recent addition to our Kyvian community. A welcome and interesting addition I might add. The descriptive title above perhaps should have and et cetera added as Bruce has many interests. These range from history to photography to political science and still the necessary etc. (his college majors earned at Stanford University were in history and political science). However, from my interview I would almost be tempted to sum up by saying that his interests all owe to his natural curiosity and his love of travel.
His travels initially would seem to animate from his career, which was principally as an airline pilot. For 25 years he was a pilot for Pan Am before he was "retired" by Delta (after a merger) due to airline age limits. But this is only partially so. At an early age while in junior college he earned a 6-week visit to Chile as a part of the Civil Air Patrol International Exchange Cadet program. This was won based on merit in a nationwide program that allotted only two such spots to Wyoming out of 160 overall. Bruce by the way claims Alaska as his American state though he didn't move there until he was 19 from his native Montana. But Bruce has lived in a home on the Thames near London that has been seen extensive "remont" by his own hands and/or his direction over the past 18 years. More on that home which was once a bar and a story in itself if there is space in this brief article after the lengthy interview. Other homes have been Miami, New York, Lisbon, Barcelona, Berlin and others I'm sure he failed to mention or I have missed. So, little wonder at his difficulty when I asked where he considered home and where he would "retire". He seemed to pass over the first and I don't think he's considering the latter, at least not in the normal sense. I say this since the conversation turned to a trimaran he plans on having built soon and I forgot that another home is a boat he currently maintains in the Bahamas.
So what's Bruce doing in Kyiv? Well he arrived here just as many males do. Why do many males come to Kyiv? Easy answer - beautiful women. And he found one - Galina. But no this isn't one of those marriage agency romance stories but simply one of two people meeting on the Internet, Bruce in London at the time (I think) and Galina in Kyiv. I was in attendance recently at a very fine and jubilant wedding reception and this interview concluded with a video viewing (by Galina's request Bruce insists) of the whole wedding day activities. Bruce made a good and distinguished looking groom. He was practiced as this was his third wedding and he did well except at the reception he hadn't quite expected the "bartering for the bride" routine traditional at most Ukrainian wedding occasions.
I mention Bruce's prior weddings for one reason only. While his first unfortunately ended due to Bruce's needs for travel and his then wife's culture shock from an Oregon upbringing to living in Lisbon and Barcelona, his second ended in tragedy as his English wife Ingrid was a passenger on the Pan flight now known as worldwide as simply "Lockerbie 103". The events surrounding that fatal airline crash 14 years ago and the subsequent legal and international wranglings, both civil and diplomatic, as well as the human, humane and sometimes almost inhumane effects are the subjects of a book Bruce is now writing. Bruce, both by his experience as a pilot, his outlook, energy and articulateness has been a central figure in most of that which has transpired. His involvement as plaintiff in a case that was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and his pursuit with others, primarily relatives of those involved in the later Oklahoma City bombing tragedy, were the impetus for important changes in U.S. laws.
Much time has been spent by Bruce in the past 14 years with lawyers, with Congressmen, in Congressional hearings and in dealing with representatives of groups and sub-groupings of relatives of victims of Lockerbie 103. The story of these events is an enthralling one. I've read parts of his initial draft and he weaves all the events and individual stories in well and in what is typically called "page-turning" fashion. He describes some of the lawyers involved as being something less than altruistic to say the least. No, to say more, without "tongue in cheek", he describes them as they are. And there are even some good ones. But the stories as told are more interesting in the human pathos involved. Sometimes it's the sheer greed or venality, and even banality of some of the individuals and the groups' actions. But, there are heartwarming stories too. The complexity of the emotions involved and the interaction of people is a significant part of the narrative. Seeming small things too are brought to life in the detail. An example is the initial inept handing of the crash by Lockerbie officials. Their small town and they totally and quite naturally were overwhelmed by the sudden attention of a world and people they would have had no thought of the day before. The all too human mistakes they made that were magnified by the scope of the events and all in front of TV generally, with BBC, CNN and a watching world are in the narrative.
One would be mistaken if they were to assume that Lockerbie 103 has been the sole focus of Bruce's life for 14 years however. The writing of the current book on those events was an idea of recent origin and then only at the suggestion of others. And in taking up the "chore" (now with relish) it's not quite so difficult. You see Bruce has no need for a "ghostwriter" or a co-author in an "as told by" writer. Writing you see is an avocation of his. And he's previously written on other subjects. One is a novel, an adventure story set in Africa concerning a border conflict set during the Cold War. The novel's title at present is Dying for Diamonds. It is as yet unpublished primarily I think because he hasn't made any significant efforts to solicit a publisher and he has not seriously sought a literary agent. I found the story very good. It was compelling reading, the characters well drawn and again a "page-turner". The story has diamonds, border wars, African tribes, Cubans, Soviets, the U.S., the CIA, the KGB, ancient European rivalries (the hero is a Brit) going to the times of Hannibal and, of course, airplanes. In fact the Mohawk airplane is almost a character itself. Bruce weaves his knowledge of flying expertly into the story. John Gresham move over.
So Bruce writes too. And if you (as I just did) noticed, he's also spent time in Africa, which I failed to mention in my listings above. And now that I'm reflecting, I forgot to mention his living in Mallorca where he first met Ingrid while he was raising his then four minor children.
And he sails. Unfortunately, he loves trimarans. (I sail without those extra pontoons, so I have to get the dig in. I think he may have, under his breath, even once muttered something about a power boat.). People who love flying and are involved in it seem to be some of the most avid sailors. They, with their knowledge of flying, have a natural association with the sailing elements. Knowledge of wind, air foils, feel for a wheel or tiller, not to mention generally knowledge of navigation all give them an advantage over the typical sailor. As to Bruce, well, he's also a qualified navigator, which is training separate from just a pilot. In addition to sailing the Balearics and Spanish coastal waters while living in Mallorca he also currently sails the Bahamas and Florida coastal areas. It is comforting to know (for me) that this man from Montana began his sailing in a dingy while at Stanford. He says he started by reading a book. Well maybe?
There's much more on my recorders and from my prior discussions with Bruce (and of Galina too) to tell, but it'll have to be saved for later. Much more about his flying and flying days. Not that his flying days are over-he relaxes by flying a Chica 42 locally. And he and one of his sons own an airplane together. Oh, his favorite plane: "It depends on what you want to do with the plane." And then he talks of the various planes he's flown in a lifetime of flying.
Hopefully, Bruce will be around a while longer in Kyiv. He and the beautiful new bride Galina soon will visit Bruce's relatives in Alaska for a while. After the first of the year his plans are to complete the current Lockerbie 103 manuscript and begin making decisions about the new trimaran yacht. From the telling she'll be quite a ship. He's thinking of a whole pontoon as one cabin. Who knows what he'll do next? Where he'll maintain the trimaran when it's completed? Where he'll live? What he'll do when he "retires".
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Read also previous issue' articles:
Political ‘Faces’
Ahmet Tanyu: On Starting Up
A Kodak Moment
with Andrey Pleskonos
Philip Morris's Raman Berent International & Experienced
Ian Boag: European neighbor
The Velvet Songstress
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