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.