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Post by SeaRat on Feb 26, 2019 16:34:12 GMT -8
As I have mentioned several times, I have been writing my memoir about my Pararescue days for years. I actually started it out in 1996-1998 while I was without a job. Having just been fired after 18 years with my company, SAIF Corporation as a safety and health consultant, I needed something to do. (I was fired over some disagreements with my manager, when they wanted me to do some things I considered unethical). I had also been doing some rototilling, and had started experiencing some symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. That led me to learning to type again, this time using the Dvorak keyboard (built into all computers), which is much easier on the fingers and which I'm using right now. I decided to pick up the packet of letters my Mom had saved during my USAF days, and had given to me, which I had also saved, and type them out. Those letters form the backbone of my memoir, tentatively named Between Air and Water, The Memoir of an USAF Pararescueman. One of our own here, Jaybird (Jay Slean) has recently been getting on me to complete this decades-old project. With that in mind, I have been working on it, but now will be emphasizing the writing on this project. I have some pretty good images that I'm incorporating into the book too, from my days in Okinawa, Korea, Bermuda, and Vietnam, as well as while going back to school and serving with the USAF Reserve in Portland, Oregon with the 304th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. Parascuba jumping off Okinawa, 1968. HH-34J helicopter operations in and over the Columbia River, Oregon in 1972. I haven't written much about my faith, but it has always been an important part of my life, and yes, even in the Service. Next week we are coming up on the season of Lent in the church year for the Episcopal Church (I'm a member of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Beaverton, Oregon). Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day that starts the Lenten Season, and during Lent we are to abstain from something significant. I have many times abstained from certain foods, but this Lenten season I'm doing something very different. I'm concentrating totally on my book, and finishing it! To do that, I'm giving up Facebook and posting on both Scubaboard and here at VSS. I'm giving you a bit of a warning that you won't hear from me until after Easter this year. I have a whole section on my stay in Bermuda which is now only my diary and letters, which I need to, in Jay's words, add mood and atmosphere to in order to make it understandable. I need to detail what it takes to put a floatation collar unto an Apollo capsule, for instance. So I hope you won't get too unhappy not hearing from me for 40 or so days. I just posted a long post on Steve Irwin's thread, and here with this post. So I'll be emphasizing The Book for the next month and a half. Wish me well, and I'll talk again after Easter. John
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Post by nikeajax on Feb 26, 2019 17:54:08 GMT -8
Pararescue Creed:"It is my duty as a Pararescueman to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things we (I) do, that others may live."John as your friend, yes a personal friend, I know that it can be a real pain in the groin to write: sometimes we need someone to kick us in the butt because they know we have it in us. No, I know I'm not one of your buddies that was there when they were slinging lead at you, but I am one of your buddies who has grown to know you and I know how important it is for you to get this thing done. It's like I'm there holding your feet during those sit-ups, or counting those pull-ups pushing you for just one more because you are the only one who can do this. Writing takes a lot out of you, and most people who only read have zero idea how punishing it can be. You need to make people know/understand what it took, even if just a glance, to do what you did. It was never glamorous, but it was something you loved and needed to do because you knew you had what it takes/took to do it the right way. Jaybird PS If you've ever dealt with a Scrub-jay, you know they never back down and will always tell you what-is-what!
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Post by Aquala1 on Feb 26, 2019 21:04:18 GMT -8
John, best of luck seeing this project to the end. I know it will be worth your while, and I will be a buyer once it’s complete. While I’ve never written a book as substantial as yours, I have written a children’s book.
I conceived the idea one time during a 10 hour drive back from Florida, but could never hammer out the time to get it down on paper. It wasn’t until I was on a long flight to New York, that I had the quiet isolation to pen the majority of it....so I totally get you needing to disconnect to finish the project.
Best of luck, and we’ll see you on the other side. Oh yeah, and have a very happy Easter!
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Feb 27, 2019 6:52:27 GMT -8
That's great to hear, John. You have a lot to write about and you have photographs to illustrate and evidence what you're writing. Ditto for a copy of your book when it comes out.
Everybody seems to be offering advice and experience and I'll add my 10 cents' worth too. I've done my share of writing over the years, mainly academic stuff, but the only book-length pieces I've done have been academic dissertations. One thesis that earned me a Master's in Education ended up 400 pages long and it took me ten years to complete because my supervisor kept on asking me for changes to be made when I let him have individual chapters to look at. After it was finished, I was told by the same supervisor that the examiner who passed the thesis thought one of the chapters, the concluding one, was publishable. It was the only chapter my supervisor hadn't seen and critiqued in advance. There's a lesson in there about "too many cooks spoiling the broth" of the script and going back and forth editing what's written can lead an author into too many directions at once and ruin the flow, and the direction, of the book as a whole. So get everything down on paper and resist the temptation to edit until it's complete. Then and only then ask a "critical friend", as they're called in the academic community, to review your manuscript and be prepared to pick and choose what edits that friend suggests. Taking all suggested edits on board is bound to make the book somebody else's and not yours.
You can also ignore everything I've said here, because I'd discovered that book-length writing isn't really for me. Article-length writing suits me better, something around 6,000-9,000 words. As proof, I've just had a new Wikipedia article accepted and it's great to see it come out top in a Google search as all Wikipedia articles seem to do.
Happy word processing!
DRW
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 27, 2019 10:43:19 GMT -8
Jaybird, I have done one set of 25 pushups, with one for Pararescue. I will complete the required other 25, probably tomorrow. DRW, Thanks for the information. I've also published a number of articles professionally in occupational safety and health, and got my MSPH degree with a Capstone Project which went well over 50 pages, and was very technically oriented. This is a different kind of thing, in that it is a compilation of my letters, diary entries, and reflections into a compelling story of my experiences as a PJ. Yesterday, I completed a short chapter on my first jump with the S-17 parachute. John
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 28, 2019 17:55:47 GMT -8
Jaybird and I have been exchanging e-mails about this chapter on the S-17 parachute, and I thought I'd share the result with you. I will not be posting after next Tuesday, but Ash Wednesday is not yet here. I have a photo to go with this chapter tentatively (unless I can find a better one). _______________________ This photo shows the S-17 parachute during the Jumpfest Pararescue Competition in 1972, on land. The jumpers were wearing tree suits, not parascuba, but this shows the S-17 in the air.
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Post by snark3 on Mar 1, 2019 15:51:37 GMT -8
John I'm looking forward to reading your book. Please put me down for a copy
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 5, 2019 23:08:46 GMT -8
Well, this will be my last post for a while now. I'm including a diary entry for the 23rd and 24th of November, 1969:
There will be more explanation of this entry, but this is the diary entry of Dick Stiefken and Bushnell's jump mission into the Atlantic Ocean for a fisherman who suffered a poisoning.
Then there is the training we did behind the PJ area in Bermuda too.
Enjoy, talk with you after Easter.
John
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Post by SeaRat on Apr 20, 2019 17:53:42 GMT -8
Well, it's almost Easter, and I've made significant progress on my book. It is still not complete, but I've had several things kinda intervene. But with Jaybird's help, I've gotten a few things going, and chapters finished. Here's a photo from an unfinished section of the book, a chapter on dive training we conducted in Yaquina Bay, Oregon in 1973. I took the Pararescue Team from the 304th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron to both Rocky Creek State Park for some surf training, and Yauina Bay for simple dive training. Here is one photo from that time: 304th ARRSq historical002 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Pararescueman Dave Ward and another PJ gearing up in our twin 72s for a dive in Yaquina Bay, Oregon. I'll be posting more regularly now, but will still give significant attention to my book project. John
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Post by nikeajax on Apr 21, 2019 6:44:10 GMT -8
John, good for you my friend! I've just started on my third in a series this week...
JB
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