While on my way to work the other morning I was stopped for a traffic light near the base main gate. It was about 5:30 a.m. and there is a tremendous hatch coming off the Yellow Breeches creek right there at the light. After the signal changes I turn left to drive up the street to the gate. All of the sudden something whacks me in the back of my head, nearly knocks my ball cap off and slams into the inside of my windshield! I can barely make out what appears to be the tip of a wing. For some reason the thought of darned big Helgremite pops into my mind. Well, it sure wasn't any Helgremite!

The next thing I see is a bat sitting on my dash staring at me. Yikes! Now, I am not afraid of bats as they are a part of our natural world but I do not wish to get bitten either. I quickly pull out of traffic as the little bugger is heading towards my side of the car. Then it dawns on me that only my window is down so I lower the passenger side window. I decide to open the passenger door and as I am reaching for the handle the bat makes a dash towards my hand! Thank providence for those aviator reflexes.

Next I attempt to shoo the bat out of the passenger window with my hat. The bat is flying front to back, my hat is going to and fro, all of this is going no where. The bat lands on the dash right next to the open passenger window. Out of the car I go, around to the passenger side. As I open the door to try to get the bat out the bat jumps to the back seat. Aha, it is right next to my big, floppy fishing hat and frozen is shear terror. I pick up the hat, give it a flip. The bat dodges the hat and climbs up the rear seat belt into the rear quarter trim panel.

Great! I have to get to work as being late for military or D.o.D. duty is not something you want to do. So I drive on post, bat and all. After parking the car I open the trunk as that is where the trim panel exits the vehicle cabin. I do not see any bat fly out of the vehicle, it is still very dark outside, but a subsequent strip search of the vehicle has revealed no bat. The bat must have crawled out through the one way vent in the inner fender well.

Thankfully I have a strong constitution. Hope you get a chuckle out of imagining the antics the bat and I went through. We all got a good laugh out of it at work. The family got a hoot out of it too.

Sincerely,
Batman, aka nighthawk