C. M. �Chuck� Graves, Jr., is a general engineer in the Federal Aviation Administration. �General� is government-speak for other engineering disciplines beyond his two electrical engineering degrees. Chuck spends most of his time sorting out various aspects of ground-based power systems to keep the flying public safe. His specialty is the study of lightning, its effects on FAA facilities, and how to keep said FAA facilities in contact with and in control of aviation. Lightning cannot be prevented�and it cannot be controlled�but it can be survived. His job is increasing the probability of surviving.
To members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), he is known as Tadhg macAedain uiConchobhair. Tadhg is an 8th-century Irish Christian, who was blessed with the opportunity of learning from the monks at Clonfert. Upon reaching the age of majority, Tadhg travelled the length and breadth of Ireland�learning various skills in leather, brewing, cooking, and bardcraft. Not satisfied with all he had come to know, he moved on to Iona and thence to the lands of the Saxons in the area of Lindisfarne�moving between the monastic communities founded by the great Irish saints, being St. Brendan, St. Colmcille, and St. Aidan. Out of necessity, Tadhg also became acquainted with, though by no means adept at, swordsmanship. A man of wandering nature and a fair storyteller, Tadhg was able to entertain a Saxon duke of great repute, Gyrth Oldcastle of Ravenspur. Taken with Tadhg, Gyrth took him as a squire and worked to train him so that he could at least protect himself if he should give offense. To this day, Tadhg struggles to repay Gyrth�may his memory be eternal�with teaching of various arts, martial and otherwise, where once he was a student. Tadhg is credited with greater or lesser skill in brewing, cooking, leatherwork, armory, early naalbinding, blacksmithing, bardcraft, and administration. |
