Well it was rather chilly here this morning at 48 degrees which needless to say is a Winter Day. We slept in as the rooster must have been to cold to crow which was rather nice until the sun warmed things up then he commenced to cock-a-doodle-do. After our quiet times we had a bowl of oatmeal and played around on the Internet. The rec was closed for Veterans Day so we just chilled.
Nancy found an old USAF picture I had taken when I was back in Virginia on leave around 1968-69 at my grandmother house in Mountain Falls. She took a picture of the picture and put it on Face Book so we got some feed back with that. I mentioned to here I enlisted in the USAF on Mar,3,1966 when I was 19 and she(Nancy)celebrated her 9th birthday on that day as well. I was living in Gastonia, N.C. and flew out of the Charlotte airport for Texas that day and that was my first ever time to fly on an airplane. I went on to become an air crew member in the 44th Military Airlift Squadron based in California and our squadron was the first to ever fly jet cargo planes. The C-141A Starlifter jet aircraft was the work horse for the Viet Nam war. I was a loadmaster and in charge of the weigh and balance among many other duties at the ripe age of 19, yeow were we entrusted with some awesome responsibility. I made lots of friends who lives depended on each other doing their job; what an experience.
I was scheduled or given orders to leave California in 1968 and move to Taiwan where I would be a loadmaster on the C-130 aircraft and fly sorties into Viet Nam. I received a back injury that required surgery; a herniated disc to the L5(lower back)which took precedent over the orders to Taiwan; so I never went as it took me several months to recuperate and once again be reinstated to flying status. The airman who took my orders was lost along with the whole aircraft and crew on a mountain in Viet Nam shortly after going there. I found his name on the Viet Nam Memorial Wall when we took a day trip to D.C. when my children were little many years ago.I keep in touch with a few of my old buddies I flew with via the Internet and Face Book, from the 44th MAS; Newt Smelcher, Jerry Illies, Bruce Fallon, Mike Stirk and Wally Beisser and other than getting older these guys have maintained throughout; however I've learned several of the guys I flew with have major health issues due to the cargo we carried at times, and one being Agent Orange which was used to defoliate the jungles in Viet Nam.
Well the rest of the day we chilled , actually we wanted to stay out of the wind as the air was nippy . I don't believe the temps got much out of the 60's and the stiff breeze made it feel even chillier.Sam and Amy came for lunch and Nancy made that great Penna pasta dish with sauteed asparagus, garlic and artichoke hearts with capers, Yikes is that ever a great quick meal.Sam and I played outside until it was time for his and mine naps.
Nancy was busy in the kitchen after Amy left with the kiddos; boiling off a large smoked ham which she made ham salad from and then making a large pot of pasta fagioli soup(not sure about the spelling) which we ate for supper on this chilly evening. After the cleanup Nancy took off to the rehab to drive her mother home and visit with her dad. I chilled and read and watched Gold Rush. I want to do that again. I took a week end while in California and headed up to Calistoga National Forest and sluiced for gold one week end and we had a lot of fun and found several pill bottles of gold dust. Then gold was 4o bucks an ounce today we would have been rolling in the clover at 1500 bucks an ounce. I often wonder if that fellow(I've forgotten his name but he worked in the mess hall at Travis) still works that are for gold. he knew what he was doing and it was a lot of work but fun as well. I still have a small nugget I found working that site.
Well better go and if this font is so small you can't read it I'm not sure what I did as I updated Java and now this has occurred, LATER
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