Tidbits....

I haven't felt a strong urge of late to update this here journal. I think that the death last weekend of good friend and good blogger, Mike Reed, aka Bunker Mulligan, has drained my will to blog. Or perhaps it's the prolonged absence of the Bride and Child, aka my family. Never-the-less here are a few tidbits and actually some quite good news on several fronts.

--The Bride and Child are resting up in Houston after returning from London and will be home tomorrow. A much too prolonged vacation for me, but I know that they had a good time and what do they say? "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". Undoubtedly.

--While at the heart surgeons office today, my cell phone rang and it was none other than the former treasurer of Texaco. David retired from Texaco several years ago and now heads up a large investment group whom I have been talking to about funding a large project that my partner Del and I have been working on for three years. David wanted me to know that they are very interested, so much so that he wants us to conference call tomorrow with him and a very large pension fund he represents.

--Fun this morning getting a new blogger up and running. Local folks will be very familiar with Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center. Burr is probably the most knowledgable one person about the history, people, places and the plants and animals of our area, the southern Llano Estacado. He's a great writer, interesting person and rather a character whom I like very much. The blog will be in addition to his weekly newspaper article and hopefully we will have all his interesting stories from the past archived. His Blog will expand and soon be relocated to the Sibley Center's own domain, but for now pay a visit at El Llanero

Hopefully I can add more meaningful dialogue in the days to come, but you never know with the bride just back........

D-Day.....

It was 61 years ago today that the world's largest and arguably most important military operation, "Overlord", took place. It is imperative that we remember this anniversary each and every year. Soldiers who were 17 years old when they landed on the beaches at Normandy are now 78 years old. Most are older than that now and many are gone. My own dad, a veteran of the famed 45th Infantry Division, is now 82. He missed D-Day because he had landed on the beaches of Italy a year earlier. These men are leaving us all to quickly.

The most common visual image thought of today about D-Day is of the landing craft hitting the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. My favorite image, however, is the one above of the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, as he delivers a parting address to the airborne troopers of the 101st Airborne Division.

Having been an airborne trooper with many night jumps myself, I can only image the trepidation of these men as they prepare to jump into the dark knowing full well a goodly portion of them would never see home again. In those days of more primative communications, the best they could have done was to write a final letter home, having not heard the voices of their loved ones, in some cases for years.

As I think of D-Day 61 years ago, I think of all the men who fought all over the world all those years ago. We owe these men a tremendous debt.

Bunker Mulligan...

It was with extreme sadness that I learned of the death of Bunker Mulligan this evening. Bunker Mulligan was the Blogging ID of Mike Reed of Corpus Christi. His love for the game of golf showed in his Blog and his Blogging and generated the name he chose for his online journal. I thought it was a great one. Mike was a fine and interesting human being who made many friends on and thru the Internet. I am grateful to have been one of them. His postings generally cut to the core of the subject and he had a way of explaining things in an in-depth, yet simple way.

Mike was a military man, a retired Air Force officer. There is something about the military experience that binds people together, even Bloggers, perhaps that's why we became such good friends. And friends we were. Besides our Blog postings, Mike and I sent emails back and forth almost every week. Some commenting on weighty topics, most just about our families, friends and our life experiences. Mike has three sons, two in the military and one who is a police officer. He was extremely proud of them all. What a great legacy to Mike's life of service.

Mike apparently suffered a fatal heart attack on Friday, a fact made all the more poignant to me because of my recent heart troubles. Mike was one of the first to email and then phone Julie offering his support for me while I was still in the hospital and the first to telephone me when I got home. I appreciated that more than words can say. He called several times to cheer me up and then sent Hugh Hewitts book, "Blog" as a way of saying get back to doing what you were doing which in fact I have.

In all honesty, I will regret for the rest of my life not having met Mike in person and spending time with him. Blogging, for me, won't be the same without him.

Mike, mission accomplished, and well done!

Hell-o London....

If you notice the date/time stamp below you'll see that this message is being posted at the genuinely awful hour of 3 a.m. About the time I went to bed this night the thunder and lightning made it's appearance. Around here that means two crazed dogs, so as I lay in bed anticipating their panting, shaking and low guttural whining I struck upon the idea of calling Julie in London. At 2 a.m. here it is 8 a.m. to the Limey's.

Using the phone in our office I was able to get the infamous hotel telephone answering tree as described below. Once again I hit #6, "other lines" and was caught in the perpetual motion machine of message replay that had frustrated me earlier in the day. Desperate to talk to the bride, after missing her this afternoon, I grabbed the cell phone and went thru the same procedure. Voila within in minutes I had the sweet bride on the line, sounding sleepy but as clear as if she was in the next room. How wonderful it was to hear her voice and as the thunder boomed in the night in Midland hear of their adventures in London and Paris. All is well with them, but they are sore and tired from the excursion to Paris and the climb up the Eiffel Tower. We spent about 45 minutes on the phone, cost unknown, but cost is no object when you have not talked to your beloved in 5 days. The longest I've ever gone without hearing her voice.

Explanatory note: I had tried several times to call Julie at the hotel using our office phone. I could dial thru to the hotel, get into the menu tree but when I selected #6 "other lines" I would go back to the main menu. I finally have decided that we have a defected #6 button on our office phone though it appears to work fine on other direct dial numbers. The phone tree just doesn't like it!

Mystery travelers reappear.....

The bride, child, mom-in-law and entourage left Atlanta on Sunday night. I spoke with them after they had boarded the plane for London and were awaiting takeoff. I was glad for this one last chance to speak with them and was left with the promise of a phone call upon their arrival at the hotel in London.

Four days pass.......

There has been no phone call nor email and frankly I had that gnawing kind of worry. What if? I think that Julie's Dad had the same feeling as he called last night in his common jovial mood, but after the "how are you's", his first question was, "well have you heard from them". I think that he had that gnawing feeling too.

So last night I was very relieved to see that the bride did find the time to post an entry in The Yellow Bug News of their gay adventures in London and Paris. Along with the news was a note for the husband, that's me, to call the hotel. Having thought of this, I had done so, but the number for the hotel I was left with turns out to be the reservation phone number which consists of a robot phone tree and no exit to an operator. So off to the hotel website for a phone number. They should be scolded, the only number listed is the ubiquitous phone tree line. I spent 30 minutes "googling" around and finally found another website for the hotel that does have an email address. I have emailed and requested a main desk number with an operator attached. No reply as of yet.

It could be that if I ever talk to them I'll get bad news, having read the line in Julie's post... "but it would be great if this was home". A comment designed to not give much encouragement to husbands left in what was thought to be the "home". Perhaps I'll use my next week of solitude to rethink my future.

Update: as coincidence would have it, Julie was on the computer in London at the same time I was posting the above. Having read her "comments" I decided to give the phone tree line one more shot. Miraculously, this time when I hit #6, other lines, I got thru to the main desk loud and clear. Unfortunately there was no answer in the Craig or Dulin rooms so I am still without verbal commo. But glad to know they're having a good time and all is well.

The Memorial....

The photo above was taken by Joe Galloway at LZ XRay, in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, on either the 14th or 15th of November 1965. I do not know the name of the dead soldier being carried in the poncho, I'm not sure Joe does either. There were 78 other American soldiers carried out in ponchos during those three days of combat and three times that number wounded. Almost double that number died 2 days later at LZ Albany. I have cropped this photo and what you don't see is a row of dead American 1st Cav troopers who have done their duty, paid the ultimate price and are awaiting their turn to go home. This is why we celebrate Memorial Day.

It will be 40 years this November that this young man went home to his family for the last time. He would probably be 59 or 60 years old now. Think of his family, his wife if he had one, his friends and his community, because undoubtedly they are thinking of him and their loss this weekend. They are thinking of the pride this man had in his unit, the patriotism that took him to fight far from home, the burdens that he bore with dignity, they wonder what his last thoughts were. They are thinking of what might have been. This is why we celebrate Memorial Day.

--------------------------

The things they carried...
From, "The Things They Carried"
by Tim O'Brien


"The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C-rations and two or three canteens of water.....

The carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. The carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself--Vietnam, the place, the soil a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They shared the weight of memory. They carried what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded and the weak. They carried the sky......

For the most part they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn't, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die."

Well Blimey...!

The bride and child have jetted off this morning for foreign lands. Julie and Jack, along with her Mother, one of Jack's cousins and her friend, are off to merry olde England for a week or so. They left for Houston this morning to meet up with the traveling cousin, visit her brother and then they depart for London on Sunday.

I chose not to go for several very valid reasons revolving around paying for home repairs rather than a week at the Kensington Hotel, London. While in London they will be doing the usual tourist things like attending the Pakistan vs. Britain cricket matches. This will be little Jack's only chance for entertainment of the type he enjoys as the remainder of the tour group are all women....and you know what that means. I had a long talk with him at the airport about achieving the proper perspective on all this as well as maintaining his sanity while touring with 4 women. I think he'll come back a better man for his experiences.

Along with the activities in, and around London, they'll be making a day trip to Paris via the "Chunnel" to climb the heights of La Tour Eiffel along with a short stop at Le Louvre. Hopefully while in London they will be able to hook up with our blog friend Lisa of A Blog from Abroad.

It has only been 2 hours since I saw them off at the airport and I miss them terribly already. I like my alone and quiet time, but an overwhelming sense of sadness has enveloped me at the thought of two weeks without the sounds of their activity in the house. Thank God for two dogs who will help to fill the void.

It's Me, it's Me...it's Ernest T!!

I would be very remiss if I didn't mention the passing of Howard Morris, one of the great character actors of the golden age of TV sitcoms. Howard played the amazing Ernest T. Bass on the Andy Griffith Show and was the bane of Sheriff Andy and Deputy Barney Fife. One of Barney's classic recurring lines concerning Ernest T was...."He's a nut". And he was whether tossing bricks thru windows or pining for his beautiful mountain dreamboat "Romena".

Most people are shocked to know that Ernest T. appeared in only five episodes of the Andy Griffith Show, so powerful was his character that many think he was one of the regular cast members. Howard Morris bore little resemblence to the moronic Ernest T. He started out on broadway and had been a featured star on the original TV comedy, Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and later directed a variety of TV comedies including later episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. He appeared in numerous movies and did voice overs including the starring role in Atom Ant. His peers described him as a genius. It took a genius to play the deranged Ernest T, and he will be missed.

Visit New Mexico...

At 105° it's a little too hot to write much at all so I'm just going to direct you to the last in my quadrilogy* of New Mexico pictures taken over the last several years. These were taken just about one year ago, over Memorial Day, in Lincoln New Mexico and vicinity. Lincoln is an historic town best known as the home of Billy the Kid, Sheriff Pat Garrett and the Lincoln County War which precipitated their fame.

Lincoln is a gem of a place principally because it's a somewhat undiscovered tourist spot and looks today much as it did in the 1880's. The Sunday morning we were visiting there were probably no more than 4 or 5 other tourist types in town. And...there's a great Brazilian bar-b-que lean-to for lunch. I'd say restaurant, but lean-to more adequately describes it. Try Lincoln, you'll like it.

Lincoln Photos

*If a trilogy is three in a series, then a quadrilogy must be four.

Congrats....

We want to congratulate Lynn and Darryl James on 25 years of marriage by showing the happy couple at the party given in their honor this Saturday afternoon. This is also a clever editiorial device giving me, the editor, a chance to feature myself and The Bride in a rare snapshot of us together here on Streams. The Bride is on the far left, moi on the far right.

Darryl is a Vietnam Vet and was in our vernacular of the times a "LOACH driver". A Light Observation and Control Helicopter, pilot. The story of how I came to know Darryl and then Lynn is an interesting tale of the digital age. Darryl and Lynn live just around the corner and up a few blocks from The Bride and Me, but our meeting came by way of Washington D.C. and an email.

A few years back I was working on a Vietnam related project thru the CAF. In trying to round up participants to speak on Vietnam aviation, I got a phone call from buddy Joe Galloway in D.C. saying that he had received several emails from a pilot in Midland who might be interested in helping with the seminar. It was when I contacted the pilot, who turned out to be Darryl, that I discovered that he lived just around the corner. Upon meeting him we discovered more commonalities. Darryl is a consultant for Key Energy who we use on many projects and his wife Lynn is a banker who actually arranged financing for my partner Del Sloan on one of his gas projects some years back.

It's interesting how small the digital neighborhood is sometimes!

The Galloway Award.....

Congratulations to my good friend Joe Galloway for a new journalism award named in his honor....

WASHINGTON - In a first, Military Reporters & Editors and Knight Ridder Newspapers have teamed up to create a $2,000 annual award for outstanding journalism. The winner of the Joseph L. Galloway Award for Distinguished Journalism will receive the cash prize at the fourth annual MRE Conference in Washington, to be held this fall.

"I want to thank the officers and members of MRE for naming their annual award for distinguished service for me, and Knight Ridder Newspapers for donating the prize money that goes with that award," said Galloway, who is based in Washington, D.C. "I only wish there was an award honoring the hundreds of friends and colleagues who have given their lives in search of the truth in the most dangerous places on earth."

MRE is the official association of military journalists. It was formed at the University of Maryland in the wake of 9-11 in large part over concerns about access to troops in war zones. Our contest, inaugurated last year, also will pay homage to reporters working in Iraq, the world's most dangerous location for journalists. The Baghdad Press Corps Award recognizes news organizations and Iraqi journalists throughout the country. It is given to journalists reporting from Iraq, where 19 reporters and 12 media assistants were killed in 2004. We honor all of them, men and women, embeds and independents, foreigners and Iraqis, who risk their lives daily to tell the most important story of the year.

All entries in the contest's print category are eligible for the Galloway award. Though it is the only cash prize now given, MRE hopes to fund the photography award this year and all other categories when it marks its inaugural Chicago conference in 2006.

Galloway, a veteran war correspondent and co-author of the book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young," is Knight Ridder's senior military writer and a nationally syndicated columnist.

A native of Refugio, Texas, he spent 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International. He also logged nearly 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News &World Report.

Galloway's overseas postings include tours in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Singapore and three years as UPI bureau chief in Moscow in the former Soviet Union.

During 15 years overseas, Galloway served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam, covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War and a half-dozen other combat operations. He reported on Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-91, riding with the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in the assault into Iraq. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has called Galloway "the finest combat correspondent of our generation - a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."

Galloway and retired Army Lt. Gen. Hal G. Moore wrote the bestseller, “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." The book later was the basis for the critically acclaimed movie, "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson. Galloway also co-authored "Triumph Without Victory: The History of the Persian Gulf War" for Times Books.

He is a rare exception among war correspondents, having been given a Bronze Star Medal with V (for valor) for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. Galloway also received the National Magazine Award in 1991 for a U.S. News &World Report cover story on the 25th anniversary of the Ia Drang battles.

"Joe has a long resume of reporting in foreign conflicts, and that in itself would be enough for us to name an award in his honor," said MRE President Sig Christenson, a veteran Iraq combat correspondent for The San Antonio Express-News and Hearst Newspapers. But this award is as much about the man and his heart as it is his career. It symbolizes not only the many stories Joe has filed at home and on the battlefield, but his insistence on integrity and an unending sympathy for the combat soldier's constant struggle to survive and return to loved ones back home."

Journalists in small and large markets in the United States and abroad are eligible for the Galloway award, as well as other categories – one for photographers. Information on contest rules and fees can be found on www.militaryreporters.org

Knight Ridder will contribute $1,000 this year, while MRE and several private donors provide the rest. The Galloway award will highlight each year's contest.

Other competitive categories are:
- Domestic reporting - small market/large market
- International reporting - small market/large market
- Photography, domestic and international – small market/large market.

Entries are for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2004, and should be mailed to MRE, c/o Michelle Riley Pendleton, 1325 G. St. NW., Suite 730, Washington, D.C., 20005. The deadline for submission is July 15.

Listen to the music....!

From Mike over at Bunker Mulligan I received a little Blogistical musical challenge. I don't normally pick up these "meme" challenges on my own, but Mike is a good friend and he asked me to participate. Actually, ever since I received that Vietnam Era Music website several weeks ago I have been in a musical reverie mode anyway. So here goes...

Total volume of music files on my computer:
Zip, nada and none on my home computer. I do have a couple on my office machine including "Chico and the Man" by Jose Feliciano. This one is linked on my desktop so I can play it often and annoy my partner.

The last CD I bought:
That's a tough one as I don't buy many CD's anymore. I think it was the Doobie Brothers, "Doobies Choice" which was handy because not long afterwards I met the Doobies and had Pat Simmons sign the cover.

Song playing right now:
I'm at the office and decorum states that I don't play music [yeah right!]. I can turn on Chico and the Man if you like.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Tough one, there are many I listen to alot, mostly Doobies, just ask the Bride. But here are five as directed...

Listen to the Music, Doobie Bros
Takin' it to the streets, Doobie Bros
Girl from Ipanema, Stan Getz and Astrid Gilberto
Beautiful, Gordon Lightfoot
Free Man in Paris, Joni Mitchell

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:
Some local, some around the world....

Eric, Fire Ant Gazette
Julie, Yellow Bug News [aka "the Bride"]
Slatts, Slatts News
Lisa, Blog from Abroad
The Red Falcon, The Steiner Aid

OK, there you have it. Groove on.....!!

Sprechen Sie Deutsches...?

No I don't speak German, but I feel as if I should in the last several days. Someone I know, or more specifically who knows me, has been a naughty little computer user and has contracted the w32.sober.p@mm virus. Someone I know is on the cutting edge of virus susceptability for this new variant of the old Sober virus which was just noted by McAfee and other security agents today. I've been getting 20 or 30 virus generated emails for the last two days.

As far as I've read the virus is particularly virulent, but not particularly dangerous. Like so many of these "trojans" this bug generates emails from the infected machine, using email addresses it picks up off the host computer. Thus, my two semi-private email addresses residing on some friend or acquaintance's system are fair game for these fascinating messages......in German. Translating them on BabelFish I learned that they all have a political message with a link to one of many German news sources. The emails have no infected attachements so are nothing more than a big nuisance. The method of infection, I suppose, is by downloading some little gem from an infected website.

When I first started receiving these messages my first thought was that someone with a political agenda had "hacked" the website of German blogger David at his Medienkritik website and somehow gotten access to commentors email addresses. But today, as the German tiatribes continued pouring in to my mailbox I did a little research on Google by typing in some of the text from a spam email and sure enough I got a match which referenced the new virus strain.

So, if you are reading this and have my email address on your machine you might think about checking to see if you have contracted this dread German virus. I, and others would appreciate it. If your virus program is hopelessly out of date or you don't have one, you can go to McAfee.Com and download their "Stinger" tool which will take care of 53 of the most common viruses including the Sober p@mm.

Here's what the message looks like. I got this one while I was typing this report, although this is just one of many versions some with considerably more text, but all with a link to a German website..

Lese selbst:
http://bz.berlin1.de/archiv/041115_pdf/.htm

A Veteran's Affair...

As anyone who has been in the military will tell you, it's not an easy life even if no one is shooting at you, far worse if someone is. Younger folks do hear much about the camaraderie, excitement and adventure of the military from us veterans of a certain age that make it sound like a great life...and mostly it was. But if I think back on my 6 years in the regular army I can, without too much effort, remember that much of it was not pleasant at all. Like sleeping in the mud for months or living in a tent when the temperatures are in the three digits during the day. I can recall living in what was termed "sub-standard" housing for half a year because that was all that was available while I made $500 a month after all my efforts in earning a college degree. Then there were the absences. Absences from all you knew of home and family. Relatives, friends and beloved pets died while you were away and you didn't get to say good-bye. Friends were married and had kids and got a six year head start on their careers while you, the solider, had advanced to the point where you were making $700 a month.

Am I complaining. Hopefully not, I wouldn't trade all my experiences and friends from the military for the world. My comments are actually a setup for my point of the day....I'm grateful as hell for having been in the army all those years ago. Because of the army I lived in places I never would have gone on my own, did exciting things that not many people get to do and met people who are still my friends today..close friends. And, I got a Masters Degree which cost me the grand sum of....zero, nothing, free.

Today I journeyed the 40 miles or so to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Big Spring, Texas pictured above in the photo I took this morning. It was like old home week, for it was here 7 years ago that I had a hernia repaired. Cost:$0.00. Because of the hard times endured all those years ago I am entitled today to a certain amount of free medical care, a benefit that frankly had not seemed terribly important for decades. It does now.

Years ago I had heard horror stories about the VA medical system and how it should be avoided at all costs. That, perhaps, is the case in other locales, but in West Texas the VA gets high marks from me. I have always been attended to promptly and in fact, probably more courteously than at other large private medical facilities. Of course, one of the "tricks" of negotiating through any bureaucracy is to find and befriend an "angel" on the staff [a trick I learned in the army]. My "angel" today was Ricky, a young man at the admin desk who I struck up a conversation with after learning he had just gotten out of active army service. I could have made it through the system without him today...but with him it was a breeze, getting evaluated by a nurse right away and doing the unheard of, seeing a doctor without an appointment. I was out in under three hours with my presciption in hand.

Now my daily dose of Zocor will be mailed to me every month....something I don't get even in the private sector. If you are fortunate enough to have come this far in life without having to be on modern medication and knowing the costs associated with this privelage let me give you an example of what my army service has saved me. This one prescription is about $2400 per year. I pay zip, nada. I never realized that sleeping in the mud for Uncle Sam would be so worthwhile all these years later!!

Laura Bush....recycler

Today I bring you a story with some local color. The story is one that Julie received from a friend and we have no reason to believe that it is not true. The source of the story is a biology teacher at Midland Lee High School who happens to be a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church here. We all know that there is no better source of veracity than a Baptist Sunday School teacher....

Lee High School is in the process of remodeling and renovating the school. Most of the work will be done this summer, and during the first semester of next year. Portable buildings are being brought in for them to meet in until the work is finished. They are in the process of cleaning out closets, classrooms, storage facilities, discarding out of date chemicals, books, etc. The city brought one of the big industrial size garbage dumpsters out to the school and placed it right in front of the building to facilitate the process. The city told them they would come this past Wednesday and dump it, so they could add more trash. Well, one of the departments decided to throw their old desks in the dumpster, and they were put in upside down with the legs sticking up out of the filled dumpster. The city failed to come empty the dumpster on Wednesday as they had promised so when there was no room for more trash, they called to remind them that it was supposed to have been emptied on Wednesday The city told them that they had been told not to dump it. It seems that someone passed by and saw the desks and requested that they not empty the dumpster until they could salvage the desks.... Guess who????

Our first lady, Laura Bush, was in town last week visiting her mother. When they passed by Lee High School, and she saw all the school desks that were being discarded, she called the city and told them not to empty the dumpsters, that there would be someone coming by to collect the desks and they would be sent directly to Afghanistan for the schools there.

Laura Bush.... First Lady, teacher, recycler!

Hack

Hack...

Thanks to a post by Mike over at Bunker Mulligan I sadly noted the passing of one of America's truly great and most decorated soldiers Col. David Hackworth. Hack, as he was known to his troops, lied about his age to enlist in the army during WWII and later gained a battlefield commission during the Korean War and was a legend in Vietnam. He was put in for the Medal of Honor three times; the last application is currently under review at the Pentagon. He was twice awarded the Army’s second highest honor for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, along with 10 Silver Stars and eight Bronze Stars. When asked about his many awards, he always said he was

proudest of his eight Purple Hearts and his Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

Although he was a great combat leader and military theorist, he is best known and remembered by legions as holding most dear the welfare of the individual soldier. Hack was open and outspoken, a trait that effectively ended his army career in 1970 when he publicly denounced, not the war in Vietnam, but the way it was being fought. For the next four decades he made his mark by trying to expose ineptitude in the military and the political process by which it is controlled.

Many of us veterans did not agree with everything Hack attempted to do in later years but there is no doubt that his consuming interest was always the "grunt" out in the field. I had the pleasure of communicating with Hack over the years and the autographed copy of his Vietnam "after action report", The Vietnam Primer that he sent to me is a prized piece in my signed book collection. Hack will be missed.

Taos 2003.....

While words sometimes escape me, images never do. Having already put pictures of our last several forays into New Mexico on the web, I felt remiss in not having done so with the 100 or so shots I took when we were in Taos two years ago. So, lucky you, here they are. Taos 2003

Santa Fe
Galisteo/Chama


PS: with a special thanks to Donnie and Karen Michael for the use of their wonderful house!

Roger L. Simon....

I had a nice long telephone chat with Roger L. Simon this afternoon. It's always a pleasure to speak with someone whom you feel you've gotten to know in some small way by reading their online journals, their Blogs. Roger is a mystery writer, screenplay author [an Oscar nominated one at that], interesting commentator online and on TV and most importantly a good family man and nice guy.

And Roger has an idea. An idea that may change the landscape, scope and breadth of Blogging. If you haven't seen Roger's idea take a look here. I had emailed Roger that I was interested, made application and signed the non-disclosure agreement to join in the idea. Roger emailed back, supplied his phone number and asked me to call with my thoughts on putting the idea into action which, as mentioned, I did. In my opinion, it's a hell of an idea. If you have an interest in learning more leave a comment with your email address. I'll forward information.

Here are some mentions from around the web about "the idea"...
Pro Blogger and The Blogger Herald

Vietnam: A final note:

Joe Galloway Vietnam '65

One final posting about Vietnam and then I believe that I'll move on to thinking about something else for awhile. I had to note a great piece by Joe Galloway as he journeys back in time and space to Vietnam in the present day. Joe emailed me late last week and told me that he was working on putting his thoughts of Saigon down in prose. I kept looking for the article on his Knight-Ridder News online site, but thanks to Viet Pundit I see that the article has been syndicated and is at: Galloway, Saigon Today. A great article, hope you'll find time to check it.

30 Years.....

U.S. Embassy April 30, 1975

It was 30 years ago today that our efforts in Vietnam came to a close with the fall of Saigon. It seems strange that something that occupied so much of my time then is now distant more than half the time that I have been a mortal on this earth. The ten years of major troop involvement is, of course, only a part of the total story of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that began immediately after WWII.

But a picture is worth more than a thousand words, my words at least, so here are some remembrances of Vietnam by two photographers whom I have had the privelage to know, Steve Stibbens and Catherine LeRoy. Steve was a combat photographer for five years in Vietnam from 1962 till 1967. He was the first correspondent for "Stars and Stripes" to arrive in Vietnam, later with the Marines "Leatherneck" magazine and then with the Associated Press where he was one of the best in the business, winning the Newspaper Photographer of the Year twice. Steve was my guest in Midland some years ago to speak at a seminar on Vietnam journalism.

I met Catherine LeRoy in 2001 at a reunion of the veterans of the Ia Drang. Catherine was one of the premier photo journalists in Vietnam and one of only a handful of female journalists active "in the field"...out with the troops. Catherine was captured by the North Vietnamese Army during the Tet Offensive in Hue, but managed to talk her way to freedom. Her photo gallery here is a compendium of works by photographers she knew.

Take a look at their poignant photos.....
Steve Stibbens: My War
Catherine LeRoy: Images Under Fire

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our website with Joe Galloway's excellent images from the Ia Drang Valley, 1965. The Ia Drang Campaign

Notes from Vietnam...

Joe Galloway finds a little time in his busy schedule to write.

"...finished in hanoi. now in hue. heading for saigon. home may 2 or 3. shot a few pix. laptop works just fine; writing this on free broadband connection in my hue hotel room....go figger! joe"

Cryptic and short as usual, but Joe gets a zillion emails a day and I know it's hard to answer all those while on the road. But free broadband....in a communist country. That's a better deal than I have under the capitalist system! Moving from Hanoi to the old historical capital city of Hue, Joe writes again.....

ref hue, looks right good. even the citadel which was heavily damaged in 68. lots of new construction too. folks seem right prosperous round here.

Hue would be one of my first choices while touring Vietnam. It was once a grand and beautiful city that during the Tet offensive in '68 was nearly ground into the dust by the fighting. It also is a good reminder of why we fought that war, the North Vietnamese Army brutally murdered 1000's of citizens in Hue who were loyal to the government...men, women and children. I asked Joe about the state of the city and he wrote back.....

"....ref citadel, well i walked thru the dang place. there's your occasional bullet ding in the big brass bells and urn and on the walls here and there. but cept for the queen mother's reception hall everything else done been restored. to include the famous flag tower....go figger jg"

It's not surprising that the citadel has been restored, it is an integral part of Vietnamese history, but the flag tower Joe mentions was basically a symbol of the American victory when we took the town back in '68, so it's strange that it would be rebuilt.

Can't wait to hear more from Joe and see some of the pictures he's no doubt taking.

Trip down memory lane....

Please pardon my reverie back to the past and the 60's, but last night I watched a part of Vietnam: A Television History on PBS, a very good series about the history of the conflict. Then when I checked my email for the final time of the day there was a note from Will Parrish up in Oklahoma. Will sent along a link to a very intriguing website [below] named "The Vietnam Era in Music" which is guaranteed to take anyone of that certain age back on what may be a very joyful, tearful and heart tugging journey. My partner Del and I listened at the office for a half an hour or so until we just couldn't take the memories anymore.

Will Parrish is a veteran of the battles at the Ia Drang in '65 and through the last years has become a good friend. We email often and see each other at various reunion events such as the one in Fredericksburg, Texas pictured above. Will, in the red polo shirt in the photo, standing alongside his daughter, is a very humble guy and won't ever voluntarily tell you his story himself. But I will. In brief, Will singlehandedly held off a North Vietnamese human wave attack for several hours with a machine gun and when his M-60 ammo ran out he stood up and emptied two .45 pistols into the NVA. Somewhere over 100 enemy soldiers were found dead in front of his position when the day's fighting was over. Will was awarded the Silver Star for Gallanty.

Pictured at the far left is Vince Cantu who has his own amazing story. He graduated from Refugio [Texas] High School with my friend, and author, Joe Galloway. They did not see each other for many years thereafter until, amazingly, they met under a tree in Vietnam at the battle of LZ XRay neither knowing that the other was "in country". The bride and I are 3rd and 4th from the left above. Rounding out the group, is Chip Parker and his wife Vicki. Chip was a helicopter gunship pilot in the Ia Drang, now lives in Dallas and has been a visitor in our home.

So courtesy of Will, take your own trip down memory lane at:
Vietnam Era Music
Scroll about half of the way down and start selecting tunes off of the three "players".

Wish I were there..

Joe Galloway Vietnam '65

My good buddy Joe Galloway ought to be just about approaching Vietnamese air space at the time I write this. He left Washington D.C. yesterday afternoon for the 20 some hour flight to Hanoi. I can only image what he is thinking as he approaches what used to be the most heavily defended piece of airspace in the world. This however is not his first trip to Hanoi since the war ended. He, Hal Moore and several others were there in 1990 to interview General Giap, commander of all North Vietnamese forces during the war and architect of their victory.

The interview was done as research when they were writing what turned out to be their best seller, We Were Soldiers Once.....and Young and later the Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers. They went back in 1991 to interview the commanders who were their opponents on the battlefield in 1965 and then again in 1997 to spend time at LZ XRay, site of the battle.

Joe knows Vietnam well, having spent the better part of five years there as a journalist with UPI and probably having seen more combat than the majority of infantry soldiers. He is returning to Vietnam now to commemorate and remember the fall of South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975. Thirty years seems so far removed yet the faces of those who were left behind are as fresh as yesterday. Joe is going to pay homage to them. His itinerary is described by Joe as....

we fly hkg to hanoi for 2-3 days; then to hue; then to quang tri and dmz; then to danang china beach resort; then on to saigon for april 30 30th anniv. of fall of the whole shootin match.

Joe still writes in the terse no nonsense style of the combat journalist that he is. Short and to the point with a minimum of punctuation, a style made neccesary in the war years by the short time the reporter had to file his story on the phone lines available.

Joe has promised, if he can find an Internet hook-up, to email some of his thoughts and perhaps a picture or two that I will post. While he's there I've asked him to try and find a souvenir for me, a 25th Division Zippo lighter, though Joe's comment on that was....

they ain't no original zippos of any sort in all of Nam; they counterfeits them thangs. complete with misspelled 1st Calvery Divisin etc. but i will look.

Joe also talks in Bubba-ese to me, his West Texas buddy, and I only wish I were there with him to look.

Update 4/25: Comment #4 below rec'd from Dick Ackerman. Here's a picture of Dick and Ed "Too Tall" Freeman who received the Medal of Honor for his actions while flying into LZ XRay in 1965. Dick was the "point man" in his battalion at the horrendous action at LZ Albany. Dick and Too Tall

Corporate benevolence....

I haven't listened to the FM radio in my car for the longest of times and so this week I decided to give the "oldies" station a try. I did like the music but remembered why I gave up on radio years ago. The advertisements outweigh the music played by about 5:1.

I did listen long enough, however, to repeatedly hear one ad from a group who is looking out for my best interests. If you live in Texas, perhaps you've heard it too. A soft spoken Texan voice tells me that the lawmakers down in Austin are once again trying to shaft me, the little guy, by raising my taxes. And pardner they [it's always "they"] don't care a lick that when I stop in at the 7-11 I'm going to be paying more for things like soda pop, Cheeze Puffs, Slim Jims and cigarettes. Oh yeah, cigarettes. Tex, on the ad, intimates that by Gawd this is just un-American and decidedly un-Texan. Those lawmakers don't give a squat about me.

I especially like the part where Tex tells us that this tax, if passed, will "hurt the people the most who can least afford it". Those people being the po' folks that buy the neccessities of life like Ding Dongs and cigarettes at the local convenience store.[note to these people: don't buy snacks and cigarettes, you'll avoid most of the tax].

Listen long enough to Tex's pontification and you'll discover that, lo and behold, this paid political advertisement is being presented for the benefit of all us little guys in Texas by none other than our friend.....Phillip Morris. I'm grateful to a large conglomorate like this for sticking up for me, the average Texan, in this fight against Austin and "them". I wonder if the fact that Phillip-Morris makes cigarettes has anything to do with their care and concern. Naw.

The Big Gold Dog.....

The other day Eric over at The FireAnt Gazette had a fine picture of his dog Abbye posted along with the cryptic message that more pictures of Gold Dogs should be posted. Since Eric is a friend and knows of my Big Gold Dog, I took this as a personal note to let the readership finally see a photo of the namesake of this website. So here my friends, is Tres along with the master of this domain. Our images rarely grace the

pages of this journal, usually because there is no byline necessitating our photos. We thank Eric for the opportunity to fit our mugs into the scheme of things.

This photo was taken a year or so ago at our offices where I was teaching Tres how to read the drilling reports that come in daily, my thought being that if he could learn this skill I could stay at home. In a place like Midland where we all mainly work for ourselves, one can do things like bring his dog up to the office. About the only comments I had from my partners on this day were, "oh, I see you brought your dog". "Yes", I answered, and that was the end of the discussion. Tres had a wonderful time, especially looking out the window on the 12th floor.

A Taste of Honey......

I'm very busy in the yard this week so I wasn't going to write today....until something caught my eye. It's no secret that I like the 1960's. As time goes by I'm more enthralled with the people, places and things that I lived with then. Probably my fascination has to do with my age at the time. I went from 10 to 20 years old in the span of 1960-1969. From a kid to virtual manhood.

Perhaps you have the same feeling about those years of your development, whenever they may have been. But, in addition to counting as my formative years, I think that the 60's were a special time. So much happened, so much changed. We went from flying prop driven aircraft to landing on the moon during this ten years, from 45 rpm records to FM stereo on our radios.


What brought me here was an article on CNN today announcing that this is the 40th anniversary of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass launching their big hit album "Whipped Cream and Other Delights". Herb and the TJB may seem a little hokey to today's hip set, but they were a big deal in '65. Some of TJB's album sales records still stand. They crossed the cultural divide, being popular with the 15 year old set as well as with their parents. I can't think of a single dorm room I visited in college that didn't have at least one of their albums on the play list. On a side trip down memory lane is the very interesting website for Dolores Erickson, the whipped cream lady pictured above, which I suspect is why the album was standard fare in so many dorm rooms, of the male students anyway.

Another noted visitor...

Saturday we heard one of the most preeminent aviators in the world speak. Tonight Midland hosted the most noted paleoanthropologist living today. Dr. Richard Leakey was in town to speak at our college's semi-annual lecture series, his topic being "Why our origins matter". Leakey led us through his adventure filled life including a stint at, in effect, running the government of Kenya and how he went from high school drop out to being listed as one of Time Magazines "100 Greatest Minds of the 20th Century".

He spoke, with some degree of aplomb, about why he believed in the theory of evolution and why in his opinion this did not conflict with his strict Anglican upbringing. He reminded us that although there are millions of species known to be living today, this is just a small fraction of the total that have ever existed and are now extinct and that man is not immune from the same fate. Skirting controversy he mentioned his concerns for the environment based on his work in the conservation field, but he also gave many examples of why we have reason to be very optimistic.

The man possesses a dry sense of humor which kept the audience chuckling. A question from the audience asked "do you think that even though the Neanderthal's had become extinct, did their DNA continue on with modern man"? Leakey's quick answer was priceless.

"The answer to that is Yes and No"
"When I am at home the answer is no"
"When I'm walking through Heathrow Airport, the answer is yes"

It was quite an evening. And I'm grateful to our friends, the Davidsons, for funding this lecture series which began in 1997 and several times a year since has brought such notables as David McCullough, Ken Burns, Shelby Foote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Mark Russell, Bill Moyers, David Brooks, Marvin Hamlish and Bob Newhart to regale and entertain us. The Davidson Family Charitable Foundation sponsors this lecture series which is available free to all citizens who wish to attend.

And coming next September........Ben Stein.

Update: Having never been shy about contacting people by email, I sent a short note off to Ben Stein telling him how excited we were about his upcoming visit, adding that appearing after the world's most formidable paleoanthropologist would be a tough act to follow. I shortly received a pleasant and humerous note back from Ben saying that this had been his lifelong fear but that he would do his best.

Fireball.....

It was a fairly quiet around the Craig household this weekend. Jack had a few little league practices, but no games, I caught up on some yard work, we went to the stimulating talk at the CAF on Saturday night and.......oh yeah, Julie was nearly blown up in a large propane explosion.

Those from our local area reading this no doubt are aware of the explosion and subsequent fire at the Old Sorehead Trade Days in the neighboring town of Stanton, but for those reading from distant locales let Julie tell you the story over at The Yellow Bug News......

We thank God that our little homemaker, Mother and wife is OK.

The Right Stuff......

One of the things I love about living in Midland is the advantage of the city being big enough to draw some pretty interesting people, but small enough to actually meet them when they come. Tonight at the CAF we got to say hel-lo to aviation legend Scott Crossfield. If you know aviation you'll know him. If you saw the movie The Right Stuff, you will remember his name. He and Chuck Yeager were in a friendly competition to see who would be the

first to break the sound barrier.Yeager won that round primarily because the government wanted a military man to be the record setter and Scott by then was a civilian.

But Scott took every other honor thereafter, being the first man through Mach 2 and then Mach 3. He had more flights in the experimental "X" planes of that era than any other pilot and in fact Scott actually helped design the X-15 and made the first 3 flights in it. Scott was generally accepted as the best test pilot in the business working alongside Chuck Yeager and training new test pilots like Neil Armstrong who would become famous himself one day. Being the best test pilot of that era undoubtedly qualifies him as one of the best of all times.

Scott is 84 years old now and flew into town [in his own plane of course] to reagale us with stories from the golden age of aircraft design and experimentation. Can you imagine flying an "X-1" at 800 miles per hour with the windshield iced up so badly that you have to have a chase plane guide you down? Scott did it several times, among other things that he also fascinated us with in his hour and a half talk tonight. You can tell that after 70 years of piloting aircraft the man still loves talking about aviation. After he took us back to those aviation glamour days of the late 50's and early 60's he asked if were interested in hearing about his recent experiences while consulting on the anniversary flight of the Wright Brothers aircraft. We were....and so we heard his 45 minute description of this enthralling story. Scott chose the pilot who was to fly the reproduction aircraft at Kitty Hawk in 2003 and taught him how to fly it.

As I told Jack on the way home...."I'm glad you got to see Mr. Crossfield, he's as an important man in the history of aviation as there is". And he is.

PS: The most interesting and amazing thing I learned from Scott was that in all the years of flying the most cutting edge experimental aircraft in the world.....he never was instrument rated. A fact he kept well guarded. He finally had to get "certified" in 1983 when he started flying general aviation aircraft!

One armed paper hanger...

I've been busy. Busy with actual oil field business. A project that had it's germination with an idea in June 2002 is finally getting nearer reality. Now for the negotiations. These should start next week. We hold most of the cards, so it should be fun.

This development has held my attention so work on meaningful blogging has been light, except that I spent some time today generating a new, mostly private, blog for my tight knit group of old fraternity brothers. I keep in fairly regular contact with 20 or so of these guys, so a blog to let them have their say online seemed a natural. Hope they can manage the technology.

And then, speaking of technology, I have to be honest and say that some good bit of my time this week was taken up with the new PlayStation2 racing system I bought. Gran Turismo3 is something I learned about on the web. It is sports car racing, where my other PS2 racing has been of the Formula I variety. There are things about GT3 that I love and some that could be improved upon but the graphics are simply stunning, some of the race venues being almost photographic in their realism. GT3 has now been superceded by GT4 but the "3" version was on sale so I thought I'd try it out before going with the just released GT4 with it's hefty price tag. It'll take about a year to complete all the variations in GT3 so perhaps by then, I'll upgrade. Speaking of which, I had to buy a new PS2 to run my new game.....the old one was just plain worn out.

In closing, an exciting bit of news came this week via an email from Cris Simmons, wife of Doobie Brother Pat Simmons. The Doobies will be back in West Texas on May 28th doing an outdoor concert in Lubbock. This, I believe, is the day that my bride and child leave for their European vacation so I suppose in my lonely state I'll accept Cris's invitation to go up and visit with them after the show. If you have never seen a Doobie's concert you might want to take it in......

Trickle down economics...

Last week Jeff at Archaeo Texture made the observation that from his "windshield" view, economic activity in the Permian Basin looks fairly strong. He noted that as he drives to work at the Channel 9 media center he is seeing an increased pace of truck traffic and many more happy workers at the coffee and burger joints along the way. Jeff is in the TeeVee news business and so he asked several of us with experience in the oil and gas business to confirm his observation.

To confirm his thoughts one needs to look no further than the statewide unemployment figures where, amazingly to me, Midland now has the lowest rate in Texas at around 4.4% unemployed. During periods of very low energy prices Midland has tended to be in the higher percentiles of the unemployed. Higher oil and gas prices do wonders for our economy.

When energy prices are higher things happen in the oil patch. People drill new wells, build infrastructure or like we have been doing lately, recomplete old wells to get more hydrocarbons out of well bores drilled years ago. Our operations are small potatoes compared to larger firms, but what we do illustrates how funds, cash money, are injected into the economy.

We recently recompleted the Linaka #2. For this project new money was raised and deposited in our local banks. A good portion of the funds for the work came from our partners outside the local area, some coming from Europe. This is new money for the region. As we started to work a variety of trades were employed on the well. Dirt contractors were needed to clear and level the site. Key Energy provided the rig and a crew usually numbering 5-6 "hands". Hands being paid much more than fast food wages. Fresh water trucks were needed to provide fluids for the drilling process. "Mud" specialists provided their goods to stabilize the fluids.

As we neared completion of the project specialists in varying fields were needed to insure success. People providing equipment such as "packers" and "bridge plugs", a perforating crew to blow holes from the casing into the rock and people like Ralph and Stringbean who provided us with the acid fracturing job to get the well flowing. A crew was employed to re-install the pumping unit. A steady stream of workers kept busy by this one project. We worked on the Linaka recompletion for over 3 months so probably we provided an income for 8-10 families during that period. If one factors in the support personnel [mechanics, bookkeepers, dispatchers etc.] necessary to keep these workers in the field for that period, the number is significantly higher. Multiple this times the 100's of ongoing jobs taking place in the oil field on any given day and the impact on the local ecomomy is impressive.

As Jeff noted in his windshield survey, these people are busy, so that when they left our job another was waiting...and then another. And unlike most national retail and fast food businesses who take local money and send it out of town....our "employees" spend their hard earned cash here.

The Pope......

God bless Pope John Paul II. I believe that he will be noted along with Ronald Reagan as one of the most influential leaders of the late 20th Century. A humble man but a moral giant. His influence helped bring down dictators and change governments in many places in the world. Though we may not believe in all the details of his religon, we can truly believe that he was divinely inspired.

John Paul II has been the Pope and a leader for quite a long time and in the future it will be hard for me to think of "the pope" and not have that person be Karol Jozef Wojtyla.

Play Ball.....again

More baseball action for Jack tonight, under the lights. Jack's team got beaten by a team who had some impressive hitters including the son of a former major leaguer. Jack got smacked in the lip by a one hopper in warm ups...but took an inning to recover and then made his mark at second base big lip and all.

As we sat on the 3rd base sidelines we noticed the other team's third base coach looked familiar. It was none other than Randy Velarde who retired here to his hometown after a very successful career mainly with the Yankees and later with the Angels and Oakland A's. Randy is one of only 11 [I think] major league players ever to score a triple play single handedly.

More baseball action tomorrow and Sunday.

Play Ball.....

Play Ball.....

Evening update to story below: After staging a dramatic comback, Jack's team lost by one run. A good game....if you could see it. The dust was thick. Temperature with wind chill was in the 30's.
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Well, today is the first day of play for Jack's regular Little League baseball team. This is not to be confused with his select baseball team which started back in January and culminates, we think, in May. Nor is it to be confused with his all star team play, assuming he makes it again, which starts immediately after the regular games and winds up probably in August.

I like the regular Little League. The games are generally at a field very close to our home as opposed to the select games which are in other cities and states. I also get a chance to interact with the "young" people. The "young" people to me being the parents, who are generally 15-20 years younger. I fit in with the young set...and we've met some nice folks over our time in Little League.

When I first started attending Little League games with Jack and Julie it was rather an ordeal. The players had a few problems with the basics of the game mostly in the pitching, fielding and batting areas. A goodly portion of the games was spent watching the catcher chase the wild pitches around the backstop and walks were the primary scoring vehicle. But now, the kids have gotten markedly better and the games have become interesting...more like real baseball.

It should be a perfect day for baseball....60° with blowing dust.

Surf City USA....

I've been surfing the web since 1998 and before the addition of a family and the advent of the world of blogs I had more time to actually peruse some interesting websites. Over the years I have added and culled hundreds. Here for your viewing pleasure are a few of the ones that have won a permanent place on my "favorites" list. I tend towards the quirky and photographic.

Roadside America: An adventure travelogue featuring points of interest discovered along America's highways. I was attracted to the site because an old friend and I trade postcards and snapshots of just this sort of thing..like the world's largest chest of drawers he found in North Carolina and the world's largest walleyed pike I viewed in Minnesota. Currently featured on this website is "Marsh's Free Museum--Home of Jake the Alligator Man, Long Beach, Washington". And don't miss the Muffler Man compendium. I've seen several of these.

On the Road: Join Matt Frondorf as he drives from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge, his camera clicking at every mile. John installed a 35 mm. camera pointing out the side of his car and synchronized it to his odometer. A picture was automatically taken ever single mile as he drove from New York to California. Interesting stuff and frankly something I would like to try, perhaps in New Mexico.

The Ultimate Taxi: If you're a digital guru you'll love Jon Barnes and his "wired" taxi cab in Aspen. In the early days of his wired cab Jon had his laptop going and logged on to a chat message board so you could "talk" to him in real time as he drove. I did on several occasions. I think that became a little too distracting and so is probably not still functional. Check out some of the pictures of his fares. I once spotted a couple from Dallas I used to know.

Leave it to Beaver: Need I say more. Consistant readers will know that I'm a Beaver fan. I was exactly the same age as The Beav when the program originally aired, had an over achieving older brother and my Mom stayed at home and always had dinner ready on time. I was The Beav. Beaver is now on TV Land every night at 8:30 and is one of the few programs that the bride, child and I consistantly try and watch together.

Under Fire, Images from Vietnam: Catherine Leroy's tribute to the best of Vietnam combat photography. Catherine herself is in that category and was captured briefly by the North Vietnamese Army while getting some of her shots. I've had the privelage of corresponding with Catherine and sending her some of Joe Galloway's photos for future inclusion in her gallery.

Enjoy these....more forthcoming.

The Zen of Napoleon Dynamite...

We had a very nice Easter weekend and we hope that you did too.

My little sister and her family were in town from Pennsylvania to help us celebrate; we only get to see them, perhaps, once a year so it was good to be able to spend time catching up. It is always amazing to glimpse the yearly snapshot of my nephew, Dan, as he quickly grows up. It seems like another lifetime those 14 years ago in Dallas when I first saw him in the new baby viewing window at Presbyterian Hospital. He's now a "too cool teenager". Not too cool really, though he'd like you to think so. You can tell he still wants to do most anything...he just acts like he's too cool to want to do it. Things like watching Napoleon Dynamite. Dan opined that it was "childish" and "the worst movie he's ever seen". I noticed him holding in the laughs.

We are now the proud owners of Napoleon Dynamite on DVD. I have to admit that I knew nothing about Napoleon Dynamite and would never in a million years have gone to the movie theater to see it, but now I have seen it two nights out of three and I am a reluctant convert. Thursday evening, Jack, Julie and I watched it [to humor Jack] while having to restrain young Jack from uttering, "watch this, this is funny" at each new scene. His 11 year old glee was catching however and I, much to my chagrin, found myself stiffling a occasional chuckle...I'm rather too cool too.

Saturday, the entire family including my 82 year old parents were in attendance for dinner at our house and, of course, [thanks to Jack] the subject of Napoleon Dynamite came up. My Mother is somewhat of a movie buff so she became interested in the film that we were all talking about. In spite of much dissuasion from the younger crowd she was determined to see it and so we did.

If you have seen the movie you will perhaps identify with our comments. After the first 10 minutes my mother said, "we'll maybe it gets better". The consensual answer from us prior viewers was, "No not really". My Father said, "this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen". Our answer was, "yes just about". Adding further he said, "what's the plot?". The answer had to be, "there isn't any". But that is the brilliance of Napoleon Dynamite, the sum of nothing adds up to a magnificent whole.

The zen of the movie is that it is like life itself. Life, yours or mine, does not have a scripted plot. Mine is mostly just a series of bonehead incidents strung together in an array as mundane, strange and comical as Napoleon's. If there is a moral to the film it's that somehow in spite of all obstacles and strange relatives, we do manage to get by...even the dweebs of the world. And now life imitates art at our house. Not an hour goes by without a quote from the film being applied to the situation at hand. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and hear Jack's renditions of all the major quotes from the movie. He knows them all and is really quite good with the dialects. Jack has a new "Vote for Pedro" T-shirt and I want Jack and his friend Hunter to go out and play "Uncle Rico" with me. This involves them riding their bikes past the house while I throw meat at them.

If things don't change we may go for counseling but for now I leave you with Kips Wedding Song

We met in a chatroom, now our love can fully bloom...
Sure the world wide web is great, but you, you make me salivate...
I love technology, but not as much as you, you see...
But I STILL love technology...

Easter wishes.....

Julie, Jack and Wallace wish you a happy and peaceful Easter......!

Cops finger bad chili....

In this age of so much bad, bizarre and just really sad news bombarding us from all directions it is easy to become jaded and simply pass over many of the stories, even those with some importance. But when I saw the headline, "Human finger found in Chili" I simply had to investigate further. This could have profound implications for me personally.

Thankfully I have never been a big fan of fast food joints, we'll not totally true, I'm a fan, I've just been somewhat protective of my health by not eating there often. Even more so now, after my recent cardiac capers. I have never eaten Wendy's chili and I pledge this to you now, "I ain't never eatin' no stinkin' chili at Wendy's..... ever and for eternity". In fact, I may have grave reservations about ever eating out anywhere again.

And if you're like me and have just a modicum of curiosity, you wonder just how a human finger can end up in a bowl of Wendy's chili in San Francisco. Authorities are launching an investigation.....well duh! What would be the alternative? Tell the finger eating customer that, "hey, you got your money back forget about it". You just have to ponder how someone up the food supply chain can lose a finger and not bother to tell anyone about it? And I thought fingernails in McDonalds hamburgers was disgusting.

Afternoon update: After I had deliberated on this strange case for several hours, a nagging feeling came over me. In yesterdays post I mentioned the Buddy's Drive-In owner who was missing and then located mysteriously in San Francisco. Buddy's is famous for it's steak fingers. And now also in San Francisco, a finger is mysteriously found in Wendy's chili. Coincidence? "Buddy's Steak Finger Drive-in owner mysteriously deposited in San Francisco. Finger mysteriously arrives in San Francisco chili...." You decide.

Anniversary....

It was three months ago today that I entered the hospital to undergo the rebuilding of my heart using spare parts from my leg. I'm doing well, walking a brisk 2 miles a day and grateful to God, family and a great team of doctors. I stopped by my surgeon's office, Dr. Patel, to check in and say thanks. The nurse says that I can stop wearing my stylish orthopedic hoisery and that my five large leg incisions have healed about as well as she has ever seen. Again gratitude for all involved and....

Hospital Bill: $xx,xxx, Dr. Patels bill: $x,xxx, Dr. Suckarieh's bill: $x,xxx, Dr. Browns bill: $x,xxx. Having these fine folks submit all the bills directly to the Veteran's Administration for payment: PRICELESS!

Steak Fingerless....

Andrews Texas is just up the road from Midland, about 30 miles which is our next door neighbor in West Texas terms. Andrews County is one of the richest oil producing areas in the United States, so many of us find ourselves up there on business quite frequently. And when there for the day any oil field guy worth his salt eats at Buddy's Drive-In. It is well known, nay famous, for it's steak fingers, those luscious strips of deep fried meat that people like me can't eat. Oil folks from all over the state are familiar with Buddy's.

But mysterious things have been happening at Buddy's lately. One of the co-owners of the Drive-In recently went missing, simply disappeared, for a week or so, many fearing the worst. Then miracuously she was found in San Francisco claiming no knowledge of how and why she was there. I have not seen any follow-up story on the circumstances of this strange case.

And now today on the morning news the question is posed, "Has Buddy's served it's last steakfinger"? The Schiavo case, Iraq, Korea, Social Security....all important news items, but what inquiring minds in West Texas want to know is....."what's up at Buddy's"? Perhaps local newshawk and fellow blogger Jeff at Archaeo Texture can tell us. Some things are just to important not to know.

Ah Spring......

The first day of Spring has arrived in West Texas just as it should, warm and windy. And what better way to greet this first day of the new season than to have my 150 caladium bulbs arrive via FedEx from Mrs. G.K. Spauldings Caladium Farm in Sebring Florida.

Our yard is very shady in most spots so rather than trying to plant flowering varieties of flora as I usually do, and watch them slowly wither, this year we are opting for the caladiums that do wonderfully in the summer heat and shade. We were steered to Mrs. G.K. Spauldings Caladium Farm by my old childhood chum Bill Bynum and the brains behind the outfit....Carol Bynum. They've been ordering massive amounts of caladiums from Mrs. Spaulding for years. We ordered 100 white and 50 red of the species, the white to standout vibrantly in the garden in the front, and the red to compliment the Mexican tile patio in back.

Planting will come soon, when the nighttime temperatures consistantly start to moderate in the 60+ degree range. However there is a problem. Dr. Brown, ace cardiologist, has told me that I can do almost anything in my post operative condition except plant large amounts of caladiums. Therefore if you would let me know in the comments section when you might be available to come perform this chore, I would appreciate it. I have politely asked Carol and Bill Bynum if they would come to show me their tricks to caladium planting. They respectfully declined.

News Note: Sports car legend John DeLorean dead. DeLorean died late Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, of complications from a recent stroke. More interesting to me than the fact that Delorean later developed his own sports car, was the fact that he was the father of the "muscle car" having developed the Pontiac GTO in 1964. One of my best friends, Ron Hunt, had one of the first '64 GTO's in West Texas in which we used to tool around town at the amazing driving age of 14 years old, legal back then. Coincidentally, my sister was born at Summit Overlook Hospital.

Tidbits and notes....

Light day of Blog reading and gonna' be the same for Blog writing. Julie took Jack to a baseball tournament in New Mexico so I've had a chance to catch up on the yard work and do a few things of interest. Like attending the local Boy Scout Jamboree. I've been wanting to get involved in scouting again...and after talking to some of the leaders today, I just might. Senior advisor to a troop was mentioned. Light on the "senior" please.

Also today, via the Speed Channel, I've been able to follow the live racing coverage of the 12 hours of Sebring, which I must get back to directly....as I write the conclusion will be in about 45 minutes. It was 40 years ago today that Chaparral Racing won the event. Coming directly on the heels of this all day coverage will be live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang where it looks like the Renaults are doing well again after their surprise showing in Australia. A late night, as the coverage begins at 1 A.M. local time. [Sunday update: a late night indeed, to sleep at 2:45, but worth the effort. A good race with a Renault winning, for the second straight race, but a different car than Australia].

Of note today, I caught an interesting article concerning the volunteer army in Stars and Stripes by my old friend Gen. Dick Cody. Dick and I were 2Lt's together and have remained close friends. I'm proud to say that Dick was the first to phone me in the hospital during my recent cardiac capers.

So long.....it's back to racing.

Chaparral's at Laguna Seca....

This week I, somewhat belatedly, ran across this news release.....

MONTEREY, Calif. (January 22, 2005) - Chaparral, one of the truly great names in American racing history, will be the Featured Marque of the 32nd Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races presented by Chrysler August 19-21 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Steven J. Earle, founder of the event announced today. The legendary American marque will be part of the event's overall tribute to the "Great American Specials." While the major manufacturers have long been the dominant force in automobile racing, individual efforts in the American tradition of championing the underdog have produced special cars to challenge the "big guns" over the years. Perhaps, no one represented the ingenuity of this industry more than Jim Hall and Chaparral Cars.

Even though the Chaparrals are kept in top running condition at the Museum here in Midland, it will not be often that one gets a chance to see them running at such a premier venue. I'm hopeful that we will be there. It sure doesn't hurt that Julie has a cousin who owns a beautiful ranch in the hills above Monterrey...where we have been invited!

If you visit the website linked above, be sure and view the pictures presented in the 2003 and 2004 race reviews...impressive!

Pyote....

Last evening we wandered over to Julie's cousin Phil's house to eat birthday cake with his son Dan, visiting for the occasion from Gallup, New Mexico. As happens during these events the menfolk, including my Father-in-Law Don and his brother Leon, eventually wandered into the den to sit before the fire and see where the conversation meandered. I don't remember the trail but we somehow arrived at the topic of the old Pyote Army Air Force base located out near Pecos, Texas. It was fondly and informally known as "Rattlesnake Bomber Base". Don and Leon, were kids in Pyote in the mid to late 40's when their Dad was a civilian contractor at the base. Don graduated from Pyote High School where he was the "Salutatorian". There were 8 or so kids in the class.

When I was a kid we used to pass by Pyote while driving down to the Davis Mountains, the huge hangars appearing as ghostly spectors in the distance as we motored by on Highway 80. Mostly abandoned by the mid 1950's, the buildings now have either been torn down or fallen in due to disrepair. But during WWII Pyote was the largest bomber base in the country with two runways over 1½ miles in length, home to over 6,500 troops and the final staging area before the crews flew off to Europe...many to never return.

Don and Leon have talked about their experiences in Pyote before, rather fondly I might add. But last night they revealed more as we sat and talked. To earn a little spending money they had been "pin setters" at the base bowling alley, the officers bowling alley where the big money was. They were paid 10 cents a line to set pins and Don always adds that they tried to work the fighter pilot groups.....they were more fun and bigger tippers!

I learned that besides the U.S. air crews living in Pyote there was a sizeable population of German POW's who did construction and general work around the base. Don said they were mostly allowed to come and go rather freely, this for two reasons. One, where would one escape to in the vastness of West Texas and two, by the later stages of the war, most German POW's were probably very glad to be in a hospitable climate being treated rather well instead of fighting on the Eastern Front. Don remembered several things about the Germans; that they were great bakers and if there were any children around while they were loading watermelons from the fields they would always "accidentally" drop and damage several melons for the by-standers to enjoy.

After the war Pyote became one of the largest storage points for the aircraft that had won the war. At its peak in 1948 the base housed 2,042 stored planes, mostly B-29s and B-17s, including the Enola Gay, from which the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Dulin boys say that they had the opportunity to climb around this historic aircraft.

I enjoyed our conversation last night. Being interested in history, and especially the history of my home region, it was good to learn some new facts directly from those who experienced it. Here are some photos of the old Pyote Airfield [large images loading--scroll down for Pyote]

Ronny Hissom.....

Recently I have wondered if I should entitle this publication the Medical, Memorial and Obituary Blog. I won't but I would be remiss in not mentioning the passing of Ronny Hissom. Unless you are a sports car racing enthusiast Ronny's name will not be familiar to you. Even if you live in Midland you may not know of him, but Ronny has a special

place in my memory. Along with Jim Hall and Hap Sharp, he was one of the original partners and drivers in the Midland born and bred Chaparral Racing. Ronny passed away last Thursday at the age of 68. An age that sounds, comparatively, ever more young.

Ronny was an avid sports car enthusiast and a nationally ranked polo player, who driving along with Hall and Sharp, won the 1965 12 hour endurance race at Sebring, one of the first of a string of important racing victories for the Chaparrals. This was during the golden age of American sports car racing when a team comprised of very talented amateurs from a small West Texas town could compete on the world stage with the major entities in the sport like Ford and Ferrari.

As I've mentioned before, while growing up here these young men were idols to us teenage boys in Midland. We used to see them around town, our Dad's knew some of them and we followed their racing exploits around the world with utter fascination. It was a real pleasure to get to talk with Ronny last Spring at the opening of the Chaparral Museum. He is the gentleman in the center in my photo above, seated between other notable Chaparral drivers Phil Hill and Brian Redman. In fact, Ronny was standing right next to me when I took these photos of Jim Hall preparing to drive the Chaparral 2F out of the garage for the last time.

Another loss in the passing of an era.

Humorous update: I had lunch today with several people who knew Ronny Hissom very well. The subject of his passing arose and so did this verified story from some years back.

It seems that Ronny and some associates from Midland were in New York decades ago and were having lunch at the famed "21 Club". When Ronny visited the men's room, he found himself face to face with none other than the legendary Aristotle Onassis. Ronny approached Mr. Onassis and said, "Sir, I'm Ronny Hissom visiting from Texas with business associates and it would be a great honor and enhance my standing among these men if you would come to my table and act like you know me. My close friends call me "Hiss".

Sure enough several moments later Mr. Onassis arrived at the table and announced, "Hiss good to see you, where have you been....give me a call sometime soon". Whereupon "Hiss" said to Mr. Onassis, "Ari, dammit can't you see we're busy right now, please don't interrupt"!

My kinda' guy....

Hospital notes...

It was a good day at the hospital, as all turned out well. After a day of fasting, and drinking toxic liquid designed to put everything inside one's intestines outside....Julie was ready to get her "procedure" over. She was a brave soldier as we got her checked into the hospital, a place we've become quite accustomed to. At her wish I attended the funeral for our friend George O'Brien while she attended to business at the hospital.

At about the time I had finished up at the services for George, she too had finished with medical business and the news was very good. A growth found and removed, time taken: about one hour. A routine biopsy will be done to be on the safe side. After a reunion with the family and a short recap of her adventure, the next order of business for the bride was eating. Dinner at 4:45 tasted awfully good to her.

We are most appreciative, once again, for the great quality of medical care we have in our smallish burg. And I got to show my appreciation for the care I received two months ago during my cardiac capers. While we waited to check Julie in, I took the opportunity to track down and thank Dr. Rea. The head of the emergency room, Dr. Rea was very much on the ball last December in quickly diagosing my back ache and shortness of breath as a cardiac problem. His personal attention and care was extraordinary, even stopping by after my operation to check on my condition.

Julie and I both liked him very much, and now I have an inkling why I had an affinity for him. He's a Vietnam Veteran, having been an Air Force aircraft crew chief in his days before Med School. There is something about Vets of that era that binds us together in special ways. After Julie checked out, I dropped back by and saw the Doc and left a personal little memento of Vietnam that he seemed to appreciate.

George O'Brien, Medal of Honor......

I knew that George O'Brien had recently had some health problems, but frankly I was rather floored when I learned that he had passed away on Friday. George was a friend, a longtime neighbor of my folks and a Korean War Medal of Honor winner. Oops sorry George, I mean awardee. George never liked to be called a MOH winner. In fact he didn't really like to talk about "the award" all that much to begin with. He usually had to be persuaded to talk about "the award" in public as he did on Memorial Day 2002 in the picture I took of him at left.

There are now only three living MOH awardees in Texas.

As described in The Midland Reporter-Telegram by another friend, Frank Cahoon, George was an extremely humble guy. The type of person who lives up to the honor. In his office were mementoes from the Marine Corps and pictures from the oil business. Nothing about the Medal of Honor. He considered the award one for his entire unit not just himself.

I met George through his wife Sandy who is a member of an organization abbreviated by two letters that I belong to. I used to see them together and walk with them occasionally and it was some time before I knew that George was in fact a MOH awardee. I would stop in and see George in his office downtown from time to time to talk mainly about the oil business and the military in general. The only time he ever spoke of his MOH experience to me was several years ago when he finally returned to Korea for the first time since the war. He had been apprehensive about going, but after the fact was so glad he went with several other men from his unit.

George will be missed greatly, as a role model, but more importantly as a friend and great guy. In his honor the Commemorative Air Force is building a Texas Medal of Honor Hall at our headquarters.

Take a moment to read the citation awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to George O'Brien.

Bloggers in the night....

As is sometimes our custom on Friday the Bride and I stepped out for a bite tonight. A simple, yet elegant dinner was our goal. We almost succumbed to custom and partook of the oriental delights at Kuo's Chinese, but we had been wanting to try the new Pizzeria Vente cafe almost next door, so there we were drawn.

I had ordered our salad and, as it turned out, a rather large pizza made with all natural ingredients from Italy including Italian water....or so they promise. Julie had secured our seating and as I walked from the ordering station back to the table my eye was met by a somewhat familiar eye....with face attached. It was none other than crosstown blogger of note Eric from the Fireant Gazette. Although I feel that I know Eric well, we had met in person only once previously while attempting to perform a little webpage community service. So I was appreciative that he stood up and made the connection tonight as well as inviting us to join his lovely bride and him at their table.

We had a great time catching up verbally rather than digitally for a change and both Julie and I hope we can connect with them more often. Like tomorrow Eric. We still have half that pizza!

Live from Afghanistan......

In case you haven't run across it yet there is a new Blog, billed as "The First Blog from Afghanistan". Afghan Warrior is written by a 20 y.o. young man working for the US Army as an interpreter. As he suggests the magnitude of change in that land is sigificant to say the least.

"During the Taliban we didn’t have internet system in Afghanistan but now there are about 25 net cafes in Kabul, and also some in Herat, Kandahar and Balkh provinces. People are really interested to use the internet"

Why not use your Internet and stop by to lend Waheed support.