A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....11-03-03....Military Monday

Aquamarine; Billie

[Calpernia]

{{{HUGGS}}}

CLICK!

[LadyX]

What are the odds of the two of us - both veterans - registering on the very same April day in 1998 on Free Republic with almost identical screen names, and ending up as regulars here in The Finest Room??!!

Been meaning to ask you, Ladtx, reading from your Profile Page:

"Retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer (W4)
Flew UH-1's in Vietnam, OH-58's in Germany, & the CH-47 Chinook in Korea & Texas
"Chinook's Haul Above All!"

I wanna know if you received Hazardous Duty Pay for the time in TEXAS!!
LOL

[ladtx]

Huge coincidence isn't it? Plus I have 2 granddaughters born in Rapid City and I know you lived up there for a while.

I wanna know if you received Hazardous Duty Pay for the time in TEXAS!!

No but I probably should have when I was a Warrant Officer Candidate in flight school and we would take a pass to go into Ft Worth. Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it.

[Aquamarine]

Good Morning Mama Bear. You're up awfully early, are you a morning person?

[MEG33]

Praise God that you heard fromm Jeff.Hugs to you and Mrs.ladtx.

Yesterday mystery ak found out her husband was alive and is on his way home.Sadly, he did lose 2 crewmembers.He arrives today and will be comforting the families.

God bless our armed forces and all who wait at home.May the wounded be healed and comforted.God Bless America

[LadyX]

"Plus I have 2 granddaughters born in Rapid City and I know you lived up there for a while."

Yes, I was there from Christmas Eve 1961 to the night after Christmas 1962.
Managed to have Jennifer, born 30 September 1962, followed a few days later by The Cuban Missile Crisis on the (then) Strategic Air Command's Home of the B-52's, in that action-packed year..:))

Jennifer was born in the same hospital as your two granddaughters!

They'll be swinging through to see you next month, won't they?
Where will your son be stationed in the Panhandle of Florida?

[FreeTheHostages]

My prayers for Jeff and for you and for your family's continuing efforts to keep us safe.

[ladtx]

They'll be swinging through to see you next month, won't they? Where will your son be stationed in the Panhandle of Florida?

They depart Rapid City on the 19th of this month. Mrs ladtx is going up there next week to help them drive back, so she will miss the last part of Jeff's homecoming. Brian insists that they can do it without her but you know how Momma's are. That's the way it goes with military families, as you are well aware.

He is going to be stationed at Pensacola and will be a navigator instructor. He really hates to leave B-1's though.

[LadyX]

"He is going to be stationed at Pensacola and will be a navigator instructor. He really hates to leave B-1's though."

As you and Mrs. ladtx well know, the plans all are His for our paths....
may He continue to guide and bless all of you.

- LadyX

[LadyX]

"Mrs ladtx is going up there next week to help them drive back, so she will miss the last part of Jeff's homecoming. Brian insists that they can do it without her but you know how Momma's are. That's the way it goes with military families, as you are well aware."

There are hitches in "the way it goes," ladtx.
I did all my childbearing and military travel without family help, far from Florida.

Visited, and my parents put the boys (then 6 and 7) and me on the plane to go to South Dakota, and it was the last time I ever saw my mother.

It was too far from Florida for her to be there when Jennifer was born, and we immediately (when Jennifer was 2 months old) were sent to Fairbanks, Alaska, not able to go to Florida and then up there, driving the Alaska Highway.

We were very close and wrote often, but she became ill in January 1964 and went to heaven on my second son's 10th birthday - never saw her after age 27 - never heard her voice again, felled by a burst aneurysm that left her totally incapacitated and unable to move, see or speak.

Count your blessings, as I will all my days for having had her.....

[FreeTheHostages]

Thanks. Same back to you. Last week was a good week here at Freeper's Finest.

Although I admit to being a little confused on when my next date is, what with this whirlwind of special events. Billie, I'm on for next Tuesday?

[Calpernia]

That is really something! Fate????

[Aquamarine]

The schedule I have printed out says that next Tuesday the 10th is Veteran's Day, with Dutchess doing the honors. Maybe you have the week off! :)

[Aquamarine]

Sorry, Veteran's Day is on the 11th on Tuesday.

[MeekOneGOP]

My latest PhotoDeluxe attempts ...

Exposed: Pelosi's Socialist Ties

Pelosi leader of 'Progressive Caucus'

[MeekOneGOP]

I love the little fella, Barney ...

Turn your speakers up, then
Click on the pic, lol !

[FreeTheHostages]

So it is!! Hmm. I'll await further orders, which, hee hee, shall be coming forthwith.

Meanwhile, I'm off to beat the bushes for a victim . . . oops, I mean profilee. Hee hee.

[LadyX]

Good morning, FreeTheVictims...:))

[Calpernia]

The Things They Carried
By "Tim O'Brien"

They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP-rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks.

They carried standard fatigues, jungle fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots.

They carried the M-16, trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-79 grenade launcher, M-14's, CAR-15's, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66mm LAWS, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence.

They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios with 25 foot wip antennas and their heavy batteries, knives and machetes.

Some carried napalm, CBU's and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others.

Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworms and leeches.

They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots.

They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones - real and imagined.

They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another.

And sometimes they disguised that love:
"Don't mean nothin'!"

They carried memories for the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity.

Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said "Dear God" and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die.

They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them.

They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations.

They carried the soldier's greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor.

They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment.

They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it.

They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment.

They carried the weight of the world and the weight of every free citizen of America.

And they carried each other.

[Aquamarine]

Great jpeg Meekie! Wonder why her eyes are so glassy looking.

You can reduce the size of that pic in your Photo Deluxe. Just click on Size at the top then Photo Size in the drop down tool bar. Can also reduce the size of the pixels in the same drop down tool bar.