STORY: The Bird's Nest

Narrative Concept - Comic / Novel [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

A heavily fictionalized adaptation of my grandparents stories about their time in military service. Based on real people, places and events with a slant on fictional tech. Emphasis on romance and drama over action. There is not enough information or concepts here to tell a complete and compelling story from start to finish but all the necessary glue is there.

The aircraft in this concept were inspired by designs created by Leonardo Giron but as yet do not exist.
Retro Ultralight 1  ,  Retro Ultralight 2 (includes 3D model)  ,  Retro 40 on Deck

The following is adapted from reality with names altered appropriately. Changes will not be identified here.

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WHO

250 men : 10 women : 25 planes

Sgt. Ruth "Birdy"
Daughter of an influential church elder and inventor, Competitive Badminton player, Senior Secretary, flirtatious, a new boyfriend each year, smart enough to work without much effort, popular with the guys, had a reputation as a flirt, proficient ice skater, used to go rabbit hunting with boys, once lost a boyfriend after getting caught in a lie about hunting with another boy, scandalous white dress with short skirt, afraid of water after almost dorwning as a child, used to work for a bank, graduated from a commercial college, got early dispensation to enter the military, went into service for a secretary job so she wouldn't be reduced to working in a kitchen the rest of her life, was considered to be more ambitious than the average girl,
- her entire graduating class served in the war, most died, has a lot of paper-pusher power which gets her a lot of attention from the men when looking for time off or a base pass

Sgt. Ruby Woodworth
Country girl, Birdy's BFF, Secretary, dated a pilot on base who ships out then comes back injured, later dated an annoyingly nervous soldier whom she later married

Lt. Don
Birdy's brother, Engineer, Navy

Lt. Ken
Marine rescue pilot, Birdy's future husband, Don's best friend, keeps a picture of his glider

Cmdr. McClain
Former pilot, was shot down and given a desk job as base commander, Once survived behind enemy lines by hiding from Nazi's in a brothel bathroom, Reluctant to have women soldiers, later became a politician

Cmdr. Bill Gribble
Soldier, Birdy's favorite boyfriend, Wing Commander, later married a sailor woman, Birdy always came back to him when he brought her gifts during the holidays

Sgt. Vasenof
Mechanic, chauvinistic jerk, constantly tried to offend the women

Ethel "Wicked Witch"
Daddy issues, Inferiority complex, Bomber pilot, dislikes Birdy

Dr. JJ Green
Head scientist, Squad Leader, handsome, awkward and athletically challenged

Stan
Head base mechanic, was hit by a car and had to be replaced temporarily

Smith
Stan's replacement, a little old mustachioed man, badminton master, expert mechanic, Birdy plays doubles with him instead of Ruby for a brief period

Hiley
A grouchy flight instructor, once grumbled for a whole week after a mission was canceled because mechanics forgot to replace the propellers on his Hurricane.

Everett "Chan" Badoux
Test pilot assigned to the Meteor

"Chokey" Herring
A whiney soldier who was always complaining about wanting to leave. When his  time was up he was disappointed because he didn't want to go home either.

"Tex"
An obnoxious american pilot who came to the base for training. One of many rowdy american pilots who failed out of piloting service and came to the base for training Pre-Pearl Harbor.

???
Another female soldier, was quiet and unremarkable, had olympic level gymnastic ability

???
Base photographer. Typical shutterbug splitting his time between propaganda and reviewing investigations.

168th Squadron
Resident air unit, mostly test pilots and shot down pilots, This is where shot down and failed pilots go for a second chance at flight status.

WHAT

Romance among soldiers and the adventure of "war stories" and developing new technology.

WHERE

Alternate reality allied nation. Military Testing and Development airbase. Rockcliffe Airbase. located on a river. The "2nd chance base".

WHEN

Non-specific WWII era. Pre Pearl Harbor?

WHY

The women on this story aren't thinking about being soldiers or fighting but rather their lives after service and the men they will marry.

HOW

This is a story about a female soldier serving in the RCAF during WWII at a T&D base. The focus is on her friendships, romances, and time as a military woman from a military family.

- Once when an instructor plane went down, the whole base went to help. The women were told to stay back for fear of a horrible scene. The trainee was found alive but the instructor's body wasn't found. When the rescue team came back one of the women nonchalantly pointed the instructor's body out right next to the stump she was sitting on.

- Birdy was an athletic and active woman but her preferred sport was badminton. She once tried playing baseball with the men but her hand was broken by a hard pitch. She also missed a date with an officer due to a bruised knee from another baseball game. She was the base champ and later got to play against the national champion. She thoroughly lost the match.

- The base had access to at least one of every aircraft in the country, including the country's first jet fighter, the Gloster F Mk.8 METEOR

- The base did not see direct combat but they handled a lot of international affairs. Most all European refugees in the country came through there, most particularly British.

- Birdy took the only available Sergeant's position at the base, breaking the chain of seniority and beating out another woman who was sent overseas instead. This made the other women irritated with her off the bat but most people warmed up to her very quickly.

- Commander McClaine was the program commander and not keen on the idea of having women as subordinates. Birdy and the others changed his tune in time.

- The base included several specialized squads and facilities. A lot of attention was paid to the Photo Squad which was responsible for propaganda and reporting the war. They worked closely with the Communication Squad which were responsible for international communications and weather reports worldwide. There was an entire squad dedicated to handling visiting refugees and VIPs. The Research and Development team handled the base's primary duties of researching aircraft, investigating crashes and equipment failures and developing new technology in response. The motor pool had access to a considerably large variety of military and civilian vehicles for regular use and special research. The base also featured a fully functional hospital with full time staff.

- There was a mounty station nearby. One winter, their horses got loose and ended up all over the runway.

- A PBY once blew up in a closed hangar. Supposedly from an unidentified fuel leak. But crashes and other accidents like these were rare. The explosion put 5 mechanics in the hospital. 4 got away with burned hands. 1 was put in critical condition when the blast blew them through the plane. The ladies on base all visited them.

- After the war the base's only truly successful development was anti-icing technology. It spent a bulk of its resources on training American, European and Australian pilots.

- The base hosted foreign diplomats which was not always easy in war time. Birdy and another woman were almost run over  by the Premiere of Yugoslavia's car on base.

- "Ruth's Theorum" another way of saying, just do what she says because she's always right.

- Women soldiers were an unpopular idea at the time, especially among soldiers. The men on base were  disciplined and remained respectful without being belittling to the women. Though there were a few exceptionally uncouth staff there were no incidents of violence or blatant discrimination. Many of the pilots and mechanics made it a point to interact, flirt and get the women involved with regular activities on base.

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Narrative purpose

Rockcliffe Airbase is a major research and development base and home to the 168th "Last Chance" Squadron.
Birdy is an exceptional young woman who has transferred into the Sergeant's position as the senior secretary. She's smart, ambitious, flirtatious, athletic and dates a lot.
Her best friend Ruby has come with her as a secretary as well. She's a sensible country girl who gets involved with a nervous engineer named Stan.
Birdy's brother Don is an engineer who works under Stan maintaining the aircraft and designing new technology. He's always carving wood and making compact furniture.
Ken is a rescue pilot and Don's best friend. He loves flying more than anything and is always building model airplanes while designing new aircraft. He later marries Birdy but isn't very close to her while serving.

This story follows Birdy's life and romances while living at "The Bird's Nest", a 3 story 18 room house where the women on base lived (and later became a bed and breakfast). It was a popular no-man zone with regular gatherings of dinner and song. The events revolve around the base as North America enters full swing into WWII. A major event in the story is the modification and testing of The Meteor. International politics and propaganda come into play mostly as related to reporting on the war in Europe. Many of the war dead come through Rockcliffe along with casualty reports and correspondence for families of the deceased. More than a few are people known by the cast.

The purpose of the story is to show a strong female character that is not a loud fighter, romance in a war story that is not bittersweet or depressing and to address the concept of sexism in the military without preaching world revolution.

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Narrative Events based on convention

Growth of cast through relationships and war/
Women working her way through the military to a husband.
Watching McClaine slowly change his mind about women subordinates but remaining a grumpy old man.
Testing and development of new aircraft technology.
Trauma of test flight and training accidents and investigation of other crashes.
Ceremony for visiting dignitaries.
Processing of refugees.
War Photos and Propaganda.
Shouting matches with some of the men.
Sports on base.
Parties in town.
Birdy as a grandmother telling her grandchildren about the war.
Never saw combat but saw the people who came back.