Word: dengler
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Toward the end of World War II, a little German boy named Dieter Dengler looked out a second-story window of his house in the Black Forest and saw an American fighter plane skim past him, almost close enough to touch. Its cockpit canopy was open and the child could see the face of the hot young pilot, thrilled by his stunt. From that moment on, Dengler was determined to become a flyer...
...Opportunities for training were scarce in post-war Germany, so Dengler emigrated to the U.S., went college, joined the navy, won his wings?and was shot down on his first mission over Laos in 1966, well before the war in Southeast Asia tragically expanded. Captured and imprisoned in what may well be the most horrendous POW camp ever shown in a film, Dieter somehow managed to escape through the jungle - an odyssey that is, if anything, more gut-wrenching than his incarceration...
Remember that man in Minnesota who wanted, for various obscure philosophical reasons, to change his name legally from Mr. Michael Herbert Dengler to Mr. 1069? The one who had so much trouble obtaining a driver's license and getting utility companies to accept his unique numerical self-designation? Last week Judge Donald Barbeau of Hennepin County district court reached his decision on the unusual case. "Dehumanization is widespread," he declared. "To allow the use of a number instead of a name would only provide additional nourishment upon which the illness of the dehumanization is able to feed and grow...
...Michael Herbert Dengler would have had less trouble in his battle to change his name to a numeral and become Mr. 1069 [Dec. 12], if he had simply switched from English to Latin and become Mr. Decimus Sextus Nonus...
Minnesota law requires no reason for a name change so long as it is not for fraudulent purposes. The judge who heard the petition said he was impressed by Dengler's sincerity but could not rule until he had pondered whether a number could qualify under the statutory meaning of the word name...