USO Canteen FReeper Style....FReeper FRiday.... July 12,2002

Larry Johnson , AntiJen , Cotelanche and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

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The USO Canteen Honors FReepers
who have served, or are now serving their country.

Today's Honoree

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You may have a loved one who has served in the past.
We at the FReeper USO Canteen would like to honor each and every one.

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Welcome to the USO Canteen FReeper Style

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Message from Snow Bunny to all those who visit the Canteen.

This is how I think of the USO Canteen Freeper Style.
It is like a cottage down a road,
a place where a weary veteran can spend the night.

Since it opened, it is magical how so many
Freepers who post here, feel it too.
It has been so dear how the Freepers
kept making it a cottage - a home-type of place
that had a huge living room
for them to visit in and a dance floor, a library, etc.

Many Veterans have written to me,
saying that the Canteen is like home
to them for the first time since they served.

This is your Canteen -
a respite from our busy
and sometimes troubling world.
Make yourself at home...............................................................................................................................................................................

In 1998 Larry Johnson became a FReeper.

He retired to Maine in 1996 to be near his grandkids. Jay is on his back in the first picture.

It was Maine where he first heard Rush and Mary Matalin and got on WebTV to view Drudge, whom he thinks led him to Free Republic.

The road to Maine is etched on his t-shirt, LAAFB. For Larry is a retired USAF Officer, who served 22 years, 13 active in Los Angeles and another 14 under contract to the AF space agencies based there.

"I spent WWII in Baltimore, in uniform whenever I could get one. The sailor suit picture is my favorite.

But as you can see from the picture me with my older brother Carl and our Dad, we were given Army things.

At the rail yard, we raided freight cars for helmets and belts and shell casings."

The picture of Larry and Carl in AF blue was when Larry was at Gettysburg College. In the next picture he and fellow senior ROTC cadets are appointed Distinguished Graduates.

After a year's AF assignment at NYU graduate school, Larry and his college sweetheart, Darby, were married.

The couple posed with his mom and dad who performed the ceremony.

The next 10 years Larry was a weather officer, forecasting for global SAC and recon missions using the new satellites that tracked his career.

He returned to graduate school at the University of Michigan.

"I went to LA to be the staff weather officer to the classified space programs, now credited to the National Recon Organization (NRO).

They needed support for launch of course, but on orbit weather and recovery weather scouted by weather satellites was my specialty. The launch experience was very valuable to my later career. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory was a fun program since we had our own military astronauts. When that program fell to the VietNam budget, those guys, test pilots all who flew into LAAFB, did very well, many flying the Shuttle."

Larry volunteered to go to Vietnam to run a classified weather satellite site at Tan Son Nhut.
The picture is of Site VI and the group picture shows those site troops who are not on shift. These are mostly electronic techs trained for this job at Keesler AFB.

Larry says he grew a mustache to look older as a supervisor. And he is the one wearing California sandals.

In Vietnam the weather satellite data was real time sent down to 7th AF HQ where it was briefed for the day's sorties.

"Two other favorite pastimes were frequent trips to the post office where I am standing in this picture and on my day off to find quiet places in Saigon like the Continental Palace beer garden where I sit in this picture".

This was Larry's last job as a weather officer.

He then returned to LAAFB.

"My first job as an engineer was in the Titan Launch vehicle program in the same building where MOL had been.
NASA was buying Titans for their interplanetary missions. I was to make NASA happy (see picture of me and the Viking and launch vehicle directors) and to manage the launch facilities changes and Titan engineering to integrate NASA's Centaur upper stage.
At the same time I was helping the Air Force Public Affairs remind the public that the Titan and the Launch pad were Air Force contributions.
The success of the Viking missions stands out as one of them landed on Mars on THE FOURTH OF JULY 1976 !"

Larry says his family saw him a little more when he was in the space launch business than when he was in Vietnam.

There were social things that wives just love as in this picture of Larry and Darby in formal gear (always white in LA).

But Larry traveled to Cape Canaveral AFS which NASA kept calling Kennedy, hundreds of times. Larry stayed in LA so long that both of his kids went K-12 in Manhattan Beach schools.

After Titan he had a Vandenberg AFB Shuttle launch pad planning job and was a safety standard officer for satellite tracking stations.

"My last assignments in the USAF were as both engineering and operations directors of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP).
This was the program that first launched when I started supporting global weather forecasts."

The last official picture of Larry is the only one he didn't shave for because he was retiring. Then he tells me he shaved off the mustache, this time to look younger to get a civilian job.

I worked as a contractor for 14 years consulting to the Air Force on integration of military payloads on launch vehicles.

The best part of the job was reporting to younger Air Force men and women who were dedicated to making every launch a success because the Warriors are now getting many more of the space payload products directly"

[Alberta's Child]

TGIF Bump!

See ya later (unless you're gonna play hooky today)!

[Victoria Delsoul]

LOL! Cya later, AC.

[Militiaman7]

Saluting, LarryJohnson. Thank you for your service

[kneezles]

Thanks JL, and the best thing is the Air Force is paying for it all!!! He recieved a full scholorship. They liked the fact that he was in the top 10% of his class, wanted to major in meteorology, Eagle Scout and stuff like that. He's a good kid.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Okey dokey, okey pokey. :-)

Victoria

[Valin]

Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889) Criticism of his army commander, Braxton Bragg, to Jefferson Davis cost South Carolinian West Pointer (1842) Daniel H. Hill his corps command and his promotion to lieutenant general in the Confederate army. Posted to the artillery, he had won two brevets in the Mexican War before resigning as a first lieutenant in the 4th Artillery in 1849. Active in education until the outbreak of the Civil War, he was superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute in 1861.

His Southern assignments included: colonel, lst North Carolina Volunteers (May 1 1, 1861); commanding Department of the Peninsula (May 31 - June 1861); brigadier general,CSA July 10, 1861); commanding Department of Fredericksburg July 17 - July 1861); commanding District of the Pamlico, Department of North Carolina (ca. October 4 - November 16, 186 1); commanding lst Brigade, 3rd (Longstreet's) Division, Potomac District, Department of Northern Virginia (November 16, 1861 - January 1862); commanding Forces at Leesburg, Potomac District, Department of Northern Virginia (January - March 1862); major general, CSA (March 26, 1862); commanding 4th (Van Dorn's old) Division, Department of Northern Virginia (March - July 17, 1862); commanding Department of North Carolina (July 17 - August 1862 and April 1 - July 1, 1863); commanding division, Jackson's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (August 1862 - April 1, 1863); temporarily commanding Valley District, Army of Northern Virginia (September 6, 1862); lieutenant general, CSA (July 11, 1863); commanding 2nd (Hardee's old) Corps, Army of Tennessee (July 24 - November 8, 1863); volunteer aide-de-camp, Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia (May 5-18 and May 21-ca. June 1864); commanding division, Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia (May 18-2 1, 1864); commanding District of Georgia, Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida January 21-ca. March 1865); commanding division, Lee's Corps, Army of Tennessee (ca. March and late March-April 26, 1865); and commanding the corps (late March 1865).

Commanding a regiment of six-months volunteers, he played a leading role in the Confederate victory at Big Bethel. Promoted to brigadier general, he served for a time in northern Virginia and then returned to the Peninsula as a division leader with the rank of major general. He saw action at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, and during the Seven Days. Left in southeastern Virginia during the 2nd Bull Run Campaign, he rejoined Lee's army for the Maryland Campaign, performing well at both South Mountain and Antietam.
His last battle with the Army of Northern Virginia came at Fredericksburg. He then returned to command the Department of North Carolina until named a lieutenant general and ordered to Bragg's army. He took over Hardee's old corps, leading it at Chickamauga.
Disgusted with Bragg's failure to reap the benefits of the victory he made his view known to the president, who still supported his friend. Hill was relieved of corps command and Davis refused to submit his nomination as lieutenant general to the Senate. Thus he reverted to a major generalcy on October 15, 1863.

His next action came as a volunteer on Beauregard's staff at Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg. He was in command of a provisional division for a couple of days. Ordered to the Atlantic coast he finished out the war with Joseph E. Johnston's army in the Carolinas as a division commander. After the surrender he returned to education and engaged in literary and historical writing. (Bridges, Leonard Hal, Lee's Maverick General,Daniel HatM Hill)
Source: "Who Was Who In The Civil War" by Stewart Sifakis

[Pippin]

Good Morning, AC!

[Pippin]

Good morning,M7!

[tomkow6]

Veni, Vidi, Vici

I came, I saw, I conquered!

[Pippin]

Good Morning,Valin!

[kneezles]

Hi C-Soozie! Have a great day loafing, you diserve it! I get to loaf every other friday (and today ISN'T it).

[Pippin]

You gonna ride in a car with a ghost, Cote? LOL!!

Just Kidding!

[summer]

bttt

[Pippin]

This isn't your loafing Friday? I'll tell you what! I'll do the loafing for both of us today!

[Pippin]

Good Morning,Summer!

[kneezles]

That'll work!!! OK, gotta get out in the plant and measure some air, gotta big project going on trying to cool off some hot rooms.

[Militiaman7]

Good Morning, Clara Suzanne

Another great Canteen thread today.