Pathfinder

for Arch D. Smith

He shot from a P-38 Lightning fighter plane
not bullets after the war was over,
armed only with a camera,
Rocky shot pictures outside the plane,
unprotected looking straight down
strapped under the belly of this repurposed plane

He captured in photos the wild terrain
that would later become the largest US state
Rocky’s shots mapped Alaska

Note: The P-38 Lightning was often used in WWII as a bomber-pathfinder, guiding formations of larger bombers to their targets. After the war, some were purchased by aerial survey companies and used for mapping.

Image from The Amazing Lockheed P-38 Lightning

The Day Twenty prompt is to write a poem that recounts a historical event. In writing your poem, you could draw on your memory, encyclopedias, history books, or primary documents. 

I chose to write about Arch Smith (1924 – 2008), my Uncle Rocky, based on what I remember of the stories he told me about his time as a cartographer in Alaska.

_{Arch Smith with his wife, 1961}