Ft. Riley, Kansas - Beginning of the End of the World (Almost)

Fort Riley has been home to General George Custer, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9^th and 10^th Cavalry Regiments, Blackjack Pershing’s 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) as well as the one of the greatest natural disasters to cast a shadow over all of humanity: the Spanish Flu of 1918. Similar to the more recent 2009 Novel H1N1 (“Swine”) Flu, this pandemic strain of influenza quickly evolved and spread from a pig farm in Haskell County to Ft. Riley. Soldiers quickly became infected by this virulent and deadly strain of flu. It could have easily been discovered and contained in this small Kansas town.

However…

· One can be infected with influenza and spread the virus days before feeling ill

· World War 1 was going on in Europe

Hundreds of soldiers—dozens of them infected—were being shipped out of Ft. Riley to the green fields of France by the day. Within weeks, the flu had spread across France, Europe and on towards Asia and Africa. It didn’t actually cause significant mortality to the United States until it came back to Boston, Massachusetts in its second wave (but that’s a tale for another day).

By the middle of 1919, the Spanish flu had killed over 100,000,000 people.

Why then will it always be called the “Spanish Flu”? Historically, epidemics had been named after the region around Ground Zero. Lyme disease is from Old Lyme, Connecticut. The Hong Kong flu was from the Pearl River delta near Honk Kong. Syphilis has been called the French Disease by the British and the British Disease by the French (but that’s a tale for another day). When the great influenza of 1918 first hit the front pages of newspapers, it ran as a story of European tourists in Spain first contracting the disease. Nowadays it’s bad for tourism and the pork industry to announce “Swine Flu” or “Texas Flu” so we have a sanitized moniker like 2009 Novel H1N1 Influenza A.

So what about Kansas? After the initial wave of infections and deaths—with most of the original infected shipped out to France—the Kansas state government took action to shut down public gatherings: schools, church, movies. All together about 30,000 people were infected. Thousands died. Considering this was ground zero, Kansas was very lucky.

Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal

(ewww, lightning from demonic eyes will strike the plane)

Nearly two years ago, dedicated listener, Mike Meyer sent us a nice care package of various items. One such item was a DVD for "Turbulence 3 : Heavy Metal"
This was the 3rd installment of a low budget film series involving terror in the skies long before the airline industry was faced with real-life terrorists and poisonous snakes from Hawaii.

The reason why Mike had sent us the DVD was because the plot centered around the "Stull Prophecy". This omen was based of the urban legend of Stull, Kansas which Hometown Tales has discussed and documented frequently. The legend involves an old church in the middle of nowhere that supposedly marked the location of an entrance to Hell. Of course if you've seen our video segment on the "Gateway to Hell" in you've realized it's just a sad fabricated halloween story that has probably done damage and vandalism to a historic old cemetery. (CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO SEGMENT)

In the mundanely-acted Turbulence 3 a controversial rocker, Slade Craven is scheduled to perform his last concert abort a luxury Boeing 747. Of course the show will be broadcasted to millions online. The only catch is some Satanic terrorists hijack the show and plane. Their goal: to take the plane, and 10 million online viewers, down into a fiery blaze at Stull- fulfilling an ancient prophecy.

This movie is cool for only 1 reason, ok maybe 2. It subtly involves a "hometown tale" and it's so bad it's almost good. I stress the word "almost"

My official review - If you enjoy b-movies that often air lonely Saturday afternoons on the Sci-Fi channel. This is your flick.

Thanks Mike for the gift and sorry it took 2 years to watch Turbulence 3, it was well worth the wait.