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Monica Haban (Brown)

Thank you Janie for posting the photos of the Tapicitos.  A beautiful reflection of the women of Peru, and Sister Thoma.  

In a later year, I received shipments of items made by the women at a Maryknoll mission in Bolivia, and sold them to the students, faculty, and parents at OLP, the money sent to their mission. I commented that the faces on the beautiful handmade dolls were sad.  The missioner commented that the women Were sad. We need to be reminded how blessed we are. Thank God for the religious and lay missionaries in our world. Some of you likely remember that my husband Don, my brother Matt, and Clare's brother Ted, are former Maryknoll seminarians.  

May Sister Thoma rest in peace.

David Mitchell

Come to think of it, I think I did have sister Amy for chemistry. I think that other sister I mentioned above was in Biology - not chemistry. But equally boring just the same.

I wonder if anyone knows anything about (sister) Margarie Davis these days. Kathy O'rieilly used to call me up in third or fouth grade and ask me if I liked Margarie. I was embarrassed.

I did not recognize the photo of sister Thoma.

David Mitchell

John,

How is your sister Liz?

I may have told the story before but I had the weirdest coincidental reunion with her about 25+ years ago.

I was downtown at the Veterans offices (I could not afford the Ohip State clinic and they referred me to the VA) and they asked if - while I was there  - would I like to go upstairs and just check in with the mental health desk. I asked why I would want to do that but then relented - "Oh well, as long as I'm here, why not."

I went up to the top floor and there was one desk clerk and one staff member still there - at 4:00 on a Friday - empty and quiet except for the three of us. This nice lady in her physician's white coat walks out and escorts me back to her office. We sat down and started to talk and suddenly I read her name tag,,,

Elizabeth Jackson M.D.

I blurted out , "Liz! It's me - Dave Mitchell - John's friend from school!"

She recognized me and we got into a great conversation. Then she asked me some questions about my military service. She became very interested and concluded by asking me to return for some counseling which she suggested I needed right away. 

That next week, 911 happened and I had experienced several very scary panick attacks. I returned to the clinic in a few days and I walked into that same (once empty) lobby full of veterans - maybe 50 guys - the place was packed!  She came out to greet me and waved her arm at all the people and said "See, these are all Vietnam Vets. You all need to get some help right away." 

She signed me up to see a staff counselor and he made a huge difference in my life before I moved down here to So. Carolina.

Small world!

Please tell her I said "Hello" and will always be grateful for her care.
 

David Mitchell

footnote:

I mentioned moving down here to So Carolina. I had my VA medical records transferred down here (only took 14 them months) and began visitng the medical clinic at the nearby Beaufort Naval Hospital. they assigned me to a young lady Psychiatrist and on my first visit I noticed two framed diplomas on the wall. 

They were both from THEE OHIO STATE UNIVERISTY !

Joseph Gentilini

Dave M - loved the story about Elizabeth Jackson OP.  She was a great help with a friend long time ago.

Margie Davis is at the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Peace.  I don't know what her ministry is now.  The next time I see her, I'll ask and get back to you.  joe

David Mitchell

Joe,

Tell Margie I said HI.

And John,

It would be intersting if you could run down the list of your sister Liz's rather famous carreer.

Michael McLeod

Janie! Muchas gracias! Que linda!

That is just such beautiful work, such tactile warmth, just jumps right out at you.

Janie Albright (Blank)

I run into Margie Davis periodically at 4pm Saturday mass at Christ the King (my parish St. Catharine no longer has a Saturday mass). She said she and other Dominicans live in a house nearby donated to the order and work in various jobs. She seems great. 😊 

Monica Haban (Brown)

Mike McLeod and all-

Sister Thoma's Peruvian mission Tapicitos images are self explanatory, though you may be curious (as I was) of the holy day/holiday procession.  I asked a friend (Maryknoll priest) who previously had a mission in Peru.  He said it was Dia del Enferno, World Day of the Sick.  The February 11th devotion (Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes/Order of Malta as well) is a devotion to St. Martin de Porres who was a lay Dominican brother from Lima, Peru. It's a significant day for the sick there, featuring prayers and acts of charity for vulnerable people.  And yes, I copied the explanation from the internet.  Perhaps I'll bring them to our reunion to share.  They are extraordinary.  

David Mitchell

Janie, or Monica, or John,

Just an open question for whoever knows;

I'd be curious to know if any of these retired nuns have any sort of pension?

Joseph Gentilini

Good question, Dave.  My bet is that they don't except if they are working in the job that pays into Social Security.  Let's see if someone else knows.  joe

Monica Haban (Brown)

Retired nuns, since the 1970's, qualify for social security.  John would likely know best, but from what I've learned, it depends on the Order, not specifically a pension perhaps, but depends if the Order has been making good investments. One religious Sister told me several years ago, that her Order had made good investments, but she was concerned that they were merging with another that had not.  
Catholic school teachers now have a pension, but I can tell you from experience, that it barely covers the cost of groceries for a month, especially when the grandchildren stop by! 😍.  Of course, we also have social security, and if one is wise, made their own good investments over the years! 
 

Michael McLeod

Now and then i buy cherries at the grocery story. Don't know why I bother. They are such pale replicas, tastewise, of the cherries i picked off a neighbors' trees acroos the street from my childhood home on east north broadway.

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.