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Post by nikeajax on Nov 10, 2019 15:52:28 GMT -8
Tomorrow the November 11th is Veteran's Day, but also, yesterday the 9th, was the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin-Wall. Here's a nice little in-a-nutshell explanation of what went on:
Here's a song I've always really liked about it:
As with being a veteran, I'm grateful I have no real idea of what it was like to live with that atrocity.
We just had our entire house rewired, it's from 1926: two months of moving and shifting EVERYTHING in the house around from room to room, finding places to put things and then balancing more stuff on top of those things. The crew that did it are originally from Cuba, a really great bunch of guys too! I was complaining about something, and they told me you have no idea what truly bad is and to have someone as insane as Fidel Castro running your country. I knew they were right and all I could do was make an anxious chuckle.
Yeah, everything's relative, but remember: things can always be much worse no matter what's happening to you:
Jaybird
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Post by SeaRat on Nov 10, 2019 16:12:01 GMT -8
Here are some of my photos picturing Veterans:  USS Divers waiting by John Ratliff, on Flickr U.S. Naval School for Underwater Swimmers, 1967.  PJ Okinawa Dive003 by John Ratliff, on Flickr My good buddy through PJ school, Okinawa and Korea, Terry Wetzel, and Stephen Samo. Terry is no longer with us, as he passed due to brain cancer from Agent Orange exposure.  Parascuba-BAW image001 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Parascuba jump by PJ Billy Davison, off Okinawa in 1968.  Healy Dive-1 by John Ratliff, on Flickr U.S. Coast Guard divers just prior to a fatal Arctic dive off the U.S.S. Healy. John |
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Post by SeaRat on Nov 10, 2019 22:54:34 GMT -8
Jaybird,
I just found the time to watch your videos above, and they are great. I enjoyed the song, and the two cartoon explanations were great. I have jumps out of the D.C.-3 (civilian version of the C-47), and very much enjoyed the explanation of the Berlin Air Lift, which set the circumstances for the formation of NATO, and the parameters of the Cold War. Veterans at the Reynolds High School Living History Day last Thursday were recognized for all the wars, including the Cold War. We had one lady who was 100 years old and had been a Normandy nurse during WWII.
John
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Nov 10, 2019 23:19:28 GMT -8
My Sunday newspaper had an article about Gail Halvorsen, the "candy bomber" of the "Berliner Luftbrücke" (Berlin Air Bridge), as the Berlin Airlift is known in German:  The full article can be found at The Cold War 'Candy Bomber' who dropped sweets to children behind the Iron Curtain will be honoured by the British Legion. I still recall watching the breach of the Berlin Wall on TV. I wish I had been in the city in person to be able to say "Ich war dabei" (I was there). My last visit was during the 1970s when I spent a couple of weeks touring East Germany to improve my subject knowledge as a German teacher and to research a part-time Masters about language teaching in the country. The German Democratic Republic was certainly a grey country with its depressing residential tower blocks but also because what I observed about the land and its people confirmed that no place is totally bad or good and that historical events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall represent just the start and never the end of a sea-change in geopolitics. East Germany still languishes in poverty compared with the West and economic disparity breeds resentment, which generates in turn so much political extremism. Yesterday the UK celebrated Remembrance Day and today schools will have services with a minute's silence to remember the dead of two World Wars and the many conflicts that have happened since. Here's a video of scenes from the Cenotaph in London yesterday when the Royal Family joined politicians and veterans to remember the fallen. DRW |
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Post by snark3 on Nov 11, 2019 1:10:04 GMT -8
I'm not a vet, but to all of you who are- Thank you for your service.
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Post by scubalawyer on Nov 11, 2019 7:08:32 GMT -8
I've posted this before but it's Veterans Day and in honor of my late father here he is with his crew, age 22, B-24 Liberator pilot, US Army Air Corps - 1944 - 2nd from left, kneeling.  |
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Post by nikeajax on Nov 11, 2019 8:38:04 GMT -8
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Post by snark3 on Nov 11, 2019 15:30:46 GMT -8
Today my Dad and I went up to my parents summer place in NH to take the smaller of the 2 docks out of the water before the single digit temps hit Tuesday and Wednesday and it freezes where it is. My Dad is a disabled Korean War vet. When we were done we decided to stop and grab lunch at a local Chinese place. While we were there a young woman came over and thanked my dad for his service. A few minutes later our waitress came over and informed us the young woman had paid for our meal.
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Post by nikeajax on Nov 11, 2019 16:19:44 GMT -8
Skip, thanks for the nice story  You're very lucky that you still have your father, but even luckier that you have what sounds like a good relationship! My wife's best friend just moved to Mass: evidently they've been finding cannon balls in their yard from most likely the Revolutionary War  It just occurred to me that it could be from the French and Indian War too though. This is a really great place we live in which is why is so important to remember the cost:  |
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Post by SeaRat on Nov 11, 2019 18:06:17 GMT -8
I love the sound of the DC-3/C-47 in the air. It sounds much like the HU-16 Albatross that I crewed in 1968.  IMG_0887 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Chris and I went to see "Miss Saigon" yesterday, and I left in tears. It is a heart-wrenching story of a Vietnamese gal who had a one-night stand with a U.S. Army GI, and subsequently was separated from him after their actual marriage. The story plays out over a number of years, starting in 1975 just as South Vietnam was starting to fall. It has a lot of moral lessons, if people will only try to see them. One of the songs really got to me. It's called "Bui-Doi," of the children we left behind, half-Vietnamese, half-American. For this Vietnam Veteran, it was heart-breaking. Last week I attended the Reynolds High School Living History Day. I had the privelege of sitting down at the luncheon table with a former Vietnamese Special Forces member, who after the fall of Vietnam, spent ten years in a Vietnamese prison. Another former South Vietnamese Veteran, a pilot who flew the F-15, talked with us at lunch, and said that we had waisted 58,000 American lives, and about 1,000,000 Vietnamese lives, on the Vietnam War. It was a difficult conversation. Here's some photos from that event.  _MG_6772 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Reynold High School, the entire school turned out for this event.  _MG_6783 by John Ratliff, on Flickr This was our table, and the former Vietnamese Special Forces soldier is on the left, while I am on the right. The three guys in the middel were Navy and Army fellows. John |
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Post by nikeajax on Nov 11, 2019 18:47:31 GMT -8
I love the sound of the DC-3/C-47 in the air. It sounds much like the HU-16 Albatross that I crewed in 1968... John Those big radial engines do have a unique sound. I haven't heard them enough to pick one out unseen, but when one flies over I know it's something quite old. John, it's time for me to b**ch at you again  Where's that book?!?!?!? People need to know your story: without the voices of people like you who were there, we are more likely to get idiots who forget/not understand the actual cost of such things! I've been hammering out some really good short stories as of late, ya need to keep up boy!  JB |
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Post by SeaRat on Nov 11, 2019 19:15:46 GMT -8
I love the sound of the DC-3/C-47 in the air. It sounds much like the HU-16 Albatross that I crewed in 1968... John Those big radial engines do have a unique sound. I haven't heard them enough to pick one out unseen, but when one flies over I know it's something quite old. John, it's time for me to b**ch at you again Where's that book?!?!?!? People need to know your story: without the voices of people like you who were there, we are more likely to get idiots who forget/not understand the actual cost of such things! I've been hammering out some really good short stories as of late, ya need to keep up boy! JB Actually, first thanks for the kick, but the book is not on the back burner. It actually looks right now like it will be two books, the first being "Between Air and Water, the Memoir of an USAF Pararescueman." It will encompass my active duty days, from before my enlistment to the training in 1967 to my service in Okinawa, Korea, Bermuda, Florida and Vietnam, and is close to completion. The end date is 1971. I have also bought a book about how to publish my book, and gotten several good pieces of advise about selling this book. I'll give you more info when I get off my iPad. The second book will cover the years from my second start at Oregon State University in the summer of 1971 to my marriage to Chris, and leaving Pararescue behind, in 1977. As you know, I spent a summer as a Smokejumper in 1972, then reenlisted in the USAF Reserves and served another five years as a Pararescueman. This book would actually have more diving in it as I spent a quarter at the Warm Mineral Springs Underwater Archaeological Project in Florida, went to a NAUI-sponsored high altitude conference, continued flying missions in an old helicopter (the HH-34, the only chopper that fell out from under me), research in Yaquina Bay while taking my invertebrate zoology course at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, coastal training for our 304th Aerospece Rescue and Recovery Squadron (Reserve) where we actually made two "saves," being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard off the coast one December when the seas changed from 3-6 feet to 15-20 feet while we were out and underwater, and a lot more. Some may not know that the USAF Reserves were called up in 1975, with our HH-1H helicopters being loaded onto C-141s for deployment to help with the evacuation of Saigon. But South Vietnam fell too fast for us to get there. So you see, I am progressing, and will make extensive use of my dive logs in the books. John |
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Post by SeaRat on Nov 11, 2019 20:12:25 GMT -8
The book I bought is titled The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published; How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It...Successfully!, by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. In this book, they make a point of stating that I need a pitch to use to introduce the book. My first draft of this pitch is as follows: Parascuba-BAW image001 by John Ratliff, on Flickr They state that this pitch should be able to be read in one minute. I'd like any comments by my fellow vintage divers about this pitch, and any input that you might have. John |
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Post by scubalawyer on Nov 11, 2019 20:25:18 GMT -8
My good friend and dive buddy, the late Lt. Col. Donald K. Tooker, published two books of his military aviation exploits from his flight training during WW2, flying F4U Corsairs off carriers during the Korean Conflict, to flying helicopters in peacetime and jets during Vietnam, including ejecting over the Pacific when his fighter jet became engulfed in flames during a mid-air refueling maneuver. As you walked down the hallway in his house he had still shots from a 16mm film showing him bringing his on-fire shot-up Corsair in for a landing on a carrier deck and the fire crew lifting him out of the cockpit, his body covered in oil. A real life hero.He was an amazing guy and I sorely miss him. We killed a lot of lobster together. He got more bugs than me on one dive and when I commented he said, "What did you expect? Fighter pilots always get more tail." He got his books published by the US Naval Institute Press.  m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-second-luckiest-pilot-donald-k-tooker/1112156420 |
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Post by crabbyjim on Nov 15, 2019 6:58:56 GMT -8
What is the title of your book?
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It just occurred to me that it could be from the French and Indian War too though.
Where's that book?!?!?!? People need to know your story: without the voices of people like you who were there, we are more likely to get idiots who forget/not understand the actual cost of such things! I've been hammering out some really good short stories as of late, ya need to keep up boy! 
