Banner Photos....

I look at the photos in the top banner logo on this site daily. It occurs to me occasionally that perhaps some readers wonder who the folks are in the pictures. Perhaps you can't see them clearly or just don't know. So let me tell you.......

From the left the pictures are 1] Julie and me with Gen. Tommy Franks taken a year of so ago in Midland. We were presenting him with one of the photos that Joe Galloway and I sell online. 2] Me with Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway at a book signing at Ft. Hood 3 years ago. Hal was played by Mel Gibson in the film "We Were Soldiers", Joe was portrayed by Barry Pepper. Hal and Joe wrote the book the movie is based upon. 3] Julie and me with Bruce Crandall and wife Arlene in Midland 2 years ago. Bruce was the helicopter pilot in "We Were Soldiers" and was played by Greg Kinnear. 4] Me with Chuck Yeager at the CAF. Chuck was, as you know, the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. 5] Me with actor Sam Elliott in Washington D.C. 4 years ago. Sam starred in "We Were Soldiers" playing the role of SGM Plumely. 6] Julie and me with Pat Simmons, founder and lead guitarist of The Doobie Brothers. Taken in Odessa last summer. 7] Finally, me with Mike Hossack, drummer for The Doobie Brothers.

And the Picture of the Day is a breathtaking shot of a bridge over the Mississippi River near, I believe, Natchez Mississippi taken in 1964. Note the paddle wheel steamer under the bridge. Even as a young photographer I had a knack for the good shot!

Duchess.....

In mentioning my dog companions of the 1960's I would be remiss in not noting as the picture of the day, our other dog, Duchess. Duchess was our first golden retriever and the pet that gave my Dad a fondness for dogs that had not been there previously. Duchess was, like most golden's, a sweet dog and one summer she stayed at home with Dad while the rest of the family was on vacation in Missouri. Apparently she followed him around everywhere he went endearing herself to the lonely father.

We had Duchess during some of the same years as we had Frisky, mostly because my little sister, Susan, felt that since I, her older brother, had a dog that so should she. Duchess had one litter of jet black pups before she was "fixed" which must have been a big deal to me as I have a multitude of pictures of them from all angles and poses. They were extremely cute.

I remember the 4th of July that we kids were throwing "cracker balls" on the patio. Cracker balls were the little colored balls with a small amount of black powder inside that exploded when thrown against hard surfaces...like patio cement. They looked amazingly similar to Trix cereal. That's probably what Duchess thought the day she tried to eat one and had it explode in her mouth, a muffled pop. She was OK, but I don't believe that she ever ate anything off the ground again.

We had Duchess through my high school years and when I went away to college in 1967 little did I know that when I left that would be the last time I would see sweet Duchess. She developed a terminal illness and had to be released from her pain while I was away. I think even my Dad cried at her passing.

Frisky......

As I may have mentioned, my Mother was recently cleaning out the office in their home and came upon a box of my old mementoes which contained news clippings about me, letters to and from them, but mainly a treasure trove of old photos. Some of these photos I had not seen in probably 30 years, some perhaps longer.

Of special interest were photos taken on my first Kodak Brownie camera which used the old 140 type film that produced smallish, square black and white snapshots. I was 11 or 12 years old when I snapped these images of dogs past, trips to New Mexico, and the backyard on Douglas Ave. as it was when we first moved to Midland in 1960. Sometimes when I stare at these old remembrances I really almost go into a trance thinking of the way things were then. Sometimes I almost want to cry.

I will share some of these memories with you and for my Picture of the Day this Wednesday I present you with my dog and boon companion Frisky. We got Frisky when we lived in New Orleans in 1957. In those simpler times kids and dogs could and did roam freely in the extended neighborhood and so Frisky was with me everywhere. I remember riding my bike daily to the Bayou St. John with Fisky running right at my side while my friend Mike Lancaster and his dog Rex followed along.

In the 1950's dogs were let out front to roam and somehow always seemed to come home. Usually there were no problems but when I saw Frisky's picture once again after all those years I was reminded that once he did get hit by a car while out. He managed to make it home and then spent a week under my parents bed. When he came out he was fully recovered from the collision.

Frisky moved with us to Midland and seemed to love it here in West Texas, espcially after he learned to scale the cinderblock wall encircling the backyard. He could walk on the top of the wall like a trapeze artist and soon learned that if he walked all the way around the fence he could access the roof of the house. Thus, Frisky spent many a happy hour perched on the top of the house surveying his neighborhood domain.

Frisky was with us a long time, but I'm ashamed to say I can't remember exactly how long....when it was that he passed away. As I grew into my teenaged years I probably spent less and less time with him and thinking about that makes me very sad. I try to do better with my dogs as an adult.

Down at the FUMC...

Things were hopping down at the First United Methodist Church [the FUMC] this morning. By the way it's the 120th anniversary of the FUMC this year which may not seem like a long time if you live in England but in West Texas anything that's been around for 120 years is a big deal. Those Methodists ranchers were a devout lot and led the pack in setting up a church. The Presbyterian sheep herders weren't far behind.

People make a church and I had to laugh at several comments made to the person seated in front of us this morning. We were seated far to the rear in order that Julie could make an early exit in order to go home and start dinner for our parents who were coming over at noon. The older gentlemen in the next pew was by himself, but apparently he was not without a bevy of good buddies. One man passed him by, stopped, and then came back and said, "hey Bill good to see you......when did you get out of jail"? Shortly thereafter another older man strolled by and casually said to Bill, "you know you'd get a lot more out of this if you'd move to a pew near the front". Good natured banter which just struck me as humorous.....

And now a feature not seen in a long time, the "picture of the day". Or, perhaps better titled, "the picture of whenever I feel like putting a new one up". The POD can be found at: Stream Views

School Daze..... It's back to class time at St. Ann's Catholic School. Starting one day before the public schools, it does seem like the summer vacation was very short and had just started. It went quickly. Julie and Jack were off to England for two weeks right out of the chute, then Jack and I made an effort to play tennis in the mornings, followed by Jack's visit at his Dad's for two weeks and then with a little piddling around time, vacation is over. Being of the "old school" it does seem to me that ending summer vacation in the middle of August is a tad too early. Of course being "old school" means I went to an old school, one without air-conditioning which made it all but impossible to attend classes in August.

This year Jack is starting the 6th grade at St. Ann's. A time of some reflection for me, since my family moved to Midland between my 5th and 6th grade years and I started school for the first time here at Bowie Elementary which was, and still is, just down the street from my house. I have returned to the old neighborhood and so still get to see the children strolling down the same sidewalks as did I all those years ago. But Jack is a St. Ann's kid and proud of it. This year he gets more choices in his uniform attire, between red, green or blue shirts. The younger kids have to wear yellow. A choice in colors is a newly acquired status symbol for a young man growing up. And he has grown just this summer looking noticeably taller and more, dare I say, teenager like. Even my Mother mentioned his growth spurt. Tonight we will stand him up against the back of the door in his room, mark his height and compare it to last years altitude. I'm thinking the gain will be an inch or more.

I hope Jack's year in the 6th grade will be as memorable as mine, I came away with many blessings. We still talk about my teacher Ms. Lucia Pearl Penny, a professional old maid school teacher who loved her kids. In those days we said the pledge of allegiance with no qualms and the last thing we did before going to lunch was to listen to Paul Harvey News on the radio. We knew the rest of the story. I met two of my lifelong best friends that 6th grade year at Bowie Elementary and learned my love of art there too. I was on the committee charged with drawing a full length mural on the wall [OK, on paper on the wall] depicting the history of Midland. I learned perspective on the project. No, not philosophical perspective, but how to draw using perspective to correctly show distance.

Oh to be back in those simpler times. Enjoy yourself Jack!

When it rains, it....deluges!

Mid to late August in West Texas is normally the driest time of the year. The dog days where during many years one is lucky to see a cloud. It has been that way for the last 8 or so years accentuated by the drought we had been in.

I say had because as I sit here on a Sunday afternoon it has just rained almost 1.5 inches at the Bedford Dr. estate. This in the last hour or so, on top of the half an inch we had accumulated since the early morning hours. Fire crews are out rescuing inattentive drivers, the draw is overflowing and more rain is expected.

Normally I would rejoice in the deluge and the goodness it brings to the land, but the Bride and son are driving back from New Mexico in the yellow bug and I fret about their well being. At least her Dad and Mom are on the road with them in another larger vehicle, but the flat lands are notorious for flooding even in remote stretches. I pray that the Good Lord watches over them.....more later.

5:30 update: The bride just phoned and she and Jack are safely back inside the city limits of Midland. Thank you Lord, and now the rain gauge out back reads, 2.5 inches!

Miss Ellie....

Barbara Bel Geddes, Miss Ellie, is gone. Barbara died Monday at the age of 82. Miss Ellie was the only consistantly good hearted soul on "Dallas", only losing her cool when one of her family members got completely out of control...which come to think of it was at least once an episode.

Dallas was a smarmy soap opera and now days I would probably not watch something of it's ilk. But when it originally aired I was a resident of Dallas [the city not the show] and the filming occured at many locales I was very familiar with including the First International Building which was where the Ewing Oil empire was based. I was based there too. In fact the real estate company that I worked for leased the building and so, many times, we could get great viewing opportunities of the filming when the general public was excluded. I don't think I ever saw Miss Ellie [she wasn't usually invited to the Ewing offices!] but I did see J.R. [Larry Hagman] and Bobby [Patrick Duffy] and Cliff Barnes [Ken Kercheval] on many occasions when they were filming street scenes in front of the building.

I once ran into Larry Hagman at a country and western bar on the Greenville Ave. strip. The name of the bar escapes me though I remember it was at the corner of Greenville and Lovers Lane. Larry was in rare form making the rounds of the tables handing out "J.R. Bucks", fake one dollar bills with his picture in place of Washington's. Fun times though I, and I think Larry, have given up that wilder side of life. It's interesting to catch "Dallas" reruns sometimes today and remember my life in Big D in the early 80's. Miss Ellie was a part of that and Barbara Bel Geddes seemed like such a nice woman among a pack of thieves. Thanks for the memories.

Friends....update

This morning I received a personal call from the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the honorable Gordon Mansfield. Gordon and I had a very nice conversation and I could tell that Gordon is as sincere as they come about doing the right things for veterans. He promised to personally look into my case. I cannot ask for more. I hope to have the privelage of meeting Gordon at the Ia Drang reunion in Washington over the upcoming Veterans Day weekend.

Friends.....

Posting to the journal this week has been non existant due to....well, reality. Sometimes when things seem to be sailing on a smooth course, unhappy reality reaches up and just smacks you in the face.

I learned this week from Midland Memorial Hospital that the Veteran's Administration was balking at paying the extensive costs for my heart rebuild late last year. I have had no reason to doubt over the years that the Veteran's Administration would be there as my major medical provider. The reason for the "problem" is a long and involved story, but basically is rooted in the fine print of recent changes in the VA system mandated by congress. Changes designed to save money by shortchanging veterans including changes that affect the payment of "fee based" services. That is....emergency services performed outside of a VA hospital, which is what my case involves. And I have to add that I do not blame the Veteran's Administration where my care at their hospitals has always been superb. The problem is the trough swilling politicians who control the purse strings and who never miss an opportunity to raise their own salaries and benefits packages while violating promises made to veterans.

I have to say that when I learned of this "problem", it sent me into the grandest of funks. But as I've learned, one can either do little or nothing and feel sorry for himself, or one can go into action. Personally, action makes me feel a little better anyway so.....the day after learning of the "problem" I went to the VA Regional Hospital in Big Spring to learn the details for myself. The "problem", in simple terms, is a grand government Catch-22. If you have had no medical problems and haven't used the hospital services within two years, then when you do need services you are not entitled to them. In other words, in a time of VA austerity, the idea is that all registered veterans should visit the hospital once a year whether needed or not. The staff in Big Spring wanted to help but said they are locked in by "law" on this concept.

I left thinking that I would visit my congressman's office about the situation. I still might, however for the time being fate intervened. I happened to get a call from my good friend Joe Galloway in Washington. As we talked the thought occured to me that with all his conections Joe might know someone within the VA heirarchy that I might speak to. And in fact he did...the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs who just happens to be the Chief Operating Officer of the entire VA Medical System.

Joe provided the Deputy Secretary's personal office email address and I composed a respectful email letter outlining my "problem" which I sent this afternoon. I sometimes forget what "going to the top" through a personal recommendation will do for a situation. Within 30 minutes I had an email reply from the Dep. Secretary's personal assistant saying that he was out of town but that she had asked one of the senior staff members to look into my "problem". Literally 30 mintues later the staff member called me asking for all the details of the "problem" and promising all the help they could provide. Additionally Joe tells me that he has written a personal note to his friend, the Deputy Secretary.

Truthfully I was reluctant to write this narrative as the outcome of the "problem" is still in doubt and the reality is that it may not yet be solved to my liking. But, I had to say that this has reminded me that even when things look dark, if one has friends and family on his side and a willingness to take action, there is hope.

Presidential Library....

As thoughts turn to the end of the presidential term of George W. Bush, thoughts also turn to the sweepstakes involved in who gets to host his presidential library. The short list of those who the President wishes to see a proposal from have been made public. On the list is our own Midland College. The others are the city of Arlington, Southern Methodist University, the University of Dallas, Baylor University, Texas Tech University, the University of Texas System and Texas A&M.

When the rumors of who would be invited to bid first surfaced and I heard Midland College mentioned, my first thought was....."yeah right, a snowballs chance in hell". However after seeing the entire list I've moderated my view somewhat. Midland may have a chance. The one chance being if Dubya steps up and says, "I want my library in Midland". Otherwise I think we can forget it. I have to think that the selection process involves some degree of ego, the scholarly disposition of the proposed host, money [who can afford to build it] and the President's personal wishes. A strong wish could override the other factors. Dubya could simply say, "Midland is where it's going".

Now I do think that we may be ahead of some of the others on the list. I cannot see the "city" of Arlington being selected. Dubya has no real allegiance to the entertainment capital of Texas except that his former baseball team was located there. Big deal. University of Dallas.....I don't think so, small school with no connection to George. The University of Texas and Texas A&M were good choices for two former presidents but I can't see Dubya located with LBJ and I don't think he wants to follow in Dad's footsteps at A&M.

This leaves three other large universities as the front runners. The "M" in SMU is for Methodist. George and Laura belong to the Methodist Church and coupled with the fact that it is located in a major metropolitan area, one in which George lived, it may have a good chance. As does Baylor. For whatever reason Dubya has become fond of this area of Central Texas and one supposes that George and Laura will retire in Crawford, so having his library close at hand would be a plus. Texas Tech is a large school but, again, George has no connection here except that the school is in West Texas. Texas Tech is an also ran to the first two schools.

SMU and Baylor have to be the odds on favorites, with Midland leading the long shot field. I'm afraid that our remote location works against us as does the small size and depth of a two year college and the perceived trouble in raising the necessary $200 million to build the facility. But Dubya loves Midland and has strong emotional ties here so stranger things have happened.

Cool breeze........

The unusually cool weather has been the buzz of bloggers around town the last several days and I have to add one final thought, one final mention of a blessing bestowed upon us. That blessing is that the air conditioner in our home has not been on for two entire middle of the summer days. That is unheard of in West Texas.

Owning a home that has been in existance almost as long as you have is a trying experience sometimes, but with the tribulations come some decided advangtages, chief of which is to be surrounded by windows that actually open to the clean, pure and cool air outside. We have been communing with nature now since Wednesday and in the main enjoying it. It's good to hear the sound of our feathered friends as we awaken in the morning and calming to me to be able to hear the trains pass by just a little over a mile away. When all is calm late at night and one listens carefully, the click-clack of the wheels on the tracks can even be heard. Coming from a railroad family it is a balm to my soul.

We have one more night of open windows until the weather turns back to a more normal heat and we have to shut the house up once again. The two air conditioning units cooling the home will start to drown out the sound of nature and I'll have visions of dollar bills being sucked out of my wallet by the hour, but for now I'll just enjoy the quiet cool reverie.

Storm........

We had been forewarned that the weather was going to be taking a drastic change on Tuesday, so it was not surprising that when I drove back to the office after lunch I spotted a massive thundercloud over the mountains to the southwest. In West Texas we can see storms a far way distant and this one was over 125 miles away but still looking beautiful and large. It was one of those times that I wished a had carried my camera along.

Later in the afternoon as I left the office there were storms popping up in all directions and at a much closer range. It was strange, though, that with all these storms we barely had a sprinkle by the time I left to go on my 5:15 p.m. walk at Midland Memorial Stadium. The track has unobstructed views in all directions and I was struck by the thought that this looked like some of the pictures of the primordial earth I had seen in geology textbooks. The image of volcanoes spewing ash while thunderstorms streamed lightning down on the still forming earth from all quarters.

There were two massive storms, one to the southwest and the other to the east, that had torrents of rain flooding down while lightning bolts shot to groud every few seconds. Beyond these storms to the southwest I could still see the mountain storm lit a mellow golden hue in the afternoon sun. Still no rain on the Bedford estate after I arrived home. No rain until around 10 p.m. when thunder and lightning announced the arrival of the deluge to follow. There was constant thunder for almost two hours....sounding much like the artillery barrage at the seige of Khe Sanh must have been like in 1968.

I haven't checked the rain gauge, but I don't think that we got the several inches that were predicted as possible, but still a copious amount of needed rain and the temperature has dropped a good 25 degrees from yesterdays steamy heat. Quite a dramatic and beautiful display of natures glory with the added blessing of unheard of cool weather!

Connected....

The Internet is an amazing thing, sometimes allowing for almost instant connections with things that appear in one's life.

If you live in or around Midland, perhaps you read the story in the "Lifestyles" section of Sundays Midland Reporter-Telegram about the WWII veteran who has his photographs of life in post war Germany on display at the Allied War Museum in Berlin. I was interested in Mr. Carl F. McDaniel and his story because he is a long time photographer and for the historical context of his remembrances, so I followed up the newpaper story with a visit to the websites referred to in the article. While browsing through his pictures I came across a "Guestbook" for the site where I left a note commenting on how I'd found his information and what a pleasure it was to see his historical record being preserved. I thought this was the end of the story.

It wasn't. Not more than an hour later I received an email from "Mac" thanking me for my comments and expressing, it seemed to me, some degree of surprise that his story had been printed in a newspaper far distant from his Pennsylvania home. He asked if I might send him a copy of the paper for his archives....something I did this afternoon. Apparently the Associated Press picked up Mac's story and it appeared around the country.

Mac and I exchanged further emails Sunday evening and I caught a glimpse of a very interesting man. Mac is 81 years old now, but his interest in photography has not waned and he has, like many of us, learned what a good vehicle the Internet is for displaying our work. Mac does his own websites and expressed to me his interest in moving from Minolta 35mm cameras into the digital camera realm, something I hope he gets to do. For now, Mac is doing 35mm camera work and then scanning the photos for posting on his websites. Sites like the Williamsport Market Street Bridge

Laugh out Loud....

I received an inquiry this morning from blogosphere buddy Justin T. concerning residential living at the Petroleum Building in downtown Midland. I office in that building and sometimes forget just how much people who read blogs know about their authors one way or the other. I try not to post anything that I wouldn't want anyone to know, it's just a reminder to be on my best behavior.

Anywho....Justin wanted to know if there is residential living space in the Petroleum Building. It seems that Justin is a performer in the Summer Mummers and as he is exiting the Yucca Theater after performances he has seen what looks like the light from a TV screen coming from the office space above. I had to give Justin the news that, no there is no residential space in the building. I suspect he is seeing someones computer monitor reflecting light on the windows.

What interested me about Justins e-note was the link he provided with the mail. Justin is a member of The Venue a comedy improv group that is available for bookings now. Sounds like an interesting idea for your next party or group meeting. I thought I'd give Justin's group a little plug.......

Louis H. "Mike" Michaelson
1919-2005

Having been in Odessa most of the day, I hadn't had the chance to read the paper before I checked my emails this evening. I was saddened beyond words to read my Mother's short mail message telling me that Louis Michaelson had passed away on Sunday.

Louis H. "Mike" Michaelson was the head scoutmaster of my old unit, Troop 85, of the First Presbyterian Church, Midland, Texas. It's hard to imagine in this modern world how a man could have such an impact on me and most of the boys he came into contact with during those growing up years. Many men I know today owe much of what we are to Mike Michaelson and the other leaders of that troop. People like Bill Bosworth, Gene Thomas, Wilmont Hunt and my dad, Wally Craig.

The time and effort they put into our scouting education was enormous. Activities like the 50 mile hike along the old Butterfield stage route near Sheffield, visiting all the old cavalry forts like Lancaster and McKavett. Camping on the Devil's River, at Horsehead Crossing, Camp Pegasus and of course a week every summer at the splendid Davis Mountain Boy Scout Ranch. Mike Michaelson planned, organized and led one of the great treks that I've ever heard about in scouting, taking 40 boys on a Greyhound Bus from Midland up through Canada, to the New York Worlds Fair of 1964, capped off by a week at the Scout National Jamboree at Valley Forge....a monumental three week excursion. When I asked him, later in life, how he and the other adult leaders managed to stay sane during the trip he told me his secret. "After you boys went to bed, we drank a lot of Scotch".

Mike and the other leaders had grown up during the depression and had all served their country in the military during WW II, most in combat situations. The lessons they had learned during these difficult times they passed on to us scouts. The Scout oath and motto were not just slogans to them, but the way they lived their lives. They expected us to do the same. Mike Michaelson was not an easy scoutmaster to please. He expected you to do your best. His expressions are legendary and still talked about whenever Troop 85 alumni get together. "You knothead". "I didn't ask for any chit-chat". "Get moving you yardbirds"! My neighbor and fellow Troop 85 scout, Scott Davis, and I always have a laugh over these. I usually remark that I did so well in the Army Airborne because of my scout training. Scouts was tougher.

I'll miss Mike Michaelson and the thought that he is no longer around, I used to stop in and see him at his office until just a few years ago. I wish I would have stopped in one more time.

Mike is pictured above in this shaky 1962 photo I took on the 50 mile historic hike on the Butterfield Stage route. He is the man on the far left on the road in the white shirt and pack watching scouts rest. In an example of history repeating itself, I have a picture of me in the army 10 years later standing on the road with a pack while my platoon rests on the side of the road.

Noteworthy....

The Bride and I decided to step out for a bite and a bit of browsing at Barnes and Nobles tonight. An interesting and out of the ordinary experience from our usual B&N visits as it was just hours before the release of the new Harry Potter book. Some strange and different folks were habituating the store. As I told Julie, it seemed more like we were in California than West Texas.

Ever since I found some great golden retriever note cards at B&N years ago, I always check the card selection. It's usually good, diverse and eclectic.......like me! Anyway, I did spy a whole rack of very interesting cards all with a Texas theme. The company that makes these has the regional market in mind, and I'm sure produces cards oriented towards each state's areas of interest. I bought four different cards and as you can see from the scan above these are geared towards the West Texas oil business. These are first rate folding note cards with quality art work, not post cards, although some of the cards were probably taken from old post cards such as the nostalgic "Vist Marfa" and "Jackalope" cards. The caption on the card at left says, "Instead of a gusher, Fire! Oil well explosion in West Texas". On the right the card reads, "One of the new gushers in the Odessa Oil Field".

If you're in Barnes and Nobles check these out....they're not cheap but you may find one that you can't live without. To view the huge array of Texas cards go to Found Image click on "Image Catalogue" and then select "Texas".

Musings......

Sometimes I just wonder about different and strange things.

Before adding an RSS feed and thence signing on with a news aggregator service I was vaguely aware of the posting patterns of the bloggers that I regularly read. With the aggregator, which I check several times daily, I am now more in tune with how often people post new material. So I am always amazed that when I check updates Powerline always seems to have at least 6 or 7 new stories posted since the last time I checked, just hours previously. Don't these guys work? Don't they have families that require some attention when they're not working?

I know there are multiple contributors to Powerline, but really, these guys are attorneys. If I had hired them to do legal work for me and then saw them posting international news stories on their personal website every hour or so, I'd begin to wonder where my fees were going. Of course, I enjoy their work and they're free to do whatever they want...I was just wondering.

I've also been wondering what bottled Blueberry Juice tastes like. Grapes and most dark berries are very good anti-oxidants and I've been drinking much more grape juice lately in respect for my cardiac system. I recently spotted blueberry juice at the store.......I love blueberries. The price for the juice is rather high though, so I've passed it by. Until today. I saw that pomegranate-blueberry juice was half priced so I bought some. The verdict is.....it's wonderful. Not overpowering in the pomegranate department [as if I'd now what pomegranate juice tastes like anyway] and very sweet and mild. I'd recommend it. Make sure you get the sort that is mostly juice and not sugar and fillers. Bon appetite.

Where I've been.....

Once again Eric at The FireAnt Gazette has introduced me to an interesting little excercise, this time asking which states I've been to or resided in. I've been waiting for this one!

For purposes of "residing in" I have qualified this by locales in which I had an address for 2 months or over. Visiting, in all cases means actually boots on the ground....not just passing through an airport in that state.

bold The states I've been to, underline The states I've lived in and italicize the state I'm now in....physically not metaphorically!

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Happy Independence Day.....

We hope you are having a great July 4th. What better way to celebrate the meaning of America than by attending a Little League baseball game which we did this afternoon. Unfortunately Jack's All Star team did not play one of their better games and so now they were eliminated from the tournament, but a good time and great season was had by all.

Chaparral Update....

It's always exciting for me to visit the Chaparral Racing garages on the southside of town. I took my partner Del Sloan out today for his first visit and he, like me, was in hog heaven. The purpose of my visit was to see my friend Jim Edwards who runs Chaparral Racing for Jim Hall and who tends to the cars. Since I posted my Chaparral Racing website last year I receive a fairly constant flow of emails wanting to know more about the cars....or like the mail I received last week, wanting to know about visiting the offices and garages. I needed to ask Jim about a tour group from Dallas who wanted an upclose tour of the shops.

Most of the famous Chaparral's are in the Petroleum Museum's exhibit, but as you can see from the photo above there are still some significant cars from Hall's personal collection that reside in the garage area at Rattlesnake Raceway. The yellow Pennzoil Indy car was the one that Gil de Ferran drove for Chaparral, while the green car in front of it is an early 60's Lotus Formula I racer. Jim Edwards is leaning on the blue prototype that was developed by Chevrolet to be tested by Hall at Chaparral. Jim also has many what I would term, antique, vehicles as seen in the rear.

As we visited, Jim Edwards told me the interesting news that Jim Hall was developing a reproduction Chaparral 2E to be sold to the public....price to be determined. Now you too can race a little piece of history. And more news about a new Indy League racing team is brewing with Jim he may be looking for partners if you are interested!

Blog Survey...

Because my brother attended this fine institution and following the lead of noted social scientist and web developer Eric at The FireAnt Gazette, I have taken the MIT Blog Survey. Are you man or woman enough to do the same?

Ya just gotta' laugh...

I had to laugh at the conversation at the estate today. What else can you do?

I had been working in the yard all morning wearing my gardening shoes. These are the expensive $5.98 slip on models from Albertson's that I can hose off before coming into the house.

As I finished up the yard and was returning to the bedroom to deposit my shoes, the Bride spied me. The conversation went thusly.......

Bride: "Go take those shoes outside, they're wet and they stink"!

Me: "Well I hosed them off and anyway you're not the boss of me"!

Bride: "I most certainly am too"

I took the shoes outside as I had no rejoinder for her assertion.

Update.....

Short update at that. My Dad has been in the hospital for one week today and we're hopeful he'll be getting out this afternoon. Out meaning, again hopefully, out to rehab. He was weak when he entered Midland Memorial last Friday and lying around down there hasn't helped, so a few days working on rehabilitating his strength seems to me to be in order.

And don't forget, if you're home tonight, to watch my good buddy Joe Galloway on The History Channel's, Mail Call with R. Lee. Ermey. The show is scheduled at 9 o'clock p.m. Central Standard Time.

Other Matters.....

Posts have been few and far between here at the Blog. Not that I haven't had the time, it just that my mind has been otherwise occupied. My Dad has been in the hospital since last Friday.

A lifetime of smoking has left it's mark on him. Not that he hasn't had troubles in the last decade because of this, but as he approacheds his 83rd birthday, each bout of respiratory troubles becomes more serious. He has had troubles breathing before but last Friday it worried even him, so we decided that a stay in the hospital was the prudent course of action, to see if we couldn't reduce the fluid in his lungs and to have him get some rest. There has been some progress and the plan is for him to go home tomorrow.

An interesting coincidence concerning my Dad and his WWII service occured during this time, which, in a strange way made us both feel a little better. Some time ago I made mention of my Dad's war record and the fact that he had served in the 45th Infantry Division in Italy. Earlier this week I received an email from a local newsman who reads this journal. He said that he had seen the reference to the 45th Division and that his Dad had served in the 45th also, with "K" Company in the 179th Battalion. My Dad served in "A" Company of the 179th. A small world. Serving in the same battalion is quite a coincidence.

My most interesting blog update has actually been elsewhere, at Neo-Neocon where I helped fill in some details about the Bush family and their "mansions" in Midland. An interesting take from a former liberal!

Race Day.....

A big race weekend for me with some amazing stories.

First, from Saturday morning until Sunday morning was the 24 hours of LeMans. One of my favorite races, it involves all manner of sports cars in several classes from the unrestricted custom built racers dominated by Audi variants through Corvettes, Porches, Panoz and this year great runs by Aston Martins. The big news was that an American team won the overall trophy for the first time since 1967. That fact stunned me. No American team has won in the 38 years since Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt did so driving a Ford GT40. Fairly amazing really. 38 years ago, our own Chaparrals were running at LeMans.

The second and more remarkable story was the complete snafu of the American Formula One Gran Prix at Indianapolis. If you didn't catch the race, what was left of it, or haven't heard it was a complete bust. Only hours before the race was to begin, one of the two tire suppliers, Michelin, announced that the racing tires they supplied to most of the field were unsafe. A point highlighted by the crashes of several drivers at the high speed turn 13 during practice.

As controversy swirled, Michelin offered to supply new tires, the Indy race committee offered to modify the track to slow down traffic at turn 13 and the Michelin equiped teams said that they would not allow their drivers to compete unless the safety of their drivers could be insured. The Formula One Administration held firm to their rules that no new tires could be supplied and that the track could not be altered at the last minute. The outcome was that only the 6 cars supplied with Bridgestone tires started the race. The finishing order was a foregone conclusion as two of the six starters, the Ferrari's, were top contenders and the other four cars had been finishing at the rear of the ranks all year. And so it was.

The whole event was a fiaso and will not bode well for future Formula One events in the United States. It was a sad day for drivers, teams, Formula One in general and for the fans in particular.

Bookish.....

Here's a revealing little exercise I've received from Neo-NeoCon and the Red Falcon. It involves, as you can see, books.

1) Total number of books I own:

This is very difficult and if I knew I'd tell you, but my books are scattered all over creation. They are in seperate bookcases, shelves and warehouse units. I have books from my childhood, from college courses and all stages of adulthood. If I had to wager a guess on the total number of books I own, it would be over 600. I have gotten rid of at least that many.

2) Last book I bought:

My best guess is that I last bought a bundle of T.R. Fehrenbach's books several years ago when Julie and I went to San Antonio and had the chance to spend a morning with T.R. We took copies of "Lone Star", "This Kind of War" and "Comanches". T.R. was kind enough to autgraph them all for us.

3) Last book I read:

I know this one without doubt. I just this week, finally, finished Gene Cernan's "Last Man on the Moon". A great story of his personal life as an astronaut and the early space program. Gene autographed it for me.....through my brother.

4) Five books with notable influence on me:

a] "We Were Soldiers Once....and Young" by Joe Galloway and Hal Moore-- a big influence since I ended up becoming great friends with the author and many of the key characters in the book. Autographed by authors and numerous characters.
b] "Comanches" by T.R. Fehrenbach-- a great, detailed history of the region I live in. I have an autographed copy.
c] "Son of the Morning Star" by Evan S. Connell-- a great story told in an almost mystical manner.
d] "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien-- This would be on my list if it only contained the first chapter, the description of the things they carried. Some of the best prose ever written. Another autographed copy.
e] "A Rumor of War" by Phil Caputo-- A vivid personal journey of one young man's war in Vietnam. Autographed volume.

5) Five people to hand this meme off to:

The usual cast of characters mostly with a local flavor, some of which may have already been thru this bookish exercise. They can simply note the archive link!

Julie aka The Bride
George at Sleepless in Midland
Eric at the Fireant Gazette
Jimmy at Sticky Door Knobs
Lisa, far away at A Broad from Abroad

Friday Night....

Here I sit at my computer while the Bride sits 5 feet away at her's, the time made more cheery by the newly purchased Classic Moody Blues CD. "Once upon a time" is the track playing right now. I like the Moody's especially the very early tunes that really sound like a different band than what the MB's ended up being. The bride bought this Moody's CD and another "best of" album tonight, The Best of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. TJB hits stretching back to 1964, thru the easy listening 60's, a few from the 1970's and then a selection of Herb's hits from the era I call, "Disco Herb". Actually some of these are quite good, like "Rise" and although Alpert was obviously playing to the disco pop crowd of the time, these are more than just disco mania. More jazzy and just very artistic.

The Bride purchased these CD's on our stop at Best Buy after dinner. At Best Buy we ran into blogger Jimmy Patterson. It was rather coincidental that after having spent Monday with two of the other active Bloggers in Midland, I had the chance to chat with a third on Friday. The meeting gave us a chance to talk about our defective, but hopefully mending hearts, and for Jimmy to update me on the idea that several of us will be blogging for the newspaper online soon.

All of this took place after Julie and I had a romantic dinner for two at a local eatery of some fame, Chez IHOP. We hadn't been to the IHOP in quite some time, and after having been to all of our favorite restaurants recently we decided that a pancake supper was in order. I had been gone from IHOP all too long I suppose for I discovered, with both joy and regret, that I now qualify for the Senior Citizens "Early Bird" Special, a free entree with any entree purchased between 3 and 6 p.m. I might add that the age at which the IHOP defines a "Senior Citizen" is ridiculously low. Somewhere Jerry Seinfeld is laughing.

Imaging....

I love photography and I think I'm most happy when taking new images, reviewing and reworking old images of mine, or as now, helping other people with images for their use. Three projects undertaken in the last several days. Most recently I've begun to work thru the shots Julie took on her recent trip to London and Paris. We have downloaded her digital shots and I've put a few of them up at our London Images website. More will be posted in the next several days, as she captured most of her images on 35 mm. cameras. Scanning and posting of those is coming.

Last night I got one of those "emails out of the blue" that happens when you have many photographs catalogued on the web. I received a request from a young man in Oregon who wants to use several of my Chaparral Racing photos on a website he is developing for a major game, Gran Turismo 4, played on PlayStation2. It just so happens that I have the GT-3 version of this racing game and he flattered me by saying I had the best Chaparral pictures on the web...so I OK'ed his usage of my images for free. It didn't hurt that he also has just gotten out of the army!

The third project is another one of those very interesting ones that I get to do through my good friend, author Joe Galloway. Last week I received an email from the producer of Mail Call, with Gunny R. Lee Ermey on The History Channel. Joe will be appearing on Mail Call to talk about the battles of the 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam in 1965. To go with his, and others, distinguised oratory they needed pictures. Since I handle many of Joe's digital image files, it was my pleasure to get the photos to the producers at Digital Ranch Productions. The episode will air June 24th at 9 p.m.

Bloggers....

Two "old pro" bloggers, Eric Siegmund [C] and Wallace Craig [R], get together with a rising star of the blogosphere, Burr Williams [L], to discuss a new website for Burr's organization the Sibley Nature Center. To my knowledge this is the first group photo of Midland bloggers. Burr has only recently started blogging but already has a good base of support at his interesting and colorful journal, El Llanero. The website that we discussed will be interactive and full of more useful information about West Texas.

Land of the Rising Sun...

I don't believe that I've ever had my picture [and that of the lovely bride] posted on a Japanese based website. Until today. Thanks to the guys at Chinpunbeifun we will be now be recognized on the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka which is good because nobody pays much attention to me here. This brings me full circle as my association with the Japanese is long standing. When I was a freshman, our high school foreign exchange student, Takao Umino, was from Japan. When I lived in Hawaii, I regularly drank beer on Friday afternoons with many nisei and sansei gentlemen down at Sunset Beach. Later in life I loaded up on Japanese electronics.

It's rather interesting but I met the Chinpunbeifun bunch through the comment section of Roger L. Simon's blog. When they started their own online journal, Roger was kind enough to mention the new site which quickly drew me there. It was a treat having them display a few of my Japanese related aviation photos. Next I plan on sending picutres of some of my rather old Japanese woodblock prints.

And I'm very gratified to see that they had an interest in our new blog for Burr Williams and the Sibley Center. I think that Burr is going to be a hit in Blogville.

They're home.....!

The Bride and child are back from London and my joy is boundless! I missed them ever so much. Here's Julie as she descends the airport stairs with her friend Sue Ellen who accompanied Julie and Jack back from Houston. It was a poignant reunion and I had the opportunity to show the travelers all the things in Midland that had changed since their departure. Well, OK, nothing much has changed but the weather is much hotter than when they departed. I'm glad they're home, the dogs are glad they're home. Hopefully home for awhile.

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".