Dash For Good: A Pilots story

Dash recently helped a pilot, disabled from being shot down in war, to meet with a pilot from the unit he was fighting against. They met in friendship and and were able to fly a small jet together. This is the story of Arthur Douglas Piercy, Orestes Lorenzo and Dash Force One.

Orestes Lorenzo (left) and Arthur Douglas Piercy

I am a long time Antiwar.com supporter but that is at the government / political level. I do support the “war fighters” the low level soldiers, sailors etc., of course, I think the best thing that can be done for them is a fast trip home but they don’t have that choice.  Like most people the story of brave young men fighting with honor to protect their “team” has strong emotional power for me.

This is the story as told by Scott Farnsworth:

Through Dash’s sponsorship I was able to volunteer our jet and make a huge difference in a former pilot’s life. Arthur Douglas Piercy was a young fighter pilot in the South African air force. South Africa and Cuba were engaged in air combat against each other during the South African Border War. Arthur was shot down from a missile fired by a Cuban Mig 21. (almost unheard of in modern age). He was injured during the ejection and has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1987.

Through different channels, Arthur and Orestes Lorenzo (Cuban fighter pilot in the squadron of the battle, but not the shooter) became friends. Because of Dash’s support of my team. I was able to donate Dash Force One to getting Arthur back at controls of a fighter jet after decades in a wheelchair.

Getting Arthur Piercy up into Dash Force 1

There is a documentary about Arthur being filmed and it will include footage of his return to the cockpit aboard Dash Force 1. Of course, this is great publicity for Dash, however I’d really like to convey the message of “Dash for Good“. I live a life in the sky and it’s hard to describe the freedom and peace within the pilot community. I put myself into young Arthur’s life as a man that had this adventure and passion for flight taken from him. Seeing his face and sharing a beer after the flight is probably one of the most important events in my aviation life.

We can only guess what Arthur is feeling.

Some Backstory

The story of Arthur Douglas Piercy is pretty interesting to read but don’t miss reading about Orestes Lorenzo he was a Cuban pilot who spent a lot of time in the Soviet Union.  The socialist system in both countries seemed so corrupt he decided he had to escape.

“I returned from the Soviet Union disillusioned about everything we had been told to believe. The socialist system never worked, despite the fact that to the masses socialism was touted as the best form of government. The standard of living was incredibly poor. Sanitary and living conditions for ordinary citizens were atrocious. Alcoholism and adultery were epidemic, and racism was systemic.” Orestes paused to make a critical point, “Humane socialism does not exist.”

On March 20, 1991, then Major Orestes Lorenzo on his first solo flight in a MiG-23 flew from Cuba to Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West where he was granted political asylum.  The plane was later returned to Cuba.

More incredibly in December of 1992 Orestes secretly (illegally) flew a small private plane to Cuba to get his wife and children – and successfully made it back to the US where they now live.

Dash For Good

Dash is a digital abstraction, it is really the Dash community that works together to fund projects that help the community.  Those projects are usually things that will, over time, help to create economic value for the investors in Dash.  But some of those projects can also actually “do good” like this one.  The best marketing / public relations results in people wanting to associate themselves with the product, stories like Scott’s’ hit that mark.