SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018
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Siuslaw News
Community Voices
U S TOO F LORENCE —
Behind the headlines
B Y B OB H ORNEY
CANCER SURVIVOR
U S TOO CHAPTER LEADER
“I
f it is going to affect my
sex life, forget it!” This
is the “elephant in the
room” which sometimes frightens
men, particularly young men,
away from PSA testing and possi-
ble early detection of prostate can-
cer.
They are young, robust and
feeling fine. “You want me to do
what?”
The Large Urology Group
Practice Association (LUGPA),
Oregon Urology Institute and
other expert urologists recom-
mend men get a baseline PSA test,
Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) and
risk assessment during their 40s.
Based on those results, urologists
can assess your risk of prostate
cancer 20 years in the future.
Note: Some of those men are
going to receive further tests
because of their baseline results
and be promptly diagnosed with
prostate cancer.
If you think that can’t happen
to you, be aware that Us TOO
Florence has had men diagnosed
at ages 40, 47, 49 and 52, each
with their very first PSA test. All
are deceased due to prostate can-
cer.
Facts to consider: prostate can-
cer is the most commonly diag-
nosed invasive cancer and the sec-
ond leading cause of male cancer
deaths (U.S.); one in seven men
will be diagnosed with prostate
cancer in his lifetime; prostate
cancer mortality has been signifi-
cantly reduced using the PSA
blood test; many men diagnosed
today with the PSA test will have
low grade, non-aggressive cancer,
suitable for Active Surveillance
(no immediate treatment); early
stage PSA detected prostate can-
cer, is usually without symptoms
and more likely to be curable;
prostate cancer detected due to
symptoms is often advanced and
unlikely to be cured.
Here are some more facts:
• All treatments for prostate
cancer have potential side effects
with the top two being impotence
(inability to get an erection) and
incontinence (urine leakage). The
intensity of these side effects will
vary, with much depending on
whether the diagnosis was made
early (prior to symptoms) or late
(due to symptoms).
• Once symptoms arise, the
likelihood of the cancer having
left the prostate is greatly
increased. If further testing con-
firms that the cancer has indeed
escaped the prostate, curative
treatment options start to fall by
the wayside, dependent, of course,
on exactly what the urologist
finds.
This may lead to an array of
costly drugs which will have their
own side effects, some tolerable,
some not so tolerable.
• Knowing that 6 out of 7 men
will not be diagnosed with
prostate cancer leads some men to
risk those odds to avoid screening.
Some will win, some will lose.
Is the risk worth taking?
The following are two
approaches to prostate cancer
screening to help determine which
one is you:
Man No. 1: He believes that
screening will lead to more harm
than benefit. He decides not to get
the PSA test.
Scenario (1): He is one of the
6 in 7 who remains prostate can-
cer free.
Gambled and won… so far.
Scenario (2): He eventually
sees his doctor or urologist due to
symptoms such as urinary prob-
lems, difficulty achieving an erec-
tion or bone pain.
Further testing leads to a
prostate biopsy, revealing prostate
cancer.
Other tests show it has escaped
the prostate gland (common with
symptoms). His chances of a cure
are not good and a reduced life
span with diminished quality of
life is likely his future.
Gambled and lost.
Man No. 2: He is very proac-
tive with his health. Asked for,
and received, a baseline PSA/DRE
and risk assessment in his 40s
even though without symptoms
and felt great. Followed his urol-
ogist’s recommended screening
schedule.
Scenario (1): He is one of the 6
in 7 who remains prostate cancer
free. Has peace of mind with his
screening results being normal.
Scenario (2): His screening
reveals a rise in his PSA. When a
subsequent biopsy shows he has
early stage prostate cancer, he is
pleased with his proactive screen-
ing decision.
That decision has given him the
best chance of beating the disease
with a minimum of treatment side
effects.
It has also given him the best
chance of reversing those side
effects.
Additional testing may show he
is a candidate for Active
Surveillance and might avoid
treatment altogether.
Which scenario are you most
comfortable with?
M ILITARY H ERITAGE C HRONICLES —
Blimps at war
B Y C AL A PPLEBEE
Special to the Siuslaw News
N
HIT THAT
LIKE
BUTTON!
F ACEBOOK . COM /S IUSLAW N EWS
ot being a veteran, my
fascination with things
military started as a kid
growing up in Tillamook. Even
though I didn’t visit the WWII
blimp hangars located there
until my young adult years, I
did learn of their existence and
importance to WWII efforts
while spending hours viewing
the Tillamook Pioneer Museum
displays.
Blimps in warfare didn’t orig-
FRAA ART CENTER
120 Maple Street
Phone: 541-997-4435
Hours Open: Wed-Fri noon-5pm,
Sat 10am-5pm, Sun. noon-5pm
Classes, Workshops & Events
Beginning Felting with Ginny
Kliever - Take 2 Due to Popular
Demand
Saturday, April 7th, 1:30-4:30 pm
Learn the art of felting making a coin
purse. Bring a shank button; other
material provided. Pre-registration req’d at
FRAA or with Ginny. 541-521-3513
Crochet Workshop with Eleanor
Ross
Sunday, May 6, 1-4 pm
Detailed description soon coming soon.
Pre-registration req’d at FRAA or with
Eleanor. Questions: 541-997-4435
FRAA April Display in the
Chamber of Commerce
Bring one of your 2D art (wired to hang) to
the Chamber on Monday, April 2nd, from
10 am - 12 noon. We can also take a few
larger 3D pieces.
Writers on the River - Creative
Writing Workshop with
Catherine Rourke
Sat., March 24, 10 am - 12 noon
Memoir Writing: From Real Life to Real
Story. Turn life experiences and family
memories into captivating stories.
All writing levels and genres, Contact:
CJReditor@gmail.com , 541-708-2120
Next Art Change-Out Day
Monday, May 14th, 9-11 am
Please pick up your artwork and bring
something new to help keep the art at
FRAA fresh to our visitors.
Whimsical Hand Building
Ceramics w/ Alissa Clark
Wednesdays, 3-5 pm & Thursdays, 6-8 pm
Open Lab Ceramics on Saturdays
Drop in, work at own pace. Sat 12-5 pm
All ceramics classes held at Alissa’s
Studio. 180 Laurel Street.
Big Wave Poetry 1st Tuesday
Open Mic
April 3th at 6:30 pm. Admission is free
and refreshments will be available.
Painting with John Leasure
Saturdays 9 am - 12 pm
Contact: jnleasure@hotmail.com or
541-991-2754 for details and fees.
Oil Painting with Michael Wood
On hiatus but will be back in April.
fmwood@msn.com to reserve a spot.
For more information about classes, visit fraaoregon.org. To register for
these classes, please call or visit FRAA at our art center on Maple Street.
inate with U.S. military involve-
ment in WWII. Their use as a
weapon of war began in WWI,
and the first “lighter than air”
(LTA) flights took place more
than a century earlier than that,
in the late 1700s.
Germans improved the tech-
nology developed in the earlier
years, to develop rigid airships
as aerial bombing platforms in
Europe’s great war. The United
States military took notice of
those efforts, and in post-war
years both U.S. Army Air Corps
and U.S. Navy began exploring
the evolving technology and
developed early prototypes,
adding to their existing use of
observation and kite balloons.
Those early efforts included
both rigid airships that could
serve as aerial aircraft carriers,
as well as smaller dirigibles to
be used primarily for coastal
patrol and escort missions, such
as the blimps that become
prominent in WWII.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Company had been involved in
building airships since WWI,
and became the authoritative
resource for the USN, which
had become the leading military
branch to embrace and utilize
blimps in service.
As WWII broke out, for
America at least, the LTA efforts
increased drastically, and
Goodyear began manufacturing
blimps for the Navy in response
to the increased urgent need.
Numerous Goodyear blimp
pilots also began to appear in
USN uniform to bolster the
fledgling LTA training and man-
power needs of the Navy.
Like other WWII needs, the
need for blimp bases around the
country escalated, and the con-
struction rush was on.
Lakehurst, N.J., had long been
the central point for LTA efforts,
but bases were needed around
the coastal borders of the United
States to serve the new mission.
Eventually, blimp bases were
built in nine other locations
along the east and west coasts,
some at existing bases, and
some at entirely new sites that
previously had no military con-
nection, such as Tillamook, to
patrol the coastline of the
Pacific Northwest.
With construction beginning
in July 1942, it was partially
completed in astonishing time,
despite inclement weather, by
December, with the arrival of
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the first of eight blimps in
February 1943.
Blimps conducted patrols
constantly, with one LTA ship
on patrol at any given time.
While they could stay aloft for
as long as 48 hours, typical mis-
sions were usually 15-20 hours,
with patrols up the coast to the
northern Washington border, and
down the coast as far as Eureka,
Calif., on lookout for enemy
submarines.
Once the war ended, many of
the newly created blimp
squadrons were decommis-
sioned, including Tillamook’s
ZP-33. The last two airships left
Naval Air Station Tillamook for
Moffett Field in California in
October 1945, barely two years
after the squadron’s creation.
In my research, I ran across
information that indicated one
of the Tillamook blimps was
eventually purchased by
Howard Hughes in 1946.
The massive wooden hangars
built for the blimps are marvels
in their own right. Of the two
built in Tillamook, one was
unfortunately destroyed by fire
in 1992, and the survivor,
Hangar B, has served as a muse-
um for the last couple decades,
but it is in need of serious reno-
vation, which was a contributing
factor to the Erickson Air
Collection re-locating to Madras
several years ago.
The USN’s official involve-
ment with LTA ended in 1959.
One retired blimp pilot indicated
that the cost of the program
equaled one aircraft carrier and
one air wing, so the admiralty
chose the latter.
Experimentation with blimps
has continued since then, both
in the private and public sector.
In the years since WWII, the
hangar at Tillamook has hosted
multiple private blimp projects
and efforts with various goals in
mind. One included the USFS
seeking a LTA solution to lifting
logs out of secluded forest
areas.
Having been a blimp enthusi-
ast most of my life, a highlight
was several years ago while still
living in Central Oregon, when I
had the opportunity to pilot a
small blimp at the Madras air-
show. Originally built in the
1980s for comedian Gallagher,
the 48-foot-long airship was
powered by pedal power.
Learn more about military
heritage by visiting the Oregon
Coast Military Museum website
at www.oregoncoastmilitary
museum.com or visit the muse-
um, 2145 Kingwood Street,
which is open Thursday through
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
