[Rhodes22-list] Show me the beef.

[Wally Buck]

Rummy,

Glad you made it through hell. I wouldn't want your experiences and feel 
lucky that I came of age between wars. At times it was kind of strange to 
grow up in a military family in the 60s and 70s.

We lived in military housing in Pearl City Hawaii in the late 60s. I was 
about 10 or so and my best firend Kevin lived in the other half of our 
duplex. We played little league together, we were in the same grade, rode 
the bus to school. He was my best friend. His Mom was my Mom's best friend 
as well.

My Dad was on an Oiler at the time. When they cruised down to Viet Nam they 
pretty much just sat off the cost fueling Carrier support groups. He would 
leave for 8 months then come back for a couple of months or so and head 
back. It was very safe war duty.

My buddies Dad was on river patrol. Not safe at all but he survived this 
hell for about 10 months. When he finished his tour they were flying him 
back via helicopter to a ship. He was to meet the fleet and steam back to 
Pearl Harbor. Something went wrong (I was never clear on this) when he was 
being lowered from the helicopter to the deck;the harness came free. He fell 
about 30 feet onto the steel deck and was killed instantly. I will never 
forget the day we got the news.

The school I went to was mostly military kids with many Dads serving tours 
in Viet Nam. More than a few times a kid would leave school because his 
father was killed. This meant of course they couldn't live on base so they 
would go back to the mainland. Everybody knew when this happened.

So this is what happened to my buddy Kevin's family. They got the news that 
his Dad was dead, and a month later they moved back to Boston. It still bums 
me out when I think about it.

War is hell, there should be no rush to get to hell. If we go, don't hold 
back!

Don't know about you but we are "brunching it" today. I'm being called to 
make some Bloody Mary's.

Wally





>From: R22RumRunner@aol.com
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
>To: rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Show me the beef.
>Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 11:33:07 EST
>
>My BIG concern with going to war with Saddam is that we don't know if he 
>has
>weapons of mass destruction and until we do, we shouldn't be sending our
>troops in there. He has turned these weapons on his own people before and 
>he
>wouldn't care if a few more would lose their lives if it took out thousands
>of Americans.
>Last night on the news they really started to scare me with talk of using
>tactical nuclear weapons. This is not good. I really thought the day for 
>the
>need to use nuclear weapons had come and gone. How stupid we are.
>I am one of the few members on this list that has combat experience and I
>will be the first to tell you that people die, bodies are mutilated and
>devastation is the end result. None of these are good for any living 
>things.
>If we are going to start a war, just make damn sure we know what we are
>getting ourselves into.
>
>Rummy........to early to start drinking.....awe, what the hell.
>_________________________________________________
>Use Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list


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