Rudy knew that her plan was falling into place as she saw her father enter her room. “How are you feeling Miss Rudy,” her father said. “I’m al...ight but, umm, could you do that thing you used to do when I was 5 years old, when you used to blow on my stomach to make it feel better. “ Okay dear I think I could do that for you”. He then peeled the cover back a little to reveal her stomach, he pulled back her and started blowing on her stomach. “Daddy can you move down a little, he moved down, no a. I opened the door and Mike nervously said "Hi." I had him come in and we talked a little. I smelled a little booze on his breath and figured he'd needed a little liquid courage, so I figured I'd help him by asking him if he wanted to get a few beers at a local bar. He agreed eagerly. I thought that if he was that nervous (hell I was still pretty nervous myself) and if we got started too early, he might leave in a hurry again. So I said "Okay, to the bar for a few beers it is. But I need to do. I remember hearing gun shots before I was knocked out, so I’m already prepared for the worst.”“I hope you are,” he replied sadly. “When I got back, I went straight to the radio room for an update. When I saw the first plane go down I called in and Joseph told me we were being attacked. He said they couldn’t get a hold of you, but Dale had already radioed in to tell them he’d lost an engine and would have to land or reroute to Tahiti. I gave the order to send them to Tahiti, just in case the. "It made all the difference. If she had any hope of making it at all, Alex increased those odds a thousand fold. What's more, because of Mickie, she advanced our knowledge of the entire process, giving each of us the same odds. She might have single handedly enabled hundreds of us to make the transition. What she did was a tremendous service to all of us, and while we'll never be able to tell the rest of the world what's involved without having to explain how we know it, that knowledge will.