THIS BLOG ATTEMPTS TO SHOW HOW SCIENCE IS CATCHING UP WITH REVEALED RELIGION
THIS BLOG IS AN ATTEMPT TO PUT ALL THE COOL STUFF THAT I BUMP INTO ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND EVENTS THAT LEAD UP TO IT INTO ONE LOCATION. THE CONTENTS WILL BE FROM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING IN HERE, I DO NOT PARTICULARLY CARE TO ARGUE, UNLESS YOU CAN ADD TO THIS BODY OF WORK. I HAVE AN OPEN MIND, THAT IS WHY I READ STUFF FROM ALL DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND SEEK LEARNING FROM THE BEST BOOKS. I JUST AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE ABOUT IT - BUT TO PUT IT OUT THERE WHERE OTHERS CAN PERUSE/PURSUE IT. I TAKE PARTICULAR INTEREST IN HONEST SEEKERS OF TRUTH AND BELIEVE THAT SCIENCE IS REVEALED RELIGION'S BEST ALLY. YOU WILL SEE ALOT OF TOPICS IN THIS BLOG THAT SHOW SCIENCE BACKING - AND SLOWLY CATCHING UP WITH - REVEALED RELIGION. ENJOY!!
Man, when it comes to entertaining dreams, this last one took the cake.
It involved a bunch of rabble doing nefarious stuff (hidden agenda kind of stuff - telling you they are about one thing, while doing another; the ultimate form of betrayal and hypocrisy). While I was dreaming, my mind was led to the barn dream of Joseph Smith and I was told to look it up in the morning. Sure enough, they are part of the equation of Joseph's last dream - which I am sure was a forewarning and it played into what happened directly after Joseph's death with all of the traitorous players scrambling to get a piece of the action.
The DoC says that Brigham Young and John Taylor (among others of the 12) plotted to kill Joseph and Hyrum in order to wrest control of the Church from the rightful heirs and appointees. Their claims are so outlandish as to be offensive to common sense - but it helps them to align their hatred for polygamy and tithing with (for many) an undeniable witness of the Book of Mormon. Most consider the endowment of satanic origin (which offends the hell out of me...). If I did not know better, this whole set of notions was a desperate attempt by the Community of Christ to pull people away from the true Church. Some kind of missionary effort.
In fact, the DoC folks who believe in anything up until the late 1830's (sound familiar?) had rented out the Kirtland Temple for their competing spring conference on April 6th, 2024 - probably as a way to make a statement and say, "We are here - and a force to be reckoned with". Well, I am not sure exactly how it all went down - nor the why's and what's of the timing of it all, but the Church bought it out from under them and IMMEDIATELY started offering tours (usually the Church would have gone through a restorative process, etc but did not in this instance). This excluded the DoC crowd from getting a one up. I am sure the wolves went away licking their wounds over this PR coup. I could not have been happier with that outcome. I am so sick of the rabble out there feigning to be active and good members of the Church all the while using their social weight to pull others subtly away from the Tree of Life into the mists of darkness. They will spend quite some time in hell for their role. I will see to it. No role would give me more satisfaction than that. Either that or a destroying angel, wreaking mayhem and delivering justice according to God's will. Let's just say that my stint on this blue marble has given me a little PTSD - and either of those roles would be GREAT therapy (kind of like how it went down in the movie Ghost).
So, to my point. Read this dream and ask yourself who the person is who was trying to take his life in the beginning and then who the various factions are in the knife fight:
“My Old Farm in Kirtland”
Joseph Smith Jr.
<June 27, 1844> [Carthage Jail] . . .
Joseph related the following dream which he had last night:
“I was back in Kirtland, Ohio, and thought I would take a walk out by myself, and view my old farm, which I found grown up with weeds and brambles, and altogether bearing evidence of neglect and want of culture. I went into the barn which I found without floor or doors, with the weather boarding off, and was altogether in keeping with the farm. While I viewed the desolation around me, and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it, there came rushing into the barn a company of furious men, who commenced to pick a quarrel with me. The leader of the party ordered me to leave the barn and <the> farm, stating it was none of mine, and that I must give up all hope of ever possessing it. I told him the farm was given me by the Church, and although I had not had any use of it for some time back, still I had not sold it, and according to righteous principles it belonged to me or the Church. He then grew furious, and began to rail upon me and threaten me, and said it never did belong to me nor the Church. I then told him that I did not think it worth contending about; that I had no desire to live upon it in its present state, and if he thought he had a better right I would not quarrel with him about it, but leave; but my assurance that I would not trouble him at present did not seem to satisfy him, as he seemed determined to quarrel with me, and threatened me with the destruction of my body. While he was thus engaged, pouring out his bitter words upon me, a rabble rushed in and nearly filled the barn, drew out their knives, and began to quarrel among themselves for the premises; and for a moment forgot me, at which time I took the opportunity to walk out of the barn about up to my ankles in mud. When I was a little distance from the barn I heard them screeching and screaming in a very distressed manner, as it appeared they had engaged in a general fight with their knives. While they were thus engaged the dream or vision ended.”
Source: “History, 1838–1856, volume F-1,” 177–78.
I think that the first encounter is the d'evil himself or represents the gadiantons. The mob of rabble rausers are those like the DoC who are quarreling over the farm with others. Joseph is like, "meh - you can have it"...
Seeing this direct Iran on Israel (not using proxies) conflict, I can't help but think about the prediction of the nuke coming out of Libya and taking out Tel Aviv. To me, this is the natural progression of things - and this article backs it up:
In this recent volley between Iran and Israel, most of the incoming ordinance from Iran came from within Iran. Jordan even helped the West to shoot down stuff before it got to Israel.
One of the only ways to provide a surprise attack on Israel would be to come in over the water from the east where there is no buffer (unless Israel has ships in the water with Patriot batteries to pre-emptively shoot down incoming ballistics).
I first heard about this stuff from a fellow Boeing worker. One of the wonder materials that will likely one day make it into mainstream aerospace usage:
I remember reading the fantastic descriptions of the building materials used in the New Jerusalem. This was one of them - and this plus a few others that are maturing are showing that we are closer than we think.
This is pretty typical. After something comes along that corroborates something to do with Mormonism, out comes the deniers. Is it possible that the Saudi plates are a hoax? Yes, right now (without more provenance - or stuff that corroborates or puts it in context, like the other stuff that was purportedly found in the same chamber), I would say there is a 50% chance of it being made up. That is my head. My heart feels it is correct based on a prophecy that I made over a decade ago that there would be a flood of stuff that would corroborate the coming forth of the Book of Mormon (including the Sealed Portion), that would corroborate and make irrefutable, the evidence of the Book of Mormon. To the point that to deny it, you would have to deny that the sun existed as it arced in the sky above, providing light and warmth and the other external evidences of it, such as plants alive due to photosynthesis, etc. And, there are some, who for the hatred of anything related to God, woud do just that. Kind of like Gene Matthews at Boeing, who knew in his heart of hearts that he had been cursed for cursing God, would not follow the guy's advice who likely had something to do with it and seek out the Elders he had bragged about throwing off his porch to save his life via a blessing. Stubborn likely to the point he would rather die than acknowledge God.
The crowd that hate the truth thought it folly that Joseph Smith had found gold plates in a stone box and that there were plates made from lesser precious metals that contained things of lesser importance, such as the Brass Plates, etc. The fact that Joseph or the Book of Mormon even were based on such a thing before the Apadana hoard (with gold and silver plates in a carved stone box in Persia)
and the Copper Scrolls (found near the Dead Sea Scrolls) all come from a similar time period and culture, pretty much says that Joseph predicted that these things were a thing (even if the translation from the golden bible were somehow a hoax). At a miminum, the naysayers have to give it up for Joseph Smith for conceiving of something that actually became a thing over a century after he purported to have found the gold plates here in the Americas, that had roots in a middle eastern culture.
The fact that people cannot see it, pains me. But such is it for God. One third of his royal offspring were such dunces that they overlooked Christ and went with that miserable of all beings.
I have always said that irrefutable proof will come out prior to the release of the Sealed Portion which will cause those who mock to condemn themselves fully - and thus they will earn their deserved fate.
Someone asked why those two are so important to the Second Coming narrative. They are both key players in the final events and the building up on the NJ, etc.
Just pray for confirmation. I cannot go into why I would say that.
A Cree Chief. Not Yellow Face, but an impressive Warrior, don't you think?
The Dream of Yellow Face- “His Book”, is a blog about an amazing life experience about the Chief of the Cree Nation when he and his people were given a place to live and hunt in Mountain View, 20 miles east of Cardston, Alberta, Canada on Latter-day Saint property. You will greatly enjoy knowing a bit about Elder Wood, the Cree Nation and the inspirational dream of Chief Yellow Face.
The devoted friendship between Elder Wood and Chief Yellow Face is an impressive story of a strong faith, and amazing example of Christian values in the Cardston, Alberta area of Saints. The first temple outside of the United States was just across the border of Montana, when the Cardston Temple opened in 1923.
You will also see a 1960 video from the Church about this incident. It has a great message, and a fun movie to see from my past.
THE STORY OF CHIEF YELLOWFACE – BY EDWARD J WOOD IS BELOW
Edward J. Wood From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward James Wood (October 27, 1866-April 24, 1956) was a prominent leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Alberta, Canada and was the founder of Glenwood, Alberta and Hillspring, Alberta.
Wood was born to Mormon parents in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. At age 21, he was sent to Samoa as a missionary for the LDS Church, where he served from 1888 to 1892. Upon returning to Utah in 1892, Wood married Mary Ann Solomon. In 1896, Wood was again sent to Samoa, this time to be the president of the Samoan Mission of the church.
After Wood returned to Utah in 1898, Charles O. Card invited him to move to Canada in order to take over management of the management of Card’s mercantile store in the Latter-day Saint settlement of Cardston, in the Canadian North West Territories. Wood accepted and moved to Cardston with his family in September 1901.
In 1903, Wood became the president of the Alberta Stake of the LDS Church, which was headquartered in Cardston. In 1906, Wood organized the church’s purchase of the 66,500-acre (269 km2) Cochran Ranch for $6 an acre. On this land, Wood founded the Latter-day Saint settlements of Glenwood (1908) and Hillspring (1910).
In 1923, Wood became the first president of the LDS Church’s Cardston Alberta Temple. He simultaneously served as temple president and stake president until 1942, when he was released from his duties as stake president. In 1948, Wood asked to be released as temple president due to ill health. Shortly thereafter, he was ordained the patriarch of the Alberta Stake, a position he held until his death at age 89. At his death, the president of the LDS Church, David O. McKay, said to apostle Hugh B. Brown, “We have never had a greater President of a Stake than Edward J. Wood.”
Wood was the father of eight children.
Contents
The Life of the Cree Indians
“The Cree Indians are a vast tribe of Native Americans who reside in various parts of North America. These locations include the Rocky Mountain and areas along the Atlantic Coast. In Canada, the Cree Indians heavily populate Quebec and Saskatchewan. Similar to other Indian tribes, there are several bands of Cree Indians. These bands consist of the James Bay Cree, Woodland Cree, Plain Cree Indians, etc.
Within Canada, there are over 135 different bands of Cree Indians. Between Canada and the United States, there are approximately 200,000 Cree Indians. Of course, this number is only equivalent to the amount of registered Cree Indians. Hence, the number may be slightly larger.
Cree Indians were a first nation of Canada. Today, several members of the Cree tribes reside on reservations. Within the reservation, each Cree Indian tribe governs themselves separately from the rest of the nation.” https://kingstonyouthlacrosse.org/about-all/native-american-cree-the-life-of-the-cree-indians.html
My great friend, Mike Lafontaine is a Chippewa/Cree Native American. Here is a picture of his father.
Chief Mel LaFontaine, Ojibway/Chippewa/Cree
THE DREAM OF YELLOW FACE
By President Edward J. Wood President of the Alberta Temple
“About the year 1910, a very fine looking Indian, calling himself Yellow Face, called in Cardston, and said he had with him 20 families of the Cree nation from Eastern Canada, and that they were wandering over the country to find a good trapping country. As they liked the look of this corner of Alberta, they requested permission to camp on some of the vacant lands in our vicinity.
Yellow Face had fairly well educated young men in his company who could talk pretty good English. These acted as interpreters. They had a written language the characters resembling very much the characters seen on the facsimile cuts shown in the Pearl of Great Price. Yellow Face had rather sharp features, a well-shaped forehead, with deep-set eyes. His color was a lighter brown than that of our Blood Indians, he was nearly six feet tall, was very dignified and seemed highly intelligent…Continued below
We directed him and his company to the west section where there were lands with many lakes and plenty of grass for their horses. In a few days, Yellow Face sent word to me that they preferred the upper parts of the Cochrane Ranch lands, [Mountain View, Alberta] and that his company had encamped on the Belly River near the bridge, waiting to hear from me as to their trapping on our Church lands. I sent word that if they would go on the hay lands and do some work in grubbing out a lot of low willows, they might earn a little money that way and also earn the right to do sonic trapping; to which proposal they willingly assented.”
“Mountain View is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Cardston County. It is located along Highway 5 approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Cardston and 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Waterton Lakes National Park near the United States border. It is also a kickoff point for visitors to Police Outpost Provincial Park, 18 kilometers to the south.” Wikipedia
Continued “They wasted no time, and soon went to the store at Mountain View, a town five miles from their camp, and brought some fine muskrat hides to sell and also some finely beaded moccasins, well tanned rugs, and Indian curios. They did a lot of buying and selling in the Mountain View stores and some trading in Cardston during the trapping season.
While in Mountain View, they seemed very curious about our meetings and asked to attend public services, and also ward reunions of any kind; but while in attendance they would talk very little. When the season was about over for trapping, they came and very politely said Goodbye, and seemed to appreciate our allowing them to use the Church lands.
They came back the next year, and again the third year, and traded and acted much as they did before and never seemed to wish to get acquainted with us, until one day near the close of the season, Yellow Face and his Council of Chiefs, comprising the head of each family, making 20 Chiefs, sent to Mountain View for the Church Chief Bishop to come at once to their camp and meet with their Council.
The Bishop went and found them all seated around the edge of the tent, and wondered what they might desire of him. When the Bishop entered, Yellow Face stood up and asked the Bishop to stand in the center of the circle and address them. The Bishop hardly knew what to say, but tried to explain, through their interpreter, the first principles of the Gospel, and other truths he thought they would understand about our revealed Gospel. He spoke over half an hour, and realized they did not seem much interested, so he sat down and talked briefly on local matters, invited them to come to Mountain View to the meetings, and left feeling he had not made much of an impression.
About a week after, they sent for him to come among them again and talk to them once more. He wondered more than ever at their inviting him to talk to them so soon for he knew he had done very little good before. But as he entered the tent he noticed a fine looking Indian woman, whom Yellow Face introduced as his daughter.
The Bishop states that as soon as he saw this woman, the feeling came upon him to talk on the Book of Mormon. Before he began to speak to the assembled Indians, Yellow Face asked him if he had anything new to tell them, saying that they did not care to hear again what he had told them before. When he said he would tell then about a book, every eye was on him and the young woman seemed very nearly white. They all paid marked attention as he spoke and interrupted so frequently through the interpreter, that it was difficult for him to finish. They were much enthused, and pointed for him to be seated where Yellow Face had been sitting, then Yellow Face in his dignified way said he would now tell his story. As he did so every eye was upon him:
“The year before our tribe first came here, I was taken very sick. Some of my Indian friends who had been dead for many years came and told me that I would soon be better, but would get sick again someday, and that I would die, but my family must not think I was dead and bury me, for I was not to be buried until my body was cold all over.
When I woke up, I called my family together and also the Counsel of Five Chiefs (of which I was a member) for our tribe that then lived in Manitoba was large, and I told them of my dream, and they laughed at me and did not believe it. But, nevertheless, I feared my dream was true.
Time went on, and one day sometime afterward, I was taken very sick, and I at once feared my dream would come true, so I warned my family not to be in a hurry to bury me, even though I died, until they were sure that I was cold all over.
I got weaker and weaker until I left my body, and I went away among a lot of Indians that I knew were dead, some I knew and some I did not know, as they had been dead so long. But they were not dead at all, and told me to die was only to leave the body for your people to take care of, and to come where they were.
As for me, they said that I had to go back and use my body again for several years. THEY SAID I WAS TO GO AMONG THE WHITE PEOPLE UNTIL I FOUND A BOOK THAT TOLD OF THE HISTORY OF THESE DEAD INDIANS WHO WERE NOT DEAD.
I asked them how I would know the people who had the book that would tell my live Indian friends all about who they were and about their dead relatives; and they gave me these five keys:
They will let you camp on their own lands, and trap and hunt.
They will treat you like one of them in your business dealings with them.
They will invite you to their meetings and ask you to speak.
They will invite you to sit with them at their tables to eat.
They will visit you in your camp, and their men will not bother your women nor molest any of you.
When you find this kind of people, have them meet in your Council, and have them tell you what they believe, and they will tell you about this book.
I then woke up and found my wife and my friends had about decided to bury me as I had been dead several days and was cold all over, except a small place over my heart, but when I came back to life and told them where I had been and that our Indian relatives were not dead at all, they wondered at me. And when I told them that I would pick about 20 families and travel until I found the Book, they again wondered, but as they all believed in a God, they said they would follow me.
So in due time we formed our company and started. We made many camps, and traveled many seasons. But there are not many people who are true friends of the Indian; and it was hard to find a people who answered to the five keys until we landed among you.”
Yellow Face had grown quite eloquent in telling of his wonderful experience among the dead-yet-living Indians, as he termed them, and before he sat down, he asked for the Book. The Bishop went and got a Book of Mormon and gave it to him. He took it as though it had always belonged to him, and said to the Bishop that it was his Book because it was the history of his people, both of the dead and of the living.
After this very interesting experience of the Bishop, I met Yellow Face at the home of the Bishop and he told us of how he had watched us and of his sitting by my side at a certain reunion of the ward the year before, and of how he had taken note of our treatment of him, and of his great surprise when I told him his company could camp on the Church lands, and of his object in camping on the main road, so that all of our people going to and from several of our main wards, had to pass through this Indian village, and of his coming the three times—a year apart—as he wanted to see if we would change in our treatment of his company. He also told us of many principles of religion that he said his tribe believed in, which were very interesting to us.
He then took the Book of Mormon, calling it their long lost Book, and wrapped it among their valuables, which they always carry in a separate buckskin sack, and hang it apart from any other belongings on a tripod in front of the head Chief’s lodge. These articles are held sacred by the tribe and are exhibited only on rare occasions.
Yellow Face and his company now seemed satisfied, and having no further desire to stay among us, soon left. We heard many times afterward of how they would camp along the highways, and Yellow Face would take his own interpreter and call upon a family, and would hand “His Book” to the family and ask them to read it for him. We heard of this being done and the Book being read to him by many people who wondered at what the book contained, and seemed quite interested when he would tell them it was the history of his people.“Source
A Chosen People (1960) – Intended for young Indians, this tells the true story of an Indian Chief who dreams about a people who have a record of his ancestors. Based on an incident taken from the diary of President Edward J. Woods (1866-1956).
Edward J. Wood Gave All to Cardston
After Charles and Zina Card, there is perhaps no individual with a more prominent role in the history of Cardston, Alberta, than Edward J. Wood.
Born in Salt Lake City in 1866, Wood had already proved his devotion to the Lord by the time he arrived in Cardston in 1901. At the age of 21, after becoming engaged to be married, he was called on a mission to the Samoan Islands, delaying his marriage several years. He returned in 1892 and married Mary Ann Solomon, and they already had two children in 1896 when he was again called to Samoa. This time, at the age of 29, he served as mission president there for two years without his wife and family.
Edward J. Wood, Cardston Alberta Temple President 1939.
A year after his return, family members who had moved to Alberta, Canada, convinced Edward and Mary Ann to join them, and by September 1901 the Woods had arrived in Cardston. The town’s aging founder, Charles O. Card, invited Edward to assume management of the Cardston Mercantile, and Wood soon also found himself heavily engaged in Church work there.
Beginning with missionary work among less active members , in his first year Wood also served as Sunday School president and before long was called as the second counselor in the Cardston Stake presidency. Less than a year later – and less than two years after his arrival in Canada – Edward Wood was called to preside over the newly created Alberta Stake.
In addition to his leadership, Wood was also responsible for the colonization of 67,000 acres of Church land northwest of Cardston. He oversaw surveys of the land, identified town sites, and was the Church’s agent in selling the land. The towns of Glenwood and Hill Spring were the result of his labors.
Cardston Temple Workers 1938
When the Church built a tabernacle in Cardston, they asked Wood to oversee its construction. Plans for a temple soon followed, and Wood was again called upon to chair the committee that oversaw its construction. When the temple was finished in 1923, Wood was called as its president. Having already served twenty years as the stake president, Wood filled both roles for another nineteen years, until he was released from his stake duties at the age of 76. It would be another six years before he was released, in 1948, as the president of the Cardston Temple. Before long, he was called to be the patriarch of the Alberta Stake. Wood died in 1956, just half a year shy of his 90th birthday. https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/historic-sites/cardston/alberta/edward-wood-cardston-alberta?lang=eng
If this video synopsis is correct, we might be at the end of the road for our current epoch and about to enter the millennium where peace and love prevail and corruption is destroyed:
It has been uttered that the Nephite genocide was just the second to occur in this area (the Jaredite genocide was represented in a white "chalk" layer about 18 inches deep in the soil. The third genocide is still to come as the liberals and neo-cons go at it in a battle to the last man. It never was about the color of skin, but more of a delta in values. People never learn...:
Right Under Their Plows
Some people advocate two Cumorahs and that the battle of the Nephites' extinction occurred elsewhere. Such advocates must be ignorant of the first settler accounts of this region. Such an account can be found in the book Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York Embracing Some Account of the Ancient Remains, written by O. Tuner and under the auspices of the Holland Company in Buffalo, NY,
1850.
The New Holland Purchase occurred in 1772 and 1773 and acquired the tract of land to the south of Lake Ontario, beginning at the Niagara River to the east. When they first arrived, the following extracts were taken from O. Tuner's account of the first European settler's account of the land near the Hill Cumorah:
“If their own history is obscure[the history of local Indians]; if their relations of themselves, after they have gone back but a little more than a century beyond the period of the first European emigration, degenerated to fable and obscure tradition; they are but poor revelators of a still greater mystery. We are surrounded by evidences that a race preceded them, farther advanced in civilization and the arts, and far more numerous... The uprooted trees of our forest, that are the growth of centuries, expose their moldering remains; the uncovered mounds masses of their skeletons promiscuously heaped one upon the other, as if they were the gathered and hurriedly entombed of well contested fields... We clear away the forests and speak of subding virgin soil and yet our plows upturn the skulls of those whose history is lost!
[The ancient people] made [these lands] a refuge in a war of extermination... The evidences that this was one, at least, of their final battlegrounds, predominate. There are fortifications, entrenchments, and warlike instruments... That here was a war of extermination we may conclude from the masses of human skeleton we find indiscriminately thrown together indicating a common and simultaneous sepulture from which age, infancy, sex, or any condition was exempt. (Extracts from the first chapter of the aforementioned book)
The preceding was an excerpt from Chapter 21 of The Book of Enoch Vol. 1 by Michael Rush.
For years, this was the saying amongst the rank and file at Boeing and the flying public in general. Now, Boeing is becoming a hiss and a byword due to greed, trying to keep to schedule (again, bottom line over safety) and an amazing company that was hijacked and control wrested away from engineers (whose main concern was about safety and performance) and given to the bean counters (whose main concern was stock price and having the most complex machines in the air using components from the lowest bidders out there). I know because I had an amazing run there until corruption got the best of the system and I could no longer be part of it. It took just over two decades for that to happen; and the fall was meteoric. And quite sad.
If you read the blog back in the start of the decade of 2010, I told a friend of mine that Boeing would eventually cease to exist as a company (maybe under some other name or as a military-only concern) due to corruption and some kind of occult obsession with "luck" that went beyond just crafty marketing. It got really weird when they rolled out a mostly "prop" made a carbon fiber barrel and of plywood, etc on 07/08/2007 or 787 for the launch date of that iconic jetliner whose vision was quite bold, but whose existence has been plagued by problems related to beans, more than engineering excellence and cutting-edge innovation. To the point that I refused to work on it until the bean problems had been worked out of it and I was confident that it was safe for the flying public. Nothing horrifies me more than thinking I had anything to do with something that was responsible for the loss of a human life (been through the whole loss of a single life and that was a bit much, thank you)... The thought of a whole jet going down and all of the collective hell generated during that event, is more than I care to think about. How it would not drive a sane man (who survived, but was responsible) crazy, is beyond me. I have already been there and done that - and my conscience is really starting to light up right now over this whole 737Max door plug blowout incident. I am writing this article to finally clear the air and get it off my chest and I hope it will encourage others to come forward when they read it in major Seattle newspapers and news outlets. I love Boeing enough to try and change the culture there while they still can - so they can continue to make and sell reliable products.
In the last couple of days, I have been reading articles on the MAX door plug blowout incident where the FBI has made the statement that this last incident was "criminal". This implies negligence and this drives the legal definitions into a whole new arena, as well as the potential financial harm to Boeing. This will finally make them wake up and admit that there was a problem. I feel I finally have a chance of being heard - and that my testimony can be a driving force in making change at Boeing and possibly saving the company that I loved and cherished, working for over those past 20 years. Any attempt to forward my narrative in the past, would have been met with a consolidated front that I am just a "disgruntled former employee". I am not - but instead one who actually dreamed of working for the "lazy B" since I was still a senior in High School. When asked where I wanted to work after graduation, "Boeing" was always my answer and it never stopped, even when in college and trying to impress the father of the girl I was dating, who was a CFO of the Franklin Quest Institute. It was a fairy tale ending when I ended up not just at Boeing in 1997, but in Flight Test as a Systems Engineer. Every adrenaline junkie's dream - and the reason I was happy to get up every morning just to see what exciting cloud-punching adventure the day would bring. But this recent article on the criminality of what occurred with the 737-MAX, when there was no loss of life, kind of made my blood boil, knowing what I know of criminality with Alaska Airlines and complicitness, when 80+ lives actually were in the balance (click for link).
I was a congregant (lay) minister to a young family in our church back in November 2001 (right after the Sept 11th tragedy). It was my religious duty to reach out to the D. Dew___ family a minimum of once a month to make sure they had what they needed spiritually and temporally and were thriving. Our young families had about the same aged kids, but he and she had married later in life, so he had 5-10 years on me. He was a ramp mechanic for Alaska Air at SEATAC and I was a maintenance engineer with Boeing (our roles were more or less reciprocal; we called out the maintenance actions, the ramp mechanics performed them). For whatever reason (if not just to clear his conscience with a guy who knew the significance of this problem), he confessed to me after church one Sunday that "it is not a matter of 'if', but 'when' we have a crash at Alaska". I asked him what he meant by that and he confessed that he had buckled to management pressure to sign off on maintenance that was not being done to the airplane. As a maintenance engineer, our responsibilities involved breaking down a complex machine and it's maintenance needs into time-based and landing-cycle intervals that would keep the machine in the air. This complex set of maintenance requirements were spelled out on MPD (Maintenance Planning Document) Task Cards that had the action required (such as "Grease the Horizontal Stabilizer Ballscrew, per AMM 27-41-XX-XX"), and it spelled out the interval of that maintenance such as, every 60 flight hours, every 10 landings, during C or D-checks, etc As it was, in order to save money, time, schedule, etc the Alaska Air maintenance managers were forcing these line mechanics to initial and date those time cards with false information. I am sure that, if they did not, they would be marginalized, pushed out and likely lose their jobs. In a worst-case scenario, where billions and fractional trillions of dollars are involved, they could have a convenient "accident". I will get into later why this actually became an issue for me as I moved into the 777 production side of Boeing - and how it relates to an actual whistleblower on the 787 line who appears to have been "suicided" conveniently the day before he was supposed to testify before a committee.
Being a relative nobody and not having easy access to FAA reps within Boeing, I just took it under consideration as I really did not know what to do, or even if it had any merit at that point. One man's opinion against a well-established air carrier? Well, that was all about to change. On January 31st, 2002 (just a few months later) I was driving home from my shift at Boeing (and I will never forget where on I-5 I was, nor the time of day), when I heard over the radio that an Alaska jet had gone down that day off the coast of California due to a jammed horizontal stabilizer. The pilots had heroically fought to keep the airplane controllable until the airframe could no longer take the stresses and the ball nut stripped the acme (square) thread off of the ball screw and the horizontal stabilizer then departed the aircraft, sending the aircraft into the ocean and a hellish end for those poor passengers and heroic pilots.
I have gone over that scenario countless times in my head for the past 22 years. It is time to clear my head of that 18,000 foot dive inverted as the people screamed for their lives. The amount of emotional angst of just those 88 people overwhelms me and causes me to awe that the Son of God could take on Himself all of human suffering over all time - a truly incomprehensible and infinite act. And then there is the pain and suffering of those who love those 88 people. Unimaginable the magnitude of human suffering over corrupt, bean counting and schedule drivers. I was not directly responsible for this crash in any way, yet I feel guilt by association to one man I knew who, no doubt, feels enormous guilt. So what happened to Brother Dew___, you ask?
I have no idea. Of course, I was extremely excited/curious to know what his take on everything was, so I went to set up a visit to see how his family was doing (they had not been to church in a while, so I was concerned for them). When I talked to the mechanic's Deborah, she matter of factly told me that she could not visit as her husband had gone AWOL - simply vanished. She gave me some theories as to where he might be, but he was gone. I was not aware of any problems in their marriage, but just assumed that I had missed some big clues and that he simply had left her and their four young children. My source within the Alaska maintenance organization was gone, and over time, with all the layoffs at Boeing (due to the twin tower crashes), that incident faded into the background. All of the preceding was dwarfed by my wife and I losing our third child to SIDS on April 4th, 2002 and then the loss of my mother about six months later. One could say that I had had one helluva year and I mostly wanted to forget that it had ever happened.
I have written several journal pieces on this event, but never one that had all of the relevant details, as this one does. Next, within the Maintenance Engineering org came the changes. Within the month before my kid died of SIDS, my manager excitedly called me into his office to tell me that, instead of a 60-day WARN notice (of impending layoff), I was going to receive a pay bump and movement from a Level 2 to a Level 3 engineer. For a 4.5 year employee, this was unheard of. Usually, you got that reward after 11 years of service with just a Bachelor's degree or 7 years of service with a Master's degree. The FAA wanted to completely revamp ALL of the ballscrews on the 737 through the 767 due to a problem with hygroscopic grease (MIL-G-23587) that was causing severe problems at altitude when the moisture within the base grease material (a clay) would freeze and distort the ball return tubes and the balls fall out and leave the airplanes in danger of a crash of a similar mode to that of the recent Alaska ballscrew failure. Because of this revamping exercise, the FAA overrode the internal layoff rule at Boeing (they were cutting up to the 20 year seniority mark) and compromised with Boeing HR that they could keep any critical skills employee if they were a Level 3 engineer or higher. Because I was over the Hor Stabilizer and Elevator, my job had been miraculously saved. I felt as if I had one of the greatest miracles of my life. I had a young family to take care of and my wife was pregnant with our fourth child.
Over the course of the next months, as the Alaska investigation continued, it was clear that some shenanigans were going on. Many of the maintenance executives from Alaska were brought in to lead our Maintenance Engineering deptartment. Managers at Alaska were made Directors at Boeing and upper Managers at Alaska were made VPs over Maintenance Engineering. Posts were created for these new managers that were suddenly in the wheelhouse. For most, this was a non-issue. For me, along with the sudden disappearance or my church buddy, it smacked of corruption. As most know, corporate law is similar to civil law in that your spouse cannot be compelled to testify their spouse in a court of law. Similarly, with Boeing bringing those executives inside the fold, Boeing and Alaska were shielded from embarrassing revelations. As with Southwest Airlines, Ryannair and many other carriers, at the time Alaska maintained a "Boeing-only" fleet. This would cement and solidify this agreement and minimize any payouts from Alaska due to criminal negligence due to willful skipping of critical maintenance and it would also shield Boeing from the embarrassment of a faulty design on a critical component that, in the past, McDonnel-Douglas (original designer of the MD-83) had gone with a double ballscrew actuator on their DC-8, but had decided the risk was warranted to go with a single actuator on the MD-83 with no secondary load paths that would mitigate complete failure of the component, and therefore, controllability of the aircraft. In the case of the Alaska crash, both Boeing and Alaska were clearly responsible - and in the case of Alaska, criminally so. Of course, the FAA had signed off on the MD-83 (DC-9) design years before, so it literally was in the interests of everyone to just keep this on the down low, pay off some victims for pain and suffering of loved ones, and let it fade into everyone's collective memory. Except my own memory. Having simulated some of these events in a flight test scenario, I understand how much terror could be experienced if you did not know if this was just a test.
So why come forward now?
Number one: I am no longer under Boeing payroll.
Number two: The FBI is declaring criminality in this Alaska door plug event when not a single life was lost - and I had been privy to this other gross misconduct with nearly 90 lives lost.
Number three: My kids are all launched are no longer a leverage point for me (in the past, when corrupt managers have tried to manipulate me, I have literally gotten the, "Think of your wife and kids!" line - and I took it seriously as the threatening manager was from Jersey and came from a family of mafiosos).
Number four: The 787 whistleblower mysteriously offed himself the day before giving testimony on corruption within the system at Boeing S. Carolina. This kind of pisses me off - and instead of cowering, makes me want to come out swinging. I swore when I was down in Brazil, that I would fight corruption to my dying day - and I wonder sometimes if I have kept this promise to myself, after seeing all of the corruption down there that left people living in slums with gut-wrenching diseases while those skimming off the top were living in marbled high-rises in the best of circumstances.
Number five: The time is right, when someone will actually listen to me and my unique view into what happened previously with Boeing/Alaska and just quite possibly might change the corruption vector (both direction and magnitude) at Boeing.
Number six: There is enough heat on Boeing at this time, that they HAVE to act and do something. I am usually sympathetic to the underdog and do not want the ChiComs with their C919 offering to get the upper hand on Boeing, nor make anymore inroads into advanced aviation, in relation to Airbus and Boeing. But I DO want the flying public to be safe and free from worry while flying western offerings.
Within a few years of the whole Alaska thing and the clear cover up to keep the victims quiet and paid only paltry amounts for loss of companionship, loss of wages and earning potential, pain and suffering - I was talking to a religious leader (equivalent to a Bishop in the Catholic church) at a type of confessional and I was expressing my concerns over what I knew and instead of trying to get me help, he basically advised me to keep my mouth shut and that damaging information like that could end up getting me killed. Even though he was in the JSF with Boeing (military side), I took him seriously - as I had a young family and had already experienced loss there. I also was taking in a nice annual salary plus bonuses and did not want that interrupted.
So, I shut my mouth until the next big thing hit that opened that wound back up and made me angry at the endemic corruption within Boeing. About 2006, I had left Maintenance Engineering and was working in Everett as an MRB (Quality Engineering) Liaison Engineer. Our job was to repair anything in the factory that was not built to drawing specifications and bring it back to within spec, or order the installation of replacement of defective parts that could not be repaired. In some instances, this meant the replacement of entire wing halves and other major repairs where damage was beyond allowable limits and a fix was simply not tenable.
On the 777 line in Everett, I had done rotations around most of the various stations where wings were built, installed and where Final Assembly occurred (stuffing of the interiors, landing gear installation, engine hanging, etc). I was back in my home group and was training a surge of newbies (who had no time with the company; fresh out of school and just starting their rotations). I had just received my MRB certification (similar to completing an apprenticeship, complete with rigorous training/testing and then mentoring under senior MRB signatories for 12-24 months). One morning, a tag came in to a gal I was mentoring. Her tag involved the destruction of a 1/2" thick carbon fiber "T-chord" that would need to be replaced. On the second shift I was working, a separate tag came in for a "scratch" that QA told me just needed a "blend". QA listed the scratch as 0.012" deep - or about four pieces of paper thick. Doing my usual due diligence, I personally went out to inspect the "scratch". Well, it turned out to be in excess of 0.040" deep, and was in a critical area of structure. This was right where the horizontal stabilizer hooks onto the airframe. There is a phenomenon called hidden latent failure, where - if a defect is not properly addressed, it can crack out and the crack slowly grow until it reaches a critical length and then fails catastrophically and suddenly. In this area, it would mean complete loss of the airframe with all souls on board which number in the 300-500, depending on configuration and cabin layout. So I took it back to QA (first shift) and asked "Lou" to change the defect description to the 0.040" depth to accurately reflect the problem. Lou kind of freaked out and I began to suspect something was amiss. Meanwhile, my newbie confidant came to me and wanted to get my opinion on this carbon fiber damage. When I looked at the location, I about peed my pants - same exact location as my damage. Same side of the airplane. I knew the two were connected, but how? I knew they had just installed the Hor Stab on the 777 on the third shift, so I stayed over past my 1am clockout and started asking around. I could tell by body language and such that all of the mechanics on that crew were mum. The closer I got to the crane crew, the more pushback I got so I pulled an installation mechanic aside (literally into a dark corner) and asked him questions until he finally started to speak (after sharing my Alaska story - and how guilt likely drove my friend nuts). I assured him that his statements would be safe with me and after, pointing out that he could lose his job or worse if he came forward, he spilled his guts. The prior night, the crane crew was "flying" the horizontal stabilizer into place before installing the tailcone. As they got about less than two feet away from the mating part of the body with the horizontal stabilizer, one of the six lifting straps (three on left, three on right) broke and the whole 7,000 pound+ stabilizer (the size of a 737 wing) came crashing into that critical area of 777 structure. On the horizontal stabilizer, there are three points that hold the stabilizer on. The ballscrew at the front (middle) and two pivot points on the rear spar of the assembly on either side. If any of those points are compromised, you get the same effect that happened with Alaska (where the critical control surface comes off and the plane is basically an expensive lawn dart, complete with hundreds of screaming humans).
I had enough information that the next day before leaving first shift, I approached Lou and asked him to completely revamp the tag to place the two defects together since they were related. This is when he started getting "spicey" with me, calling me names and then finally dropped the "you know, the last guy who did something like you are doing ended up getting run down in the parking lot". I am not making this stuff up - it is surreal to me every time I think of it. Of course, being threatened just raised my hackles and I knew there was much more to this. Probably the biggest factor was that the crane crew screwed up with that busted strap. Those straps are life-limited and load limited. I did not get any proof, because everyone was telling me to drop it and no one would have cooperated, but the strap was likely worn beyond use and this incident would have triggered an OSHA investigation at the very least with possible FAA oversight when the airplane damage was factored in.
In order to cover my ass, I backed myself up with calling out to the floor (very calculatedly) one of the "two Chucks" - our "Stress Gods", as they were affectionately called. If one of them could back me up, there was nothing a corrupt QA or anyone else could do. They reported directly to the FAA. Anyone of a corrupt nature feared them. Funny thing was that, with that much power, the "two Chucks" were the nicest guys around. One was the personable Chuck Anderson and the other was what I called "Savant Chuck" because he could literally tell if structures were in danger of failure by just by thinking about it. He had so much experience and such, it was almost scary. I only feared approaching Savant Chuck if my calculations were amiss and he could shoot a hole in my proposed repair (which he never did). When Chuck Anderson came out to the airplane and reviewed my case, he just shook his head and said that they were already having failures in the 767 Hor Stab pivot points and that the 777 with hidden latent, plastic deformation damage there was just a ticking time bomb. When they went to design the structure on the 777, they just scaled up the 767 design to account for the increased loads, etc. So, in other words, the failures they saw in the 767 after 30 years of service, were going to manifest themselves on the 777 in a similar fashion. Any damages there would only decrease the service life of that structure.
After iron-cladding my case for a lengthy repair (with a 20 page powerpoint presentation and Chuck's recommendations), I was told I was meeting with the Factory General Manager. Even though I had done my homework, I was told by a 40 year colleague that I would not be employed by Boeing in two-week's time. He was very threatening and I took him seriously because he would often socialize after hours with my first and second level managers, who had similar time under their belts. The next day, I was marched up to the fifth floor with my Lead, FL Manager and Second Level Manager to get grilled by the Factory General in his walnut-paneled office. He got in my face and asked me who I thought I was to slow down 2.3 billion worth of product on the floor in the 777 line. I was thinking to myself what kind of education did this guy have in regards to materials science and if he even knew the difference between elastic and plastic deformation, or if he even knew that there were three forged and machined lugs in that layup, made from the strongest 7 series aluminum made by man and covered by a stainless swiper seal rub strip that could potentially hide (uninspectable) damage to that lug. This has been a hot bed situation in the MRB world and HAS brought down a 747 among many other aircraft. Hidden latent failures are the fear of every maintenance and structures engineer.
As we left that office, my feet were prunes in my dress shoes from sweating so profusely and I went home drained emotionally and told my wife to get ready in case I got thrown to the curb for standing up and doing the right thing. When we left the office of the factory general, I will never forget my second level telling me that "this is too hot for me, you are on your own".... Grrr.... At that point, I started plotting my escape to the 747 line where the -8 was just coming online and they could not keep up with the number of MRB actions required to keep the line moving. In that environment, it is only so long before they find some reason for "cause" to build a case and fire you - even though you are a model employee and just seek to do what is the best thing for the airplane and the flying public (stock price be damned).
Long story short, Chuck Anderson and I "won that battle", but I believe we both ultimately lost the war. I am not sure why, but about a month after that incident, Chuck Anderson left Boeing for some kind of extended leave that was about two years long. In his absence, things went to hell in the Stress dept and it was chaos. Even Chuck "Savant" Lackey could not keep up. When I was on the 747-8 line, Chuck Anderson suddenly was back in the Stress ranks. I pressed him to know why he had been gone for so long and he would not budge other than it was for "personal reasons". I wonder if he had been involved in some kind of breakdown over the politics he was exposed to with his job. I will probably never know. As a side note, when "Savant Chuck" finally did retire a few years later and was out on his first day of retirement, he went kayaking with his wife on the Yakima River and while in a rather placid section of the river and near the bank, with no witnesses, he supposedly overturned and drowned. I had never been even mildly suspicious before, but with the 787 whistleblower suddenly committing suicide the day before giving damning testimony, I have to give credence to the possibility of foul play (click link for Chuck Lackey's death announcement). The problem with someone like Chuck Lackey is that they literally carry every piece of messy dirt that is dredged up in the day-to-day of the factory. The benign stuff - and the nefarious stuff.
Has that 777 crashed? Nope, they repaired it 70% per my instructions and I chose not to push them on the other 30% of my instructions that they glossed over. If it ever does crash due to a hor stab failure, I will raise utter hell over it and will not rest until I am dead or until it is acknowledged that the shoddy repair had something to do with it. People need to be held accountable for their shitty attitudes and actions. The bean counters that sit in their ivory towers, running a once-proud company into the ground need to pay for their insolence and arrogance. Every time one of these bean counters gets run out, I cheer. From the last engineer/womanizer Phil Condit to the first in a long string of McDonnell Douglas bean counter execs that came in and ruined the company (Harry Stonecipher - that sold off Spirit Aerosystems and gutted the company for stock price), it has been a pleasure to see them go. It will be a pleasure to see real engineers return to leadership positions.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION AT BOEING:
What do I see as a possible solution to the problems at Boeing? A large poster in every cube farm with the name and number or website where a rank and file can report corruption within the system - and a rewards system where the biggest whistleblowers are given some kind of compensation from a "victims fund" in memorial to those from the likes of the Alaska crash. Also, access to an independent (and well-heeled) law firm where the employee can sue if they are black-listed for speaking out or that will represent them with investigative power if they end up "taking their lives" for no reason at all. The existing SPEEA employee system does not work and there are no mechanisms in place to relieve pressure when the management heat is on over the existing corrupt cost/schedule/delivery/stock price drum beat.
They came back the next year, and again the third year, and traded and acted much as they did before
About a week after, they sent for him to come among them again and talk to them once more
When I woke up, I called my family together and also the Counsel of Five Chiefs (of which I was a member) for our tribe that then lived in Manitoba was large, and 
I asked them how I would know the people who had the book that would tell my live Indian friends all about who they were and about their dead relatives; and they gave me these 
Yellow Face had grown quite eloquent in telling of his wonderful experience among the dead-yet-living Indians, as he termed them, 
He then took the Book of Mormon, calling it their long lost Book, and wrapped it among their valuables, which they always carry in a separate buckskin sack, and hang it apart from any other belongings on a tripod in front of the head Chief’s lodge.
