Interview Archives
Welcome Tom!
Thank you for taking this time to give us an interview. Can you
tell us a bit about who you are, and where you’re from?
Thank you, Patty for taking the time to
interview me.
And to answer the question, I was born in Ft. Myers, Florida,
and brought up in central Georgia where I got hooked on Civil
War stories. I dutifully wrote those stories into my war journal
and got my first taste for writing. At age 17 I joined the Navy,
earned my Aircrew Wings and spent a season with the Hurricane
Hunters. Then following my hitch in the Navy I returned to
school, studied English literature at Middle Georgia College and
drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. I did dozens of
plays ranging from Our Town and Uncle Vanya to My Three Angels
and The Tender Trap. Then I moved to New York for Off Broadway,
summer stock and worked with Bert Lahr in Harvey, Vera Miles in
The Country Girl and June Lockhart in Forty Carats .PBS hired me
to do the TV Series, “Georgia’s Heritage” – as writer and host,
narrator During our last segment of Heritage I had my first
brush with the legendary Doc Holliday. My novel “Doc Holliday’s
Road to Tombstone” as well as the nonfiction“ The Hurricane
Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle” all reflects parts of
my life.
Tom, beside for being a writer you are a
hurricane hunter. Can you tell us how you got started chasing
hurricanes?
It was early in 1945, the war in Europe was
winding down and the Navy ordered six planes and crews to
proceed to Miami’s Masters Field and form Squadron 114 for the
purpose of developing a Hurricane Warning System. When we first
heard about the idea of chasing hurricanes everyone in the
outfit thought it was a joke. But as it turned out it was no
joke, it was a good idea.
You have a book that was recently released
called the “Hurricane Hunter” Does the book share some of your
experiences as a hurricane hunter? Can you tell our readers a
little bit about the book?
Sure, I chronicle that entire hurricane
season of 1945 in “The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda
Triangle.” And here’s a scene that will give you a good idea
about a day in the life of a hurricane hunter.
Saturday morning October 13th at 0400 the
gentle tap of a nightstick woke me out of a sound sleep and I
immediately tumbled out of the sack. After a quick trip to the
head I jumped into my long johns and the rest of my cold weather
gear in preparation for a high altitude workday. Then I headed
for the chow hall where I had breakfast with Jackson and
Primrose.
After polishing off our breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee
we headed for the operations office to get a heads up prior to
the briefing.
The overnight bulletins indicated that after crossing Cuba, the
Tropical Storm began tracking toward the northeast. Once it got
over open water its winds increased to 97 miles per hour and
achieved Category 2 status.
According to the present tracking map, and assuming the
hurricane maintains its present course, it would pass south of
the Florida Keys moving in the general direction of the Bahamas.
All things considered it appeared that the Miami area would be
spared a direct hit unless the storm made a dramatic change in
direction.
Primrose and I got to the briefing room on time. The duty
officer gave a quick briefing simply saying that we would be
making high altitude observations and the weather squadron
flying out of Key West would handle the low altitude work.
Almost before we had time to settle into our chairs we were out
the door and in no time at all we were in the air.
It was like a replay of an old movie I thought as I looked down
on Homestead, Florida from the waist hatch. Seems like I’d seen
that place a half dozen times over the past several months.
There was a difference today though; we were presently climbing
through a dull mist and broken clouds. We were climbing out at a
faster rate today because our belly tanks were empty. We were
told at the briefing that our mission would probably not exceed
five hours so we didn’t need the extra
fuel.
I was just completing my first walkabout inspection and returned
to the flight deck. We were climbing through 13, 000 feet and
everyone had his oxygen mask in place. After I reported my
inspection to Jackson and the skipper I turned and looked over
Bassett’s shoulder at the map. He had plotted a course south
from Miami that would take us to the backside of the hurricane.
At that point it would depend on our altitude and where the
hurricane topped out as to what we would do next. We were still
climbing through an overcast that was getting brighter with
every passing minute.
Suddenly, we popped out on top and the brilliance of the sun was
startling. We were still gaining altitude and yet our forward
speed seemed to quicken as we raced over the cloud cover just
beneath us.
The skippers voice came over the intercom. “Gentlemen, we are
presently climbing through 19,000 feet and we plan to continue
this climb to about 27 or 28,000 feet. If you’ll look to port at
eleven o’clock there is a whole lot of scud that we believe is
obscuring the hurricane just beyond our current horizon.”
As we gained altitude I stood just behind the pilots and glanced
at the altimeter and noticed that as we arrived at 28,000 feet
the skipper pushed the yoke forward and maneuvered the plane
into a position where we were trailing the hurricane.
In the past few weeks I had begun to think that I was never
going to see a hurricane up close. But all of a sudden there it
was. We were looking at a storm that was almost picture perfect
and tightly woven. Then I saw a lightening bolt flash out of a
dark cumulous cloud, which reminded me of something I’d read and
that Bill Hurley had confirmed. Aside from lightening bursts on
the dark side of the storm, the outright beauty of the beast was
breathtaking.
You also have done some acting in your
life; and have some very interesting photos on your website. Can
you tell us something about these photos?
Sure, the far left and far right photos were
both promotional shots taken for TV Pilots, which never sold.
The majority of pilot films shot in Hollywood never see the
light of day. The cowboy with the tie was taken when I played
the sheriff in a play called “The Rainmaker.” The tough guy just
to the right is also from a play called “My Three Angels.” It’s
a story about Devil’s Island and the movie was called “We’re no
Angels.” Bogart Played the role in the movie – hence the Bogart
look alike.
Tom your domain name for your website is Tom Barnes39, why
39?
I wanted to use Tom Barnes, but that was
taken so I just added a number. I took 39 for one reason only,
people could tie it to the Old Jack Benny joke about his age. Of
course we have a bit of work to do on the young folks.
When you write your books do you have a
message that you want to send?
You know what Sam Goldwyn said about that. ‘If you want to send
a message call Western Union.’
Just kidding. I don’t start out with an intended message, but as
the story progresses I find my characters doing it for me in the
way they act and react to situations. And that goes for the good
guys as well as the bad.
If you could give new writers out there
one bit of advice what would it be?
Read and write something every day. Read
subjects you want to know more about and a writer you can get
excited about. But if the book or article gets boring toss it
aside and pick up another book. John Steinbeck said everything I
write makes me a better writer.
If you could go back in time and change
something would you and what would it be?
I might have stayed in the Navy a bit longer,
but overall I wouldn’t change much.
What are your plans for 2008?
Learn more about marketing and do a better
job selling my current books and get my fourth book “Tungee’s
Gold” published.
Do you have anything else you would like
to share with your reader’s?
First I hope my readers enjoy the stories and
that they sense that I am always trying to find truth and
integrity within all my characters, even among the bad guys.
Tom, I want to thank you for taking the
time out of your busy schedule to give us this interview. You
have led a very interesting and full life that I know other will
enjoy learning about.
Here is a list of places you can visit Tom
on the web at.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.theauthorslounge.way2kool.us
Amazon.com Profile
www.bebo.com/TomBarnes
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