the alan alda crash...

all my life, i have been extremely open to receiving information not otherwise available, the most common method of these communications comes to me through my dreams - these dreams are vivid - intense - and i always awake with a definitive foreboding knowledge of a tragedy about to happen or with the knowledge of one that has already happened -

this was nothing at all new to me - i mean, i grew up having these experiences which continue today - and while not in "dream form", one of my earliest childhood memories was of a similar incident where i walked into a new school in a new town where i'd never been before and i knew exactly which locker was mine out of hundreds in the hallway, where my classroom was - my teacher - the whole deal - [that story is posted here somewhere below - as are several other such stories] -

by their teens, my children had long become accustomed to my waking them in the middle of the night to call the police and rush across town to help the victims of a car accident i had just "seen in my dreams", or to alert them to the news of a ship sinking, cars colliding, planes crashing, or whatever and turn on the television to see the aftermath unfold in living color -

in any event, this particular incident occurred during the time we were in shreveport louisiana - the area has many little lakes around and some fairly large ones - and while the city is in northern louisiana and not the southern part of the state where swamps and bayous are very common, it does have its share of "swampy bayous" around - shreveport is divided from bossier city by the red river which flows through downtown - bossier city is home to barksdale air force base - a fairly large military SAC [strategic air command] base -

this particular evening, i had fallen asleep early - my teenaged children were home, still awake when i awoke from a startling dream in which i had seen a small single engine/prop place crash into a swamp - i saw clearly the two men on board - they both wore military looking two piece camouflaged clothing - one of the men was trapped inside the plane - the other managed to extricate himself from the wreckage in the nearly waist-high swamp water - he tried to stand in the mucky water - he was dazed, looking around in the darkness - i remember hearing the sound of crickets [sounded like crickets to me] - the sound of the water lapping still from the crash of the plane into it - and i could smell the pungent smell of the murkey water - this was not an open lake body of water - it was filled with trees and stumps and thick vegetation around - i remember thinking i had to get the trapped man out of the plane - i was afraid he would drown and/or that the plane might somehow explode from the impact even though it was partially in water - and while i'm "standing there watching the scene" in my dream, i see the lights appearing from around the crash site and i hear men's voices shouting - and as i watch, a group of military men with flashlights come crashing through the swampy water - i see them help the one man who is still standing in the muddy water, and cannot speak, over toward the land's edge - then i see men begin working to retrieve the unconscious man inside the plane - and as they pull him out by holding him under both arms, face up, i see the face of the injured man - it is the face of alan alda! - i continued to stand in my dream, watching the rescue action, watching the critically injured alan alda be gently carried away from the twisted metal - watching the other rescuers look for other survivors - i remember wanting to tell them that there were only two people in the plane - this was the last thing i saw in the dream - then i awoke -

of course, i woke with a start - you know, the cold sweat-dripping terror that comes with such dreams/nightmares - for a moment i was disoriented and had to focus on where i was - at home - in bed - safe - the time was just about 9:30 pm - i knew that i had to call for help for the crash victims - i knew the crash was close by - but i didn't know which body of water - i went into the living room where my son was watching television and told him we had to call the police to find the plane that had just crashed with alan alda on board and i asked him to get the phone book so i could also call barksdale air force base because i had seen military personnel in my dream - and at the same time, logic and reality struck with the realization of law enforcement's and the military's reaction to my "dream of a plane carrying alan alda crashing somewhere in northern louisiana" - so i sat down on the sofa, frozen in uncertainty as to how or what to do next -

sometime later the local news came on but there was no mention of a place crash - we looked on the national news - nothing - i couldn't believe it! for several hours i sat, unable to understand as i was so sure of what i had seen - right before going back to bed several hours later, i decided to watch the closing news on one of the local channels - and there it was - the opening story of a small prop plane, carrying two men, crashing into water near BAFB [whose personnel were dispatched to the crash site] - the victims had both been transported to the louisiana state medical center hospital where they remained at that time - there were pictures of the men being delivered to the hospital but their faces were not visible to the cameras - as it turned out, the men were from north carolina, having flown their private plane to the area for hunting season - they were both wearing camouflage clothing in the plane -

the news story gave the names of both men and their home town - i decided to try to reach the families of the men - with the first call, i explained to the person answering just who i was and that i hoped they would not take my call with anything less than my total concern for the crash survivors and my concern when i had dreamed of the crash but was powerless to help - the woman with whom i spoke was very nice - and did not seem shocked by the nature of my call - at least she did not express it - it's funny but i don't remember now if it was the man's wife or his mother with whom i spoke but i believe it was the mother - in any event, she was very very nice and received this strange phone call in the middle of the night with seeming appreciation for my concern - just as we were hanging up, i asked her if there were anything remarkable about her son's looks - anything out of the ordinary - and she laughed and said, "oh, he gets mistaken for alan alda all the time! is that what you're talking about?" -

several weeks later, i heard that both guys had been discharged from the hospital and headed home to north carolina - i never spoke with either of them directly but have often wondered of their lives afterward...