It's Show Time.....

As I plod along the highway of life, some weeks are berift of activity and some are fraught with all the action I can handle. This week has been one of those. Thus the dearth of posts, disappointing all three regular readers.

I have been absorded at the office, mostly mentally, putting together a rather large PowerPointİ presentation to be presented to board members of a Fortune 500 corporation that will be our partners in an exciting new gas project. It's big time for us poor boys in the oilfield, so we are doing a bang up job, and thusly having to develop a wealth of spreadsheets and data.

The other preoccupation here late in the week is the annual CAF Airsho, a truly large and time consuming event. Being the transportation committee chairperson I have to plan, organize, lead and control a plethora of equipment and personnel. Sounds big time.....but what it really means is that I supervise a bunch of trucks and drivers pulling trailers for people to ride upon. A fifth grader would probably fill the bill, but we can't find any fifth graders willing to do it. And being the third year I've held the job, I have the same people assisting and it's become cookie cutter.

So, we'll be at the Air Sho for 9 hours daily during the next three days. Well maybe 14 hours on Saturday as we'll stay late to see Jerry Jeff Walker. I will provide pictures updated daily for all at: The Air Sho!

They say it's your birthday...!

Today is a special day at the Bedford Drive estate...it's someone's birthday. Someone very special that I love very much. Although she's a year older she is still young and precious! Years younger than me and definetly more precious. We love you and Happy Birthday!

And a birthday gift for Julie is the news that Casey, lying wounded in Germany, has made it successfully through his first operations and his condition is notably improved. He should be evacuated back to the U.S. within days. I'd like to give a special thanks to the bloggers who have signed the "get well" card on his family's website. I've noticed you..! Thanks a million.

The war....closer to home

We have had several soldiers from the Midland area who have fallen in Iraq, which hurts but we have not known any personally. Now the war is coming closer to home. For more than a year we have been kept abreast of Marine LCPL. Casey Owens activities through forwarded emails and converstations with Casey's loving Aunt Mary, a very close friend of Julie's. That's why the news of his wounds hurt us so much.

Casey was seriously wounded when a rocket propelled grenade hit his vehicle on Wednesday, killing one of his crewmates. Casey is now at Ramstein AFB, Germany where he has lost part of one leg and has severe shrapnel wounds to the head which makes his prognosis touch and go. This was Casey's second tour in Iraq.

A heartbreaking addendum to this story is that Mary had just stood in line at Barnes and Nobles last weekend to have Midlander, Gen. Tommy Franks sign his autobiography personally for Casey. And what a good idea came of this at Julie's suggestion. I emailed Gen. Franks today, told him the story and asked if he would send a personal email note of support to Mary for their family. Within 15 minutes I had a reply from Tommy, saying it was done. God bless America and Gen. Franks. And say a prayer for Casey. LCpl Casey Owens Webpage

Buy a round....

There are many successful charitable operations run by bloggers to support our soldiers welfare and the war effort. Organizations offering everything from letter writing to soldiers, shoes for Afghani children to comfort packages for wounded soldiers in Germay. But I've run across a novel one recently. Beer for Soldiers let's you buy a round for soldiers on leave or returned from a combat zone. Check it out for yourself and decide if it's a worthwhile organization.

Having consumed more than my fair share of cold beverages through the years as a soldier and beyond, I know they'll appreciate the effort. But remember...."moderation in all things"....a lesson I learned a tad to late.

Passing Images....

I note with sadness today the passing of one of the truly great photographers of our era, Eddie Adams. Even the most notable photographers are usually not household names but as it should be Eddie's work speaks for itself.

Eddie started his career as a Marine Corps combat photographer and went on to photograph 13 wars, including Vietnam, where he accompanied troops on 150 operations. He was the recepient of over 500 individual awards for his work. Adams's photographs regularly graced the covers and front pages of magazines and newspapers around the world, including Time, Newsweek, Life, Paris Match, Parade, Penthouse, Vogue, The London Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, Stern and Vanity Fair.

Eddie was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his unforgettable photograph of the street execution of a Viet Cong prisoner shown above. The photo helped change the sentiment about the war on the homefront....a result that Eddie did not intend nor like. Nor did Eddie take much joy from the Pulitzer Prize, for the image that he captured is the ruin of the lives of two people.

Because of my friendship with combat journalist Joe Galloway I have been fortunate to interact with several of the best photojournalists of the Vietnam War and actually work in a limited way with them on a few projects. Over the next weeks I'll direct you to their work.

"I'm not a great believer in the power of the moving image. A still image has greater lasting power. A still photographer has to show the whole freekin' movie in one picture. On the screen, it's over and back in the can in seconds. A still picture is going to be there forever."

Eddie Adams

Pardon Me.......

Excuse my absence from the political scene, but we've been busy here at the estate with chores, football games and today an afternoon at the polo matches. I haven't had time to follow the details of who is accusing who of being a shirker or a fraud when it comes to the candidates military records, but I just know the antics have gone on fine without me.

This whole election season, which by the the way has been a long season...3.75 years by my count, has worn me down. I'm even longing for the much calmer days of Bill Clinton. Days when partisan politics didn't seem so nasty. That's a hard comment to make, but it does seem true doesn't it? It was a more civilized hatred back then. And so since I really haven't checked the news in two days, I'll just refer you back to my CNN article written in 2001 as an example of how even a Republican like me could curry favor with the Clintons. My Presidential Pardon

Untruthful Texans....

In my extensive roamings around the Cyber Globe recently I ran across a new group calling itself, Texans For Truth. Mention was made of these "Texans" in such journals as CNN, USA Today and Fox News. How nice, I thought, since we Texans are a truthful lot by nature. The name evokes a nice website by down home Bubba's wanting to get to the facts of things in the upcoming elections. But the theme of the new organization is that G.W. Bush didn't serve well, nor finish his tour with the Texas Air National Guard. Strange, and coincidental I'm sure, that the new group was formed just as the RatherGateİ Memos hit the press. Their mission statement taken verbatim from the website states...."Texans for Truth, an organization from Bush's home state, believe time has come for America to learn the truth about Bush's shadowy past". [editors note: guys, get a grammar checker].

But what I discovered with a little investigation is that this "grassroots" organization has very deep roots with the liberal hucksters of Drive Democracy which is heavily funded by MoveOn.Org. The little grassroots effort of Texans For Truth is run by a professional campaign organization in Austin by the name of Mercury Campaigns which seems to lean a little left in their clientele. Names like:

*John Kennedy for US Senate
*US Rep. Martin Frost
*Richard Morrison for US House of Representatives
*Texas Democratic Party
*Tony Sanchez for Texas Governor 2002
*Texas State Rep. Chuck Hopson
*Texas State Rep. David Farabee
*SaveTexasReps.com
*CleanUpTexasPolitics.com
*Dean for Texas

The Texans for Truth is such a Texas grassroots effort that the Inside Bay Area, Ca. weekly has a news story entitled, "Texans for Truth has local tie:
Offspring of Bay Area's MoveOn.org begins airing" in which they explain that noted screenwriter Daniel J. O'Keefe of Los Angeles wired Texans for Truth $100,000. So much for Texans......so much for truth, perhaps their campaign is based on the the Dan Rather model.

MemoGate....Tit for Tat

With the Dan Rather "memo" controversy hitting the fan for the CBS network, it is not surprising that new allegations about President George Bush's service are resurfacing. And now, not just about the quality of his service but whether he exaggerated his claim about being in the Air Force vs. the Air National Guard during his congressional run from Midland in 1978. This past history is being rehashed, as pointed out by Tim Blair, by some dweeb named David Corn which I'm sure is the name he signs his faked memos with.

But having sat on the sidelines to long it is time for us to let certain documents we have in our possession come to light. Read this document to see what the President of the United States, Gerald Ford, thought of young Lt. Bush's service record.

Disclaimer: although Julie worked for George Bush as his personal administrative assistant shortly after this memo was written and had access to his personal files and desk, we can't be sure of the true nature of how this document became public.

Business offer....

Wanting to do my part to keep the RatherGateİ inquiries alive I have emailed CBS News offering my forgery services to them. Quite frankly I feel that I could do a much better and more professional job than the bozos who generated the "Killian" memos. Having been alive and typing in the 70's my skill level with typography and the machines of the era is highly proficient and as a former member of the Texas National Guard I can throw in the correct lingo and words of the time. And for a nominal extra fee I can guarantee them some "genuine" photos to go along with the text.

Here, through Tim Blair, is an example of someone else trying to cash in on the poetentially lucrative "genuine fake" documents business. Genuine Fake Memo

Being a realist, I know that the chances of CBS News reading my email are slight, so I also sent a note to our local CBS affiliate explaining that I would find it hard to watch their news programming knowing that their parent network profers forged documents as fact. CBS News does listen to their affiliates, and at least in this market, the affiliates listen to their viewers.

Superscript this.....

At the risk of being the only person in the Western DigiSphere not to comment on the CBS "now apparently forged documents" [NAFD's] I will do so now, hopefully with brevity and wisdom....OK, let's shoot for brevity.

I do, however, have some expert wisdom on the subject being the geriatric sort who spent decades typing on manual typewriters, some of it in the Texas National Guard, and later transitioning to digital wordprocessing. Apparently more expert wisdom than anyone at CBS.

Like most people of the Blog persuasion, I was truly amazed at the speed with which the story broke in the BlogWorld and made it to the general media arena, the MSMİ. I found the story Thursday at mid morning on my office computer and by the time I watched the ABC Evening News with Peter Jenkinsİ mention had been made of the anamolies in the documents [kudos, for once to ABC]. By the time I did my at home evening perusal of my usual Blogs, the story was all over the web...and with 100's of helpful comments.

Now to my take of the documents...and in particular the main one in question, the LTC. Killian "CYA" memo.

Much has been said, and rightly so, about the fonts, kerning, spacing and so on...the formatting of the document. This is important, especially the superscripted "th" which was not available on any known typewriter of the early 70's and of course is an automatic feature [unless disabled] of modern day MS Wordİ. But my doubts were based on things more basic, things I know about and have experience with.

One of the first Blog articles I read had side by side comparisons of the NAFD memo and a newly created copy of the memo done on MS Wordİ. They were identical and what are the odds of that occuring by chance? Nil to zilch. Having written 100's of letters on a typewriter, the telling feature for me was the placement of the date, just to the right of center above the body of the text,exactly where MS Wordİ places it by default. To do this on a typewriter, the operator would have to either set a tab at that particular spot, release the carriage and move it over to that exact spot or use the space bar about 40 times to achieve that position. I can tell you as an ex manual typewriter user...we just didn't do that. We normally set the date at either the left or right margin...and more often the left margin, because that was were the carriage was by default.

Another basic and telling clue to me was the neatness of the CYA memo. I'm betting that LTC. Killian was in his mid to late 40's when he supposedly wrote the note. Back in the good old days, older guys didn't type, or if they did they were completely inept at it. Most did the "hunt and peck" technique although some like myself had taken typing in high school and were only partially inept. I can almost guarantee that even in a memo as short as this one, a guy would have had at least one mistake. And a mistake in those days, meant you left a reminder of that error on the page. In the early 70's one either used an old fashion eraser or the "high tech" strip of tape with white dust on the back that imprinted the correct letter over the old mistake. In either case, it was visible. And today my suspicions were confirmed by Killian's family who say that indeed he couldn't and didn't type.

Of course, one could suppose that the memo was typed by someone else such as the unit's clerk typist. Typically the unit clerk was a lower ranking soldier or airman and I don't believe that the commander, a Lieutenant Colonel, would want a 19 or 20 year old typing up personal correspondence designed to "cover his ass". There has been a hypothesis set forth that perhaps this Texas Air Guard unit had access to one of the latest super typewriters that did do some magic things with fonts and spacing, but to this I say Hooey. [I like the word hooey and don't get to use it enough]. No Regular Army or National Guard unit that I had contact with ever had the latest in office equipment or anything else for that matter. In fact, I remember in my National Guard unit, having to use a completely manual typewriter for our work. For younger readers that means even without electricity!

So as I write this, better scribes than I are further dissembling this story and CBS has called for an "internal investigation". But for me, the case is open and shut. I'm betting that some under 30ish demon of the Democratic Party is the author of these NAFD's and hadn't a naive clue that typewriters didn't function like computer word processors. To bad. This might have worked if he'd consulted a baby boomer.

The monument to.....me

I invite anyone who doubts my Scottish heritage to take a gander at the monument built to me by the good people of the highlands. ".....the 220 feet high Wallace Monument sits prominently on the Abbey Craig two miles north of the city of Stirling itself". As noted my monument sits high atop our family abbey.
The Wallace Monument

Sincerely yours,
Wallace Craig
Monumentee

Driveway Visitors....

After a flurry of politically oriented posts last week, it was with some welcome relief that I was occupied by visitors to the estate over the weekend and unable to muster the time to update Streams until now.

Our good friends Bruce and Arlene Crandall stopped by on their wanderings in their driveway filling RV. They are great driveway guests and it's always good to see them semi-annually and catch up. Their son Donovan is now residing in Houston where he is the managing director of energy banking for a large German bank and so Bruce wanted to learn more about the oil/gas business resulting in a trip to my office and later a lengthy tour of the Petroleum Museum. Bruce had the oil and gas 101 presentation, but I suspect he was more impressed by the Chaparral Racing wing of the museum. We also got the opportunity to take them to little Jack's first tackle football game, where they got to see little Jack get faced smashed in a bone jarring block. But he got up, shook it off, and went back to the game...so we were all proud of him.

Bruce is a lengendary Army aviator whose character was portrayed by Greg Kinnear in the film "We Were Soldiers". Bruce was also the aviation advisor on the film where Arlene and Bruce became so close to Greg that they are God Grandparents to the Kinnears first child, daughter Lily. And we always enjoy hearing more stories of his flying exploits around the world. This time it was about flying mapping missions in Libya in the early 60's. Interesting tales of seeing miles and miles of burned out German and British tanks from the great battles of WWII. And the German minefields that in some places were more than 17 miles wide, so thick in fact, that Bruce said they were afraid to land their helicopters in the desert.

I've known Bruce and Arlene only for 5 years or so, but it feels like much longer and we certainly see them more regularly than many people I've known for much longer. We'll probably see them again in Washington D.C. at the Ia Drang Veterans reunion in November, and then again in Febrauary when they stop on their way back to their home in Olympia Washington. And through pure serendipity, I'll see Bruce's banker son Donovan next week in Midland to talk about financing our new gas project. Friends are great.

Europe explained....

I've seen a very interesting and instructive Jerusalem Post article referenced around the web. Speaking of European, and in particular, French "attitudes" vs. "actions" the author explains....

....if you don't actually have to do something about your attitudes you're likelier to have more of them, and they are bound to be both more extravagant and more unrealistic. People who are in no position to end world hunger and bring about peace in the Middle East can endlessly carry on about ending world hunger and bringing peace to the Middle East. Doing so means only that they're declaring themselves the sorts of folk who deplore hunger and war. But statesmen who must actually wrestle with issues of cost, capacity, local difficulties and unintended consequences tend to have more realistic, and therefore restrained, attitudes.

And carrying this observation to American shores, one wonders what in John Kerry's personna makes him so hungry for European support and approval?

Zell........

In case you missed Democratic Senator Zell Miller's address to the Republican Convention tonight.....you missed one of the finest verbal ass whuppin's you'll ever have the chance to hear. I've been waiting for 10 years for a man of courage to pull no punches and just tell it like it is and this was it.

I doubt that Senator Miller will be much welcome anymore in Massachusetts or at the Democratic Mens Club but he's welcome in our Republican home any time. Thanks Senator for being a man of conscience.