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John Jackson

Dave, Liz is well and living at the Columbus Motherhouse.  You asked for a rundown on her career, and she did get her M.D. degree in her early years as a Dominican, specializing in psychiatry.  She lived in the Boston area for a while practicing as a psychiatrist in Church-related work.  She took a break from the order in the early 80’s and moved to Florida to marry a Holy Cross brother whom she had met quite a few years earlier when she was teaching biology at a Catholic high school in New Haven (the teaching job was just before she went to medical school).  In Florida she took a job as a psychiatrist working for the VA.  They had been married only a few years when her husband died tragically (and way too young) of a brain tumor, but Liz stayed on for a few years in Florida before moving back to Columbus to work at the VA facility downtown where you ran into her. Back in Columbus, she rejoined the Dominicans and continued to work for the VA for another dozen or so years before retiring about 10 years ago.  She  keeps herself busy now being responsible for all the music at masses and other liturgical events at the Motherhouse.

And I’ll tell her you said hi!

Regarding Social Security for nuns, I’m not sure I know the answer although I do know my sister has a government pension from her 20 or so years of working for the VA.

David Mitchell

And John,

It's my recollection that she was the "Director" of the VA mental health department (at the huge Chalmers P. Wylie VA center - near downtown Columbus) when I came in contact with her. 

How lucky was I ?

John Jackson

Dave, I don't remember when she got the title  but I do know she was the director of mental health services at the Wylie facility when she retired.

John Jackson

Perhaps we don't need to go to war against our NATO allies after all...

Greenland Suggests Trump Acquire Epstein’s Island Instead

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — In a counterproposal designed to ease tensions with the United States, on Thursday Greenland suggested that Donald J. Trump acquire Jeffrey Epstein’s island instead.

“President Trump has no roots on our island,” Greenlandic government spokesman Hartvig Dorkelson said. “Epstein’s island, on the other hand, must stir many happy memories for him.”

Acknowledging that Epstein’s island “could benefit from rebranding,” Dorkelson said, “More than the Kennedy Center, this is a place that should have Trump’s name on it.”

Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his imperialist rhetoric, declaring that the US needed to own Lapland in order to corner the world market in laptops

David Mitchell

Birds of a feather.............

David Mitchell

Here's a story from my first tour - before my Christmas trip home and back.

There was a "program" known as "Chu Hoi" (or Chieu Hoi) - meaning "Open Arms", which encouraged Viet Cong or North Vietnamese to surrender. It offered safe refuge, food, and sometimes a bit of cash or jobs. It was sort of successful - meaning it worked sometimes - but other times - they recanted and returned to their former afiliation.

The way we encountereed it was usually out in the field - when a single soldier or two would suddenly stand up in the open and raise thier AK-47 high over their head with both hands up, holding their weapon.

Mt buddy Joe and I co-wrote this episode of his experience for one of my chapters.

Sometime about March 19th (1969), Joe was working that day out of Chi Lang (“chee lang” - a place we worked often up the Mekong River near Cambodia) to support a Special Ops team. Upon landing, they hot refueled and departed with the first team consisting of the usual two OH-6a “Scouts”, two AH-1G “Cobra” gunships, and a UH-I (Huey) Command and Control (C&C) flown by Capt. Conley. Joe’s “wing man” was 1st. Lt. Jim who was even newer than Joe. Joe’s observer that day was Spec-5 Carter from Pampa, Texas.

They were looking for enemy personnel and materials being moved into the “AO” (Area of Operations - the area of that day's search). The Scouts were low level above the grass and reeds along a major canal at about 30 knots airspeed or less. Fresh trails were evident. They knew that people were close. 

The AO had been declared as “free fire” - shoot on-site - (an infrequent, but occasional condition in certain locations with very frequent, recent, and intense enemy activity, but not close to civilian areas). However, C&C had radioed that they wanted a prisoner if possible. 

They found a submerged sampan (long narrow boat) and started to hover low and slow to part the grass and reeds with their rotor wash to find the owners. They quickly found one and he quickly "Chu Hoi”-ed – (surrendered - stood up in the open with weapon raised over his head with both arms). Joe’s Observer covered him with his CAR-15 as they slowly circled the guy, advising C&C that they had a prisoner. 

This is where things got hairy as out of the corner of his eye, Joe sighted three Viet Cong, armed with AK-47's who jumped up and proceeded to hose their ship down. Joe immediately yanked full power (more than full) to get quickly away from the automatic weapon fire.

He vividly remembers 1st Lt. Jim passing on his right side to return mini-gun fire on them. Joe’s ship ended up some distance from the VC where they finally went down. Both himself and his observer were wounded - the Observer far worse than Joe. 1st Lt. Jim then picked them up and transported them to Binh Tuey Field EVAC hospital near Can Tho. 

 As a result, Specialist Carter, his Observer, lost a leg and Joe was hit with shrapnel in one leg. The larger piece of shrapnel was removed in surgery, but smaller pieces continued to work their way to the surface over time. Joe convalesced for 19 days at a medical facility at Cam Ranh Bay - where he also got to enjoy the world-famous beach. 

After recovering, he returned to our unit where he continued to fly the Scout mission for several more months, including a second “shootdown”. Then followed some months flying in the C&C ship until his D.E.R.O.S. date (“Depart En Route Over Seas”) – the end of  his tour of duty.

TBC

David Mitchell

Chu Hoi   continued

I myself had a Chu Hoi once that gave me a quite a scare, and became a weird story years later. It was Monsoon (rainy) season and we were hovering very low over some rice paddys - about three feet above he water level. In this time of year the rice fields were nothing but black puddles of about twelve to eighteen inches of water. No rice growing yet - this is before they even planted. 

Under these conditions we searched so low that we could find their fishing lines. These were white strands of fishing line that they stretched along the water a few inches below the surface. They were supported by seveal narrow sticks, stuck into the bottom of the paddy with the fishing string wound around them. Sometimes the white fishing strings (with hooks and bait attached) were thirty feet or more along the surface of the rice paddy. The fish they caught this way were often little more than overgrown minows. The VC often hid close to their fishing lines and we hoped to catch them lurking nearby.

I was hovering very slowly, following a white fishing line in the dark water, making sure not to get on the side with the (blinding) sun reflection on the water, when I came upon a young guy in black pajamas. He was just under the water surface - lying on his back, breathing through a long reed, and holding his AK-47 on his chest. I saw his panicked face for a moment, then he jumped up and raised his AK over his head with both arms. 

It scared the living crap out of me and I jerked my cyclic stick to back away from him a few feet. Then I quickly used my pedals to turn the ship so that my observer would have him on his side so he could train his CAR-15 right at this young VC. We were able to have the C&C come down and take him captive. One door gunner trained his M-60 side door gun on him while the other door gunner got out into the wet rice paddy to grab his weapon and cuff his wrist and help him get onboard. 

Years later, I had shared that story with my three kids. My oldest daughter (Watterson about 1990 - then John Carroll English major) was in graduate school at a Pasadena branch of Cal Tech. She wrote that story in a writing class and got a disturbing result from the instructor. 

She got the paper back with a low grade and written comments in the margin  - 

"This is ridiculous! this could never have happened".

She told me this over the phone from L.A. I was livid! But she said, "Dad, don't call anybody. I'll take care of this myself."

Michael McLeod

lol- that's a great story with a lot goin' on it,dave.yikes!

when I taught writing classes at osu and later down here at ucf (university of central florida) and rollins college I made my best efforts to avoid that kind of pompous snootiness.

David Mitchell

And if I recall correctly, an "F" for pouring milk shakes over classmates heads in the cafeteria!

(if I could only find that photo)

Joseph Gentilini

David, what a story about Vietnam and your daughter's reaction. I never would have made it over there without a complete breakdown. What FU... guts you had!  As always, thanks for your stories and your willingness to be so vulnerable.  joe.

David Mitchell

Joe,

It wasn't so much "guts" as it was youthful naivety, and a huge dose of arrogance!

Oh my goodness, were we ever an arrogant bunch! And all the "Scout" pilots in our sister Troops were the same. I think we really beleived we were invincible. And all of us mostly under 22. I was 20 when I arrived. (I then had 2 birthdays in Vinh Long.)

(Our senior ranking Captains were old guys of 25 and 27. And our COs - Majors - were only 30. 

Couple those attitudes with an intense desire to fly - a dream - no, an obsession - since I was a little boy. If you recall my story about my dad telling me I could not join the "student flying club" in college - that really was the spark that lit the flame. When my dad pushed, I almost always pushed back. 

Also, flying a helicopter was a lot more interesting than flying "fixed wing".

But as I mentioned in a recent post (about my "Strange Christmas" at home), having some time to get away and think about it, plus falling in love with the girl I would evntually marry, put me in a whole different frame of mind. 

I'll soon share a few stories from that side of my story. 

David Mitchell

GO BRONCOS !!!

I think we owe one to the refs.

A couple late pass interference calls (or no-calls) could have gone either way. 

David Mitchell

Go Hoosiers!

Michael McLeod

Wish I'd been born in Indiana instead of Ohio so I could have grown up having a kickass college football team to cheer for.

David Mitchell

I meant to post this story yesterday as a sort of MLK Day memory. 

It's the final bit of my first chapter - talking about what led up to my departure for the Army - with a lot of stuff about my growing up with a dream of flying and what influenced  me to pursuit it. If I ever finish it - this will close the chapter with the following episode;                                                            

                A few days into January, the same four of us - including Mike Lee, all met down at Fort Hayes and were driven out to Port Columbus Airport. We were handed our airline tickets to Shreveport Louisiana, connecting through Atlanta, as well as an envelope containing our military “orders”. We were allowed only a small gym bag of personal possessions, a toilet kit, and change of underwear. We boarded a Delta flight for Atlanta, to connect on to Shreveport. From Shreveport we would be bussed to Fort Polk, Louisiana where we would begin to enjoy the “delights” of basic training. 

                 We arrived at Shreveport Airport and boarded the shuttle to the bus station, where we would catch another bus to Leesville, Louisiana and nearby Fort Polk. Here, in the large bus station lobby I experienced a sort of “Welcome to the real South” shock. 

David Mitchell

Liam Ramos is 5 tears old !

Shame on this country.

David Mitchell

My daugher in Milwaukee is expecting 40 below tonight.

As I drove home at 5:30 it was 65 degrees here.

Hope you are all warm and cozy tonight.

John Jackson

The woman in the video below, a U.S. citizen,  was on her way to a doctor's appointment.  Here is NewsNation's description of what happened:

(NewsNation) — A disabled woman on her way to a medical appointment who was dragged out of her car by federal immigration officers says she feels “lucky to be alive.”

Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, was on her way to a doctor’s appointment in Minneapolis when she encountered federal agents at an intersection. Video of her arrest went viral online, and it appears to show a masked agent smashing Rahman’s passenger side window and others cutting her seatbelt. It also shows them dragging her out of her car through the driver’s side door and guards carrying her by her arms and legs.

Your tax dollars at work...

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

John Jackson

MM, this is how Reuters described the situation:

Liam, wearing a blue hat and a Spider-Man backpack, watched as masked agents took his father from the driveway of their home after the two returned from preschool on Tuesday, according to witnesses. Officers then attempted to use the boy as bait to lure his mother out of the house, at least two witnesses said.

The story that the father ran away was advanced by VP J. D. Vance, who, like most Trump administration officials, lies way more often than he tells the truth.

After ICE detained the father, the Reuters account continues:

However, school officials, an adult from the family home and neighbors all offered to take the boy, only to be denied by ICE officials, according to witnesses including Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights school board. Granlund said school officials are authorized to take custody of a child in the absence of a parent.

The boy's mother was inside the home, but her husband instructed her to remain inside, most likely to avoid detention herself, Granlund told reporters. When asked if the boy was being used as bait, Granlund said, "Correct."

The boy and his father are now in an ICE detention center in Texas.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/ice-detains-four-children-minnesota-school-district-school-officials-say-2026-01-22/.

Joseph Gentilini

As far as I am concerned, ICE is the gestapo of the 1930s in another country!

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Taking a pause from the day's headlines to share something I read this morning, offering us all something to reflect on today.

In 1948, C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest intellectual thinkers of the twentieth century, penned an essay titled, On Living in an Atomic Age. In it, he addressed the anxieties plaguing many at the time, namely, the ongoing threat of the atomic bomb.

In light of recent ‘pandemics,’ rumours of wars, the possibility of nuclear attacks, and increasing civil unrest, I thought it was worth sharing Lewis’ timeless advice once again:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

C.S. Lewis, On Living in an Atomic Age, 1948

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

In light of a couple of recent posts, I felt it was worth sharing this latest update concerning the widely reported case of the five-year-old child who was said to have been “detained.”

I’ll leave it there and encourage everyone to review the information for themselves and draw their own conclusions with care.

John Jackson

Sorry MM, I place way more credence in a report from Reuters than on random people who post on Elon Musk's X - how do I know who these people are or if they're remotely credible?  And their arguments are all based on statements by DHS and ICE - anyone who believes what ICE (or DHS or Kristi Noem) says is incredibly naive. 

What do you expect from people who think it's OK to wear masks so they can't be held accountable for their actions, who smash car windows to pull people out into the street, who enter homes without warrants and who lie whenever it suits their purpose?