1 sided cell phone calls

Hello! Have I got the War Department?

*****

Could ya connect me with Plans and Operations?

*****

Plans and Ops, I have a question ‘bout today’s operation.

*****

No Sarge! I want to talk with the officer in charge. Please put him on and be double quick about it!

*****

Hello! Are you the guy who wrote today’s op order?

*****

OK, I’ve got the guy I wanta talk to. I have several immediate questions.

*****

No, no. I’m out here in Montana. I’m not in Afghanistan somewhere with what did you say the Taliban? Give me the guy in charge of the Montana operations order!

*****

Hello! Are you the guy who wrote today’s op order?

*****

I see in paragraph number 1 that the enemy force estimate says there might be light opposition. Man, do you have any idea just how many Indians there are out here?

*****

Well, let me tell you; there are a whole hell’ava lot more than light enemy action Indians out here. They’re everywhere!

*****

I don’t know where you got your intel, but mine is first hand and I’m telling you there’s a hell’ava lot of Indians out here today.

*****

Have you heard from Reno?

*****

I’ve lost contact. He shoulda been here hours ago!

*****

What’s the chance you could send in the Immediate Reaction force? They aren’t in contact are they?

*****

What? They aren’t available! What good do you think the Mississippi national Guard will do me in the next thirty to forty minutes?

*****

Hold on a second, I gotta say somethin’ to Charlie.

Watch out Charlie! Oops, too late!

Say Ops, just how many Survivor Assistance Officers do you have on call today?

*****

I’m ‘athinkin’ you’re gonna need to get some more ready!

*****

No Major, I mean a lot more than that!

*****

Hold on another second, I gotta………

For a Soldier died today

by A. Lawrence Vaincourt

http://www.jacksjoint.com/soldier.htm

I have removed the post as I found later that it was copyrighted material. Please visit the post above to read the poem. It is well worth your time.

Howard

Veterans Day 2011

"Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations." -- George Washington Farewell Address, 1796

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgwJ1ZzlGqM&feature=related

My wife & I just returned from the Austin Veterans Day Parade.

I had the distinct pleasure of standing with SGM Gill; retired Air Force and Army - 44 years service in active and reserve. He started his service in 1942 and retired in 1977—having served in three wars: WWII, the Korean War & the Vietnam Conflict. He is 92 years and has been slowed just a bit by a recent stroke. SGM Gill stood and saluted every American Flag that passed, color guard unit or not. His son kept putting him back in the chair that he had brought which just made the standing task harder each time. I guess anybody that’s been with us for 92 years deserves to take longer to get to their feet each time they do so. What a pleasure this was. We promised each other to meet again next year on the same street corner to watch the 2012 Veterans parade.

SGM Gill and his son

Standing along side of also was Perry Jefferies, the manager of the TexVet Initiative of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine in Round Rock www.tamhsc.edu

Perry is an interesting guy and doing fine work. He coordinated a visit with SGM Gill and his son to meet and record the Sergeant Major’s story. This, I want to hear—44 years, it oughta be a good one.

Another one of my favorite entries in the parade every year is the Retired Chief's Association. A continual participant is Dale Lyons who also happens to sit on the board of directors at the credit union where my wife, Patsy, is the VP of Human Resources.

Dale Lyons

This was the longest Veterans day Parade that I can remember. We watched for an hour and a half at least. The entries just kept coming.

The one thing that struck me was the number of youth enrolled in the ROTC programs at the local high schools. What a bunch of good looking young leaders of tomorrow. I have included some shots of the various groups below.

James Bowie High School ROTC unit

Akins High School ROTC unit

William B Travis High School ROTC unit

Bastrop High School ROTC unit

I hope you got out today and showed your support. It kinda makes you feel good inside and has the same effect on those around you.

"What’s behind the mantra of atonement" – "Thank you for your service"

Yesterday, I read with interest the comments by Elizabeth Samet in her commentary: “What’s behind the mantra of atonement?” Samet, who is a English professor at the United States Military Academy (West Point) wrote a special for the Bloomberg News. She was tackling the current phenomenon of greeting members of the armed forces with: “Thank you for your service.”

I thank her for her attention. But Elizabeth, the military is all around us everyday. They are either coming, going, working or living right where we do. They are in the active components and the guard and the reserve. They are not just in the service. They are also members of the police force, the fire departments, the EMTs, and many other organizations that do their part each and every day.

Even in the leagues of military veterans one can still find those that served and never got to the theatre of conflict. For what ever reason, they were excluded from that task—often with heavy hearts for not having done so. Be that as it may, each and every of those referenced above should be thanked at every opportunity—they were there (then or now) when it counted.

I can remember very well that “Central Park or walking up Broadway constitutes a spectacle” as you call it. I, as a member of the Army, experienced that reaction albeit from the opposite side on more than several occasions—a few even in Central Park (and the surrounding area) as I spent many lunch hours there watching New York go by while advising units and personnel in the New York City area some years ago when I was stationed at West Point myself..

I have even had people while waiting their turn at a red light walk off the curb right up to my vehicle window, reach in, shake my hand and say: “We’re behind you all the way.”

I don’t believe it is as much an act of atonement as it is an act of pride in their fellow man and what this country stands for.

I will go so far as to answer the question you were fuzzy on: “Whether anyone ever spat on a U.S. soldier returning from Vietnam is a matter of debate.” I was spat on as a member of the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University my junior year while marching in downtown during one of our semiannual corps trip to Houston. Even though I wasn’t a returning soldier from Vietnam, I was a cadet at Texas A&M University and the closest thing those war protestors in Houston had at the time. That was a long time ago and I choose to not recall it if not forced to do so.

Just recently, after many years after my service in the Army ended and this past spring while sitting in the gallery of the Texas House of Representatives taking in the back and forth discord on a day that the Legislature also chose to acknowledge the Police Chiefs of Texas, I was astonished to receive this very same salute. As a group of the chiefs departed, the Chief of Hutto’s (just north of Austin) police force chose to stop on his way out and “thank me for my service” and shake my hand. I was not in uniform and had no military look about me (to my knowledge at least—olive drab does remain my favorite color and my wife continually chastises me for picking new clothes in only that color). Maybe I just looked the part to him. I thanked him right back and was proud to have done so.

While I do not specifically agree with the main point you make in your piece; I still thank you for your attention.

Drawbacks to culling – 01 Jun 11

Over the last few weeks or so, my grandson Dilin, after finishing his first year of college, had been down to help with some stuff around the house. His last task was to repaint the inside of the kitchen pantry. That he did and then restocked it with the stuffs he had distributed all over the kitchen and dining room. That is all except the nearly six foot high stack of cookbooks he had left out on direction from his grandmother—my wife.

As you might expect, I was tricked into helping sort out and cull what cookbooks were not to be retained. I accomplished this from my chair completely across the room from Patsy who actually handled the material—I was not allowed to touch it.

The first item in the stack tackled by my better half was a three ring binder with lots of loose and punched items stuck in it more or less randomly. The good stuff looked to be a compilation of what looked good and needed saving at the time. Some really interesting keepers I thought as Patsy read them out as she went through the binder. I thought most of it deserved retaining—I was obviously out voted and as she claimed that she was the collector of the good stuff, she was also the final decision on whether to keep or cull.

There were such items as: (1) a newspaper clipping with the recipe for chocolate chip pie, (2) recipe for deluxe Mexican cornbread, (3) warranty and operating instructions for a 52” ceiling fan we no longer possessed, (4) same with a char-broil grill we no longer possessed, (5) page after page of clipped recipes I had never used or seen, and (6) a book entitled “Famous Chili Recipes from Marlboro Country” that looked like a keeper. I would estimate there were over two thousand recipes carefully clipped and pasted to yellow pages neatly filed away for later use. I’m not sure when later is going to be; I haven’t seen that binder off the shelf since we moved into this house.

The last item in the binder, I did think was of special note and thought I would give it a little more attention. I ask Patsy if I could review it just a bit. She relented and took it out of the binder and gave it to me. The item peaking my attention was a pink colored brochure that was most likely picked up at the Alaska State Fair in 1972 (see pix of prize winning 38 & 1/4 lb cabbage below) titled “Making Mukluks and Mittens With Fur.” Now I know you will side with me on this one: this is a keeper!

I am positive that I fully intended to make a pair of mukluks at one time or another. I always liked the ones the Air Force wore; we didn’t have that option in the Army—we had the VB boots though: better and cool looking. But still, I always liked their mukluks and wanted a pair.

The pamphlet looks to have been distributed by the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service’s division of Statewide Services (Pub #4). Page one provides a list of materials required to construct a quality pair of mukluks. The first item listed is “One pair Eskimo crimped soles, or soft soles of moose, caribou or hairseal. Only oogruk soles, prepared by Eskimos, are water proof.” Nuff said: that’s what I need. Step two did allow a little leeway on the fur requirements: “Two square feet of short haired fur such as hairseal, calf skin, caribou shanks or ground squirrel for tongue and ankle of mukluk.” I just might be able to acquire a few squirrel hides. My back yard seems full of them some days. The instructions for the trimming strips allows one to use “long haired fur, such as rabbit, fox, or otter, for tops.” That fox or otter may be just a tiny bit hard to come by but I bet I just might be able to come across a rabbit or two. I do believe I’m agonna leave off the pompons though. It was nice of them to allow one to use dental floss instead of the nylon thread.

Page 2 followed with very detailed instructions on laying out, cutting, preparing and assembling of the finished product. Shouldn’t be that hard once I get the material together. The second half of the pamphlet deals with mittens and as I have a perfectly good pair of Arctic mittens I’m just not going there.

The next item I reviewed later that same day. It looked to be very interesting: the 315 page “Recipes from Old Virginia” compiled by The Virginia Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs and first published in 1958. I remember seeing this book on the shelf many times. Upon review I discovered only one page with any real use and that looked to have been me; it was no doubt that the notes appearing on that page were in my writing. I don’t remember making molasses spice crisp but must have at some time. The recipe was contributed by N. Lula Pope of Southampton County. Looks good though!

My wife remembers obtaining this book on our first trip to Virginia upon entering the Army in 1970. The price sticker says $2.65. She also remembers seeing the same book (no change) in Williamsburg on our last trip to Virginia just a couple of years back—price at the time as far as she remembers was in the $15 – 20 range; I guess ya might say that was the change. My review of the collection pointed out a couple of quizzical options in some of the recipes. I had to giggle just a little at the use of the term slow oven and the attachment of 300ºF with that term. I finally found a note up front that explained that some of the older recipes came from long, long ago when ovens had not the fancy instruments we have today; thus slow oven is 300ºF, medium oven is 350ºF, etc.

It looks like they turned no recipe down that the testers (two pages of) pasted judgment on as being worthy. Why else would you need cocoanut icebox cookies I & II (Mrs. John W Gunter of Appomattox County and Alice Garrette of Appomattox County respectively), icebox nut cookies (Mrs. C G Siebert of Norfolk County), icebox cookies (Mrs. O S Crute of Augusta County), vanilla icebox cookies and almond icebox cookies (both from Mts. H Van Vleek of Norfolk County), mincemeat (Stella Dellinger of Shenandoah County), mincemeat (Mrs. Tom Boyer of Grayson County), mincemeat (Mrs. W A Sherman of Orange County), homemade mincemeat (Mrs. Stanley Dawson of Westmoreland County), grandmother’s mincemeat (Churchill Wright of Orange County), and green tomato mincemeat (Mrs. Frank Trainer of Prince Edward County). It does look like they eat a lot of mincemeat in Orange County and a lot of various icebox cookies in Appomattox and Norfolk Counties.

There were a couple of humorous entries, at least I thought so at any rate. On page 50 I came across a recipe for Scrapple for Canning (Mrs. M H Pannill of Orange County). I don’t know many people that eat scrapple anymore and I am sure I haven’t seen one of the ingredients on my HEB butcher’s shelf. There were only two ingredients: (1) 4 hog faces and (2) 16 feet. You did need to clean the faces and feet and cook until the meat falls from the bones. Next you had to “Remove bones and all liquid fat, but leave right much of the other liquid.” I do want to point out that both scrapple recipes were NOT in the index.

It was interesting to me that you had to wait two months for the “Best Ever” cucumber pickles of Mrs. Marcellus Boyer of Shenandoah County when I can go over to the HEB and get them this afternoon if I want. I could cut my wait in half by taking up the 14-day sweet pickles recipe of Mrs. Leslie Gordon of Appomattox County.

By the way, I did see a great number of really interesting recipes that I just might try down the road.

The primary drawback of culling is that ya just don’t know unless ya spend the time lookin’ close at each and every item in the stack what ya just might chunk that might be of use just around the corner or some time in the future. I’m more in tune with finding another place to store it and hold on; there’s plenty of corners in my future.

I know if I’m in need of scrapple that I can find pigs feet but I guess that I’m agonna have to call my HEB butcher over to the side and see if he can get me some faces; I just never see them on the shelf.

I am also in a quandary as to where I might come across some oogruk soles prepared by Eskimos. There’s really not a large population of any Eskimos, regardless the tribe, any where in Central Texas. I guess my mukluk project remains a No-Go without proper Eskimos tradesmen or women residing close by. Anybody out there got any contacts I could use? I’m still not much for this new fangled culling idea.

Both times I was involved with the Navy SEALs - 10 May 11

Because I have recently re-connected with one of the prime players in these events, I am taking this post down to possibly revise it because of the memories of the others that were there when these events happened.I will repost this with updated details when I finalize them.

Thanks,
John Howard






I had the opportunity, might I say pleasure, to be involved with the Navy SEALs some time back. I hadn’t had the occasion to recall it until just recently – you all know the recent reason.

The first opportunity came as a real surprise; I had no idea they were even in the area. The occasion was some twelve years after their initial organization and outside of Vietnam, they really, at least to my knowledge, hadn’t had any other activity.

Navy SEALs Trident

172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate & Light)

172nd Support Battalion

Current activity - What I’m up to – 28 Apr 11

I am once again actively engaged in documenting a gaggle of adventures that I used during my career in materials management, primarily in the manufacturing field at numerous sites throughout Texas. These “stories” I used repeatedly during my career to highlight points and as a way to ingest circumstances into a discussion of “what we are trying to do” and how others got into like situations and what took place enabling them to remove themselves from the situation.

I found these stories to be very beneficial to those working for and with me. I used this tactic of storytelling to present like facts and encouraged the discussion of these facts, all the while twisting the events related around until the group finally realized that they were actually discussing our current event and actually had already began developing solutions to remedy the trouble.

Over the years I discovered that those involved in the discussions enjoyed hearing and analyzing the military related stories more than their civilian counterparts. It dawned on me, something I had always known, that everybody likes to play Army even though they won’t go out and join up – they still like to play. I think this is the primary reason that they usually wanted to hear a military related situation as opposed to a civilian.

Bare in mind; the stories that I am gathering have a military setting, but are actually just about people. One could draw a direct relationship between any one of my stories and a civilian operation. The stories, in the Army are called “war stories,” but actually not a one involves war at all. They are support troops doing what support troops do – the exact same things that their civilian counterparts do everyday of the world.

I have passed a great many of them around to get the comments of others and have found most to be favorable. I continue to work at achieving a balance between military and civilian situations – not for my benefit – just to satisfy those nay-sayers that don’t believe the general populous will read a manuscript containing a majority of military references. I disagree as my experience has proven otherwise – but I continue to please.

I have established my goal for completion to be within the next couple of months and then the hard part actually begins. I have really enjoyed the writing effort as it has brought back memories of some real good times and even better acquaintances – some of whom I would really enjoy talking with (read shooting the bull) just one more time. I treasure these guys and will never forget them. They are the individuals that maid me who I am today. Without them, I would (just maybe) be a completely different individual. I’m just guessing here!

Changing Values and Attitudes – 28 Mar 11

The changing attitudes and values isn’t something that takes place overnight. A shift in this area of human nature usually takes place over an extended period of time, if at all. That’s what the experts tell you.

Regarding values, I have to differ with the experts. I know that shifts in values can take place in a manner of weeks. I’ve seen an individual’s whole outlook on his worth to society change drastically – I do mean drastically. Sometimes I have seen these changes take place almost over night and sometimes I have seen it take just a bit longer. I’m gonna relate to you the story of one particular individual where I observed a change that was so miraculous that his supervisors had trouble fathoming the change.

In the first section I ever had the chance to lead during my tenure in the Army, I had an individual named PFC Conway. PFC Conway was a draftee and was going nowhere and getting there very fast. My guy Conway was a young black kid from the area known as Upper Harlem, a impoverished district of New York City. He came from nothing, had nothing and was headed toward more of the same. His attitude wasn’t especially BAD, but it wasn’t the BEST either. The NCOs (two white and one black as it just so happens) in the section sorta tolerated Conway. He received more than his share of the shit details and slogged his way through them as best he could – not great results, but just barely getting by – sorta really flying under-the-radar.

A little background is relevant here. The platoon my section was assigned to was authorized thirty-seven vehicles. My section had five of the thirty-seven (1, ¼ ton Jeep [incidentally the oldest military vehicle in the state of Alaska], 2, ¾ ton Cargo Truck (pick-ups) and 2, 2 ½ ton Cargo Trucks (box trucks). At I have mentioned before in other correspondence, only five of the thirty-seven vehicles would start and run long enough to move to our new motor pool – a travel of less than ¼ mile. Not one of the vehicles assigned to my section would even start. It was late November, almost December, when the occurrence that I will relate took place. We had a mission to perform and vehicle maintenance wasn’t getting the attention it deserved – this was my thinking at the time.

Having just been attached to a Transportation unit, I knew this wasn’t gonna go over well and figured my best bet was to get ahead of the problem. My section had been allotted a commercial vehicle from the post transportation motor pool for our daily travels – re-supplying the brigade. I decided it was best to turn in that vehicle as soon as I was sure two of my own vehicles were consistently running, one of the 2 ½ tons for sure. I then spent some time at the unit maintenance shop seeing that my vehicles received some attention. Within a couple of days the maintenance officer had two running. I was now ready to try to get by on my own with my assigned vehicles – sorta novel approach, don’t you think?

I ask who had driver’s licenses and not one of those assigned to my section had a military license. I directed the NCOIC to send some of the guys to get a license as soon as we could possibly do so. You might already guess who got selected as the first to be the first tested – someone who would not be missed – ever-dispensable Conway.

The next afternoon Conway came back in from driver’s school. Actually the classes were taught by several of the transportation platoon NCOs and there wasn’t very much to it as I later learned. At any rate Conway had passed and had been issued a military driver’s license – a surprise to all. I called PFC Conway into my office and discussed the situation with him. I laid it all out: “Conway. I am assigning you to be the driver of the 2 ½ ton Cargo Truck we just got running yesterday.” I sat back awaiting his response.

Conway replied: “Sir, I’m from New York City and I ride either the subway or the bus. I’ve never driven a vehicle before in my life until this morning. And then I only went around the parking lot just once.”

“Well Conway, now you’re it. You’re our driver.”

You might guess what kind of look I received. He wasn’t happy – not in the least. You could see the gears turning, figuring. He was now gonna spend more than his share of time in the Alaskan cold. There would be a lot of early mornings - cleaning off his truck and performing on-your-back maintenance in the snow under the truck. It just wasn’t gonna be pleasant any more. He had had it pretty good up to that point – shit details notwithstanding. He was the goof-off that got by because of the perception of a bad attitude.

He had never fit in with the rest of the section; eleven other guys, none of which were black – a mixture of white or Hispanic. Now his role was changing. He might no longer be under-the-radar.

A couple weeks after our discussion and into PFC Conway’s new responsibilities, the section was detailed to send a contingent of four on a huge winter exercise in the Fairbanks area. Well, as Conway was the only driver I had and our mission had to continue at Fort Richardson, Conway could not go – somebody still had to make the daily resupply trips. This one condition seemed to light just the slightest fire in Conway’s eyes. The guys deployed north would have a pretty rough time. They would be sorta step children to the rest of the unit deployed - but would survive. Conway had a pretty easy two weeks – picking up supplies and delivering them here and there while he was inside his toasty warm 2 ½ ton three hundred miles south of the harsh times of his section mates.

A couple of months passed by and Conway with HIS vehicle were available every day. Oh, others eventually got their license but Conway was always the first out to get HIS truck every morning and ready to go.

I eventually had another occasion to sit and discuss with him how he and HIS truck were doing. Right outta the blue he said: “Sir, I never had my own car. Man, if the guys on the block could just see me now.” He was as happy as any one individual could be. He looked different; his uniform was sharp and pressed everyday. He was proud of what he was doing; particularly when he was driving HIS truck.

Within the next month, I managed to get Conway promoted to Specialist Fourth Class. This brought a fairly significant pay increase to boot – not a whole lot you realize; after all it was the Army in the early 70s. But you couldn’t touch SP4 Conway with a ten foot pole. I’m serious.

Conway’s values had changed for the better, first by changing for the worse. But they had changed. Right along with his values, his attitude had improved just as fast.

I can go on and on relating situation after situation and troop after troop; civilian workers also who’s values were changed by just the slightest bit of responsibility.

Long story short, values can be changed right along with attitudes and beliefs. All things considered, values may actually be the easiest to change when the right circumstances present themselves. The right guy and the right set of circumstances.

Military Industrial Complex misses out on low tech weapons delivery system – 09 Feb 11

I’ve been watching the news for the last week or so and am fully convinced that the military industrial complex is completely missing the boat on jumping into the fray with a labor saving and leap in technology in the weapons systems be used in the current discontent. I know they can improve on (1) multiplicity of weaponry, (2) effectiveness of results and (3)transportation and deliverability. It just seems to me to be a no-brainer.

My wonderment peaked when I saw this picture in my Saturday morning paper. Just how does this protester go about selecting his rocks? From the looks of what he has in front of him; he is fairly mono-rocko. They all look to have come from the same source. What if he encounters a multiplicity of opposition targets? How will he ever be able to apply the right kinda chunk to ward off his nemeses? What is this guy gonna do if he has to deploy across the square at a moments notice?

One of thousands of protesters guards the perimeter of Liberation Square against pro-Mubarak supporters who tried to infiltrate the square, Friday, February 4, 2011, in Cairo, Egypt.

Carolyn Cole - MCT

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/04/968566/protests-continue-in-egypt-020411.html

Wouldn’t he be much better off if he had an assortment of rocks to chunk. After all, doesn’t he encounter different kinds of protestors//anti-protestors? Shouldn’t he//she be carrying a variety of warheads.

I am proposing the development of the Low Tech Rock Delivery and Transport System (LoTeRkD&TS). This shouldn’t be that hard of a task for an industry capable of developing and turning out the range of weaponry they currently unleash on the armies of the world today.

Here’s some options I came up with just walking around my own forty acres (most of the forty belongs to my neighbors and the city).

Smooth Alaskan river rock (with hefty bulk)

Lava rock (capable of multiple scrapes and cuts upon contact)

Flat skipping stone rock (good for glancing blows and striking multiple targets on a single bound)

Oval skipping stone rock (good for glancing blows and striking multiple targets on a single bound)

Any kid in the neighborhood will tell you this style of projectile is good for multiple targets within the same chunk – 5 & maybe 6 hits are not out of the question.

Flint rock (capable of igniting incendiary devices at distance)

Concrete rock (contains multiple warheads – splits apart on impact striking multiple targets within radius of 5 yards)

Multifaceted Rock (delivers a hurt from any angle)

Hard Core Rock (just damn hard!)

I think the addition of a light weight transport device would enhance the chunker’s mobility and delivery opportunities – carrying around all those loose projectiles has got to be a task and just fraught with happenstance.

Compare this transport device to the bulky wooden box pictured.

Tumblers come from various web-sites and generally cost under $100 each – these could sell through the Defense Industry procurement systems easily for $10,000 or more per unit – easily. Just check out the attached site http://rocktumbler.com/compare-rock-tumblers.shtml for details. Each of these should be able to become mobile-tumblers and have hand cranked attachments added for under another $5000 in mark-up. To compete with heavy duty fracusses, the large capacity tumblers should be able to go for as much as $20,000 – I mean, here the sky is the limit – literally thousands of these units could see action in a discontent demonstration lasting as long as the current has.

Here are a few of the polishers available on the market (see site above for details):

If the current disagreement goes on much longer and the defense industry doesn’t get involved, I’m just gonna have to get in there myself and see if I can make a little dough on the deal. These Rock Chunkers need help I know we can improve their battlefield situation. You got any ideas – I welcome the competition.

National Museum of the Pacific War 13 Nov 10

My son (Joe Pat) came down from Forney and my brother (Kenny) came over and with Patsy, the four of us drove over to Fredericksburg to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War and take in one of their re-enactments. We were very glad that we did.

We started with the re-enactment. This was probably a mistake. We shoulda waited until the sun would be shining on the seating area. It was breezy and really cool sitting there. BUT, all-in-all, we really enjoyed the show. The volunteers putting on the show were very knowledgeable of their areas and the live fire (blanks) may for a real good show. They demo’d every individual and crew served weapon used in the theatre by the Marines during the war.

They also had several landing craft and a tank or two – only one of the tanks was operated during the re-enactment.

But, man, that flame thrower was impressive. You were not gonna get away from it.

The big Marine with the cigar stole the show. You just had to like the guy.

We next went up to the museum to see the new exhibits there. This place was fantastic. We spent over 2&1/2 hours going through it and could easily have spent another 2 hours in there. There is just so much to see. I especially liked the conversation spots where they had six or so (at each spot) recordings to listen to from actual GI//Marines telling their story. These were fascinating.

This is a museum to not be missed. Everybody I know has some link to WWII and most to the Pacific Theatre. You should all go and see this.

Kenny and Joe Pat resting up before going to find grub!

After all of above we walked back over to Main Street and found a Beergarten to eat in. Good German food and a Great Museum; you just can’t beat it!

Here’s the website to check out: http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/index.asp

Veteran’s Day Parade - 11 Nov 10

Did I see you at the parade this morning? The parade was supposed to start at 0900 hrs, but it looked more like 0925 hrs before I saw movement down the route. No big-a-deal. What’s fifteen or twenty minutes when watching a parade is involved? So, we waited. Then it came. The turnout was pretty good for a Thursday morning. There seems to be more and more Latinos showing up on the sidewalks every year. I’m glad to see that. If you served, you served and need to be proud of that fact. Did I see you there?

It is sometimes just way too easy not to put forth the effort to do what’s right. Stay in bed, stay home and watch the tube. If you had to work or were on your deathbed (or standing at another’s); you get a pass. But if you didn’t have to work you shoulda been there or somewhere honoring a Vet. There’s just no excuse.

When I arrived, there was plenty of room for more to come; places right on the curb. Soon the festivities began. Bucky Godbolt of the Bucky and Bob Morning Show on KVET was our MC this morning.

Then came the bands. Not just one but many.

There’s always room for pretty girls and these are just an example of those that showed up.

Three Navy WAVs are always there. I think they served in WWII.

The Purple Heart gang.

Time for military vehicles.

A new group, the Emergency Service Pipes and Drum Corps; They were really good.

A guy in a Texas Flag shirt singing the Ballad of the Green Berets was outstanding.

The Knights of Columbus representatives are getting up there in age; but still impress.

The Austin Retired Air Force Chiefs are always represented. That’s Dale Lyons, a friend of mine, driving the car.

Of course there are always some REAL old soldiers from the Revolutionary War and the Confederate contingent always shows.

I had a good time. Wish I had seen you there.

Tearing up -13 Oct 10

I’m setting here watching the miners come outta the ground from that Chile mine disaster and its hard to not tear up when an event like this takes place – real hard. I don’t care what kind of tough guy you might think you are – emotions are emotions.

Over the years I have been involved in many search and rescue missions, the great majority while I was in the Army. Most of my experience was gained during my Army career while in Alaska. Every spring, we were constantly on some kind of rescue mission especially with the spring run-offs of the rivers and the native villages along them.

I also recall the Baby Jessica rescue from that backyard well that took place out in West Texas not so long ago. Do you remember the elation you felt when she was finally out of the well and seemed to be perfectly OK? Its like that today.

I guess my best memory of all came on 25 January of 1981. That’s the day the 52 Hostages that Iran took when they stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the hostages for 444 days. Now I didn’t have the slightest thing to do with the rescue of the Hostages. But I was one of the few who saw them first set foot on American soil after their release.

At the time I was stationed at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and living at Stewart Army Sub-Post where their plane actually landed upon return to the U.S. We were not allowed to get anywhere close to the Hostages but we could make them out as we squinted to see inside the busses that transported them to the Thayer Hotel at West Point. There was some cheering that day – just as there is in Chile every time a new arrive is seen atop the shaft and freedom is once more gained by the miners.

Try to keep a tear outta your eyes.



1st Look at the Busses after Hostage arrival









Busses rolling out.







As close as we got to the Hostages










Bus headed to West Point - Everybody HAPPY

Snow - ya think ya got Snow?

Really? Do you think you have a snow problem? You should have been around during the winter of 1978. That was a snow problem – believe me. I was there and saw a great deal of it happen.

My operations section and I just happened to be at the Akron-Canton, Ohio airport’s National Guard facility overseeing a helicopter deployment from both Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, Kentucky with a final destination being Fort Drum, New York. During the lull between the flights north in mid-January and the flights back south later in early February, we were called in as the command and control element for the several snow recoveries that took place in relation to the 1978 snow event. We became involved because the Commander of the Support Group that I was assigned to at the time had the additional duty of being the 1st Army Area Disaster Relief Coordinator. This responsibility covered any disaster that took place east of the Mississippi River that involved any element of the National Guard or Reserve components.

The trip to our location had not been without its problems due to the unexpected snow that hit the Fort Bragg area just the day before our departure. This was the first and only snow I experienced during the four years I spent at Bragg. The snow and ice followed us during the entire convoy west to Ashville, North Carolina then north to Lexington, Kentucky and finally northeast to Akron-Canton, Ohio. Other than a few breakdowns, we lost not one vehicle during the trip. SMG Zapata, SGT Stanton and I acted as the coordinating vehicle trooping the entire line of march back and forth all day to help insure command and control was being evenly managed throughout the wide spread of vehicles. The guys headed to Fort Campbell and Fort Knox trailed along with us until such time as their departure required them to alter their course to reach their ultimate destination. The guys headed to Jamestown, New York made the entire trip with us to Akron-Canton and then departed the next day for their final destination.

Our initial mission was to provide command, control, monitoring of the flight route and aircraft maintenance at the locations other than the major military facilities in the route. We additionally were to provide a mess and overnight facility at the center point – Akron-Canton.

We initially had thought we would have pretty easy duty during the actual field operation that was taking place way up in New York State. Fort Drum is actually just south of the Canadian border so it was a long way off from us. We even spent time at the NFL Hall of Fame one day during the down time. Subordinate units of the Group were there operating under a small contingent of the command while the rest of us were strung along the flight route from Fort Campbell to Fort Drum. Oh yah, we still had operations being conducted daily at Fort Bragg also. We had some real good people in charge at each spot and this made the overall situation much easier to accomplish what we would eventually have to accomplish.

Well the day after the visit to the Hall of Fame it started to snow. Then it snowed more. After more snow had fallen it started to really SNOW. It just kept getting worse and worse. You might have heard of ‘lake effect snow’; well we found out just what that meant. Toledo and Cleveland were hit pretty bad and still it got worse.

The next thing we knew, the National Guard was being mobilized and that’s when we were called into the event. This wasn’t new to our unit. The Group had been called into the Buffalo, New York operation the previous winter to provide the same support. It was old hat to those of us assigned to the Group.

As the storm moved east the situation continued to deteriorate. The units at Fort Drum were being hampered by the snow effect. The guys from Fort Bragg were not acclimatized to this kind of weather. They had drawn the extra cold weather gear required for the operation but still they weren’t used to that much cold. I was due to my four year tour in Alaska, but I wasn’t at Fort Drum right now. The reports coming in were as bad as the guys there could make them sound. I felt for them, but not much.

The weather continued to move east and the cities in its path started to get the full effects of the problem that we were encountering in the Ohio area. The Ole’ Man, with his driver and a troop or two, departed for Toledo to assume control of the elements there. The XO also was redeployed from Fort Drum to Cleveland to provide control for the operations taking place there. The Group S3 and I maintained control over the operations taking place in the Columbus area. The days became longer and longer as the event continued.

I remember receiving a call from one of the Guard engineer units in the Toledo area that couldn’t get in immediate touch with the ‘Ole Man to report a situation that he just didn’t want to sit on. The operations officer said “Sir, one of the graders just cut a man in half.”

I responded, “Say again.”

“Sir, one of the graders clearing a snow bank along a side street just cut a body that was in the bank in half. The body was frozen and must have been in the bank for days now.”

I ask, “Have you guys reported this to the local authorities?”

“No sir, not yet. I wanted to get command notified and then do that straight away.”

“Roger. Let me know if you need any further help concerning the situation.”

“Roger. Out”

I felt sorry for the guy. He had probably never been involved in this kind of activity before. That was the way it goes. Sometimes you have good news and sometimes you don’t.

The next day on way back from a coordination visit with a Guard unit accomplishing snow removal and house searches for heat relief in the Akron area, we spotted a small restaurant along side the highway that looked to be open. It was the first establishment we had seen open in days. While setting at the counter drinking some coffee a little old lady came in and spotted us. Assuming we were part of the National Guard unit that was operating house searches in the local area, she became enraged and started beating SMG Zapata with her umbrella, hollering at him, and relating her three day ordeal waiting someone to come and help her. SMG Zapata just happened to be sitting closest to the door and was I glad it wasn’t me. Zapata started hollering back in his Latin-English habit that came out when he got excited, “I’m Regular Army. I’m Regular Army. I’m not National Guard lady. I’m Regular Army.”

Little Lady wasn’t buying it. She kept at him with that umbrella and her hollering, “Where have you been? I’ve been stuck in my house for three days waiting on you.”

After being a little startled and snickering just a bit we came to the aid of our comrade and finally convinced her that we weren’t who she thought we were. From there we went on to get her the help she needed and deserved but for a short time there was real rage there and Zapata was the target.

Upon arriving back at operations, I found that I had a call from FEMA. Answering their summons, I found that we needed to send a contingent to Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts to coordinate the snow event taking place there.

I immediately got in touch with the Ole Man and asked for his recommendation. He advised that he wanted to send the XO as the operation was in the cleanup stage in Cleveland and that control could revert to us at Akron-Canton. After hanging up from him, I alerted the XO that he was being tapped to depart for Logan (Boston) as soon as he could manage. He additionally was to take his team with him. I called FEMA back and let them know the ‘who and when’ about the deployment.

The next afternoon I received a call from the XO who had made it to Logan but could not get from the airport to the command location due to snow. Can you imagine? Some two and a half hours later he again called and advised that he was on site and operating. I let the Ole Man know as soon as I got a chance to touch base with him.

Later that evening I received another call from the FEMA team overseeing the entire East Coast. They were alerting us that they might need a team to head into New York City. The governor had not made up his mind as yet but was contemplating a Guard mobilization for the city. This however turned out to be a false alarm as the governor eventually decided that they could handle the situation on their own. We were down to our last lieutenant colonel at the time, the Group Logistics Officer. The Log Officer was new to his current position but had been the XO during the Buffalo deployment and knew the task backwards and forwards.

The Ole Man required that all the pertinent information be channeled back through the central operations office. This way I could filter what was taking place and brief him routinely without him having to sit through a glut of superfluous information. We remained very busy coordinating the recovery operations during all the snow events that took place during the January//February timeframe of 1978.

As I sit here putting this down, they have finally called out the Guard in the District. Well it just might finally be getting as bad as it once was in ’78 – just maybe!