Lightning: Horses, Rods and the P-38

Have you ever been struck by lightening? I have while flying a rescue mission in a C-130 and it blew a basketball-sized hole in the nosecone. So lightning is always on the back of my mind.

In my book I discussed Benjamin Franklin many times. When Mr. Fenn “accidentally” said it was Hamilton on the $100 bill I moved this information near the top on my aberration list. Of course the correct person is Benjamin Franklin who was notorious for discovering electricity but he is less known for inventing the lightning rod.

Which got me thinking more about whether there is hint in lightning rods. Perhaps his special place is prone to be struck by lightning. Fenn even suspiciously used the attention getting word “strike:”

“A man has been within striking distance but so have some women,” and

“A few weeks after they told me I was critically ill I wanted to strike out at the tradition that proclaims when a man dies all of his spiritual being halts.”

Many searchers highlighted this odd use of the word “strike” after he make that statement. Baseball and the use of sports in many of his stories could also be an explanation, but that is another discussion.

Mr. Fenn’s use of the distance in “links” (the treasure is in the Rocky Mountains at least 66,000 links north of Santa Fe) is certainly attention getting. Why use links?

The use links is also related to chains and rods as measurement units. So is he hinting at “rods?” or rather lightning rods.

Lightning travels at the speed of light and earth is 93 million miles from the sun. The time required for light to travel from the sun to the earth is 8.25 minutes, which coincidentally is the exact distance north of Santa Fe in miles 66,000 links represents.

This could also be a hint to the sun but I talked about in “Hint of Riches."

“Strike,”lightning and Benjamin Franklin could also be hinting to a particular horse. From my book Finding Forrest Fenn, “I pictured Forrest as a teen sitting on a blazed horse named Lightning when he and Donny searched for Lewis and Clark. The hints of Benjamin Franklin suddenly became clear: lightning, or Lightning the horse, was the hint he was trying to convey!”

Could Fenn’s horse “Lightning” be the key to unlocking the poem?

If so there is another Fenn “Lightning” reference to consider. The P-38 Lightning is a WW=2 fighter aircraft that was flown by Robin Olds. That is the guy Mr. Fenn said, “When Robin died, in 2007, a story circulated in the Pentagon. They wanted to put his body in a display case outside of Fighter Operations and hang a sign that read, “IN CASE OF WAR – BREAK GLASS.” Mr. Fenn also claimed when Robin Olds let him lead a mission in Libya that “it was a religious experience.” That’s right he said “religious” and Fenn says he is not religious but rather very spiritual. Is Robin Olds the hint of “old” mentioned in the poem? He did mention that the “Robin” could dodge his BBs when Forrest as boy tried to shoot one and we know This Robin ace did plenty of “bullet” dodging.

The ace of aces in WW=2 was "Richard" IRA Bong was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron (aka "Flying Knights"), 49th Fighter Group. He flew the P-38 Lightning as well. I discussed him here as a possible hint of “Riches:”

Between the two P-38 fighter pilots, we have a possible link to both hints - “Riches” and “Old(s)” but the more intriguing link to the P-38 Lightning is the most recent Fenn aberration when he claimed in his Mysterious Writings 6 Questions “Before Pearl Harbor, when a senior Japanese general was asked what he thought about invading America. He advised against it and said, “…because there will be a bullet behind every blade of grass.”

That General that he intentionally misquoted is General Isoroku Yamamoto. The most interesting fact about this man he was shot down by a P-38 Lightning.

Lightning is now one of the most interconnected aberrations and I though it was interesting that my recently revealed “Notre Dame of the Rockies” is stuck by lightning about 1000 times per year, which is a good thing Benjamin Franklin invented that lightning rod.

Read more or purchase at Amazon

Read more at: http://www.findingfenn.com/#!books/cnec