In 1965 the Air Force transferred my family from Florida to Seville, Spain (S), so as a pre-teenager, I had to learn my international “Ps and Qs.” The “P” was for the 1966 midair refueling collision which scrambled most of Spain’s American military, including my father, to find four hydrogen bombs dropped near the fishing village of Palomares (P). The “Q” of the Ps and Qs was for Qaddafi (lower right), then Lt. Col. Muammar Qaddafi, one of the Libyan officers forcing the evacuation of hundreds of American military dependents from an air base near Libya’s Tripoli (Q) to our base in Spain during the 1967 Six Days’ War. Living four years in Europe (three in Spain and, later, one in Scotland) taught me about airport security, passport control, customs, packing valuables—all the international Ps and Qs that would help me as a future medical antiques courier for the Wood Library-Museum. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
View largeDownload slide

In 1965 the Air Force transferred my family from Florida to Seville, Spain (S), so as a pre-teenager, I had to learn my international “Ps and Qs.” The “P” was for the 1966 midair refueling collision which scrambled most of Spain’s American military, including my father, to find four hydrogen bombs dropped near the fishing village of Palomares (P). The “Q” of the Ps and Qs was for Qaddafi (lower right), then Lt. Col. Muammar Qaddafi, one of the Libyan officers forcing the evacuation of hundreds of American military dependents from an air base near Libya’s Tripoli (Q) to our base in Spain during the 1967 Six Days’ War. Living four years in Europe (three in Spain and, later, one in Scotland) taught me about airport security, passport control, customs, packing valuables—all the international Ps and Qs that would help me as a future medical antiques courier for the Wood Library-Museum. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

In 1965 the Air Force transferred my family from Florida to Seville, Spain (S), so as a pre-teenager, I had to learn my international “Ps and Qs.” The “P” was for the 1966 midair refueling collision which scrambled most of Spain’s American military, including my father, to find four hydrogen bombs dropped near the fishing village of Palomares (P). The “Q” of the Ps and Qs was for Qaddafi (lower right), then Lt. Col. Muammar Qaddafi, one of the Libyan officers forcing the evacuation of hundreds of American military dependents from an air base near Libya’s Tripoli (Q) to our base in Spain during the 1967 Six Days’ War. Living four years in Europe (three in Spain and, later, one in Scotland) taught me about airport security, passport control, customs, packing valuables—all the international Ps and Qs that would help me as a future medical antiques courier for the Wood Library-Museum. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
View largeDownload slide

In 1965 the Air Force transferred my family from Florida to Seville, Spain (S), so as a pre-teenager, I had to learn my international “Ps and Qs.” The “P” was for the 1966 midair refueling collision which scrambled most of Spain’s American military, including my father, to find four hydrogen bombs dropped near the fishing village of Palomares (P). The “Q” of the Ps and Qs was for Qaddafi (lower right), then Lt. Col. Muammar Qaddafi, one of the Libyan officers forcing the evacuation of hundreds of American military dependents from an air base near Libya’s Tripoli (Q) to our base in Spain during the 1967 Six Days’ War. Living four years in Europe (three in Spain and, later, one in Scotland) taught me about airport security, passport control, customs, packing valuables—all the international Ps and Qs that would help me as a future medical antiques courier for the Wood Library-Museum. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

Close modal

George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Copyright © 2020, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2020