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Linda Weiner (Bennett)

Dave, M,

While in the UK, of all places, had supper with two other American couples and the conversation got around to the two guys serving in Vietnam. I brought up the topic of Loesh helicopters, one woman one knew exactly what they were and blurted out, "Light observation helicopter!"

I thought that might surprise you. 😯

David Mitchell

Joe,

Good news!

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Linda,

Interesting comments. But it is "LOACH" (like cock "roach"). And yes, it is simply the pronunciation of the intitials "L.O.H.", for Light Observation Helicpter. Even most Vietnam Vets have never heard of it, but the few that have REALLY remember it!  My own guess is that there may have only been about 800 of us out of over 40,000 American helicopter piltos in Vietnam. And we only existed in a several squadrons. (Even the Army had to realized there were only so many 20-year old idiots out there.)

On the opening scenes of the second week of the Ken Burns series, you would have had to look quick - and they made it confusing by mixing in a bit of footage of older TH-47s (like we all saw in M.A.S.H.) during that short section of the film.  The LOACH is a little egg-haped body with a sleek narrow round tail boom. And the guy with the big mustache who spoke of the lady reporter - and he told her "My job is to get shot at" - was an "observer" - sat in our left seat with his C.A.R. 15 and grenades to toss out the door. As I mentioned before, he was speaking literally, not figureatively. Fun work if you could get it.

Sorry for repeating myself here.

*An afterthought to that series, I thought the ending bit where they gave the "what happened to"  and the "where are they now" status of all those 20 odd people that were the interviewees throughout the series was fascinating.  I wonder if any of you saw that?  Some fascinating outcomes!

----------------------

*Been away for civililization for a few days. Seems like violence at U. of FLA. was avoided - whew!

Waiting for other foot to drop in Barcelona?

Joseph D. McCarthy

Jim, loved those night shots of the willdlife.  But the main reason for this post is to ask for some medical related advice.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with my doctor.  Is there any way of asking if his house is still standing since it was in an area of Santa Rosa that burned.  Or should I just wait to see if he brings it up.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

Jim. That is really something to think about when  Trick or Treating in YOUR neighborhood! Kathy Wintering

Lawrence Foster

Jim,    Your "'Trick or Treat" photos are great!   And with Halloween just around the corner I decided to share some short stories I have written.  They are posted over on the "User Forum" link, if I did it correctly.  They are too long to post here on the Message Forum.  

For about 2 years now I have been part of a writer's group at one of the local libraries.  We meet 2x a month and write short stories or essays and give feedback to each other.  It has been a positive, fun learning experience.  

Last year and this year the librarian who runs the group gave us a prompt to use for the 2nd October meeting, "Write a scary story."  I have read these stories to the group (8-12 people, with 6 of us being regualrs) and received good feedback and interesting responses.  So, I thought I would go out on a limb and share them with you all.

The 2016 story, The Coming Darkness, was presented to the group on the Monday after Halloween last year which just happened to be the night before the Presidential election.  It is possible to read some poltical overtones in it.  It is not my intention to offend anyone.  If it is a problem I will remove it.

The 2017 story, The Bat Man, bothered me as I wrote it.  I asked the group if it was actually scary or just creepy.  They laughed and said it was both so that did not really help me.

I have a few other stories (not scary stories) and some short essays that I would be willing to share if there is any interest.

In the meantime "HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!"  and  "SAFE TRICK OR TREATING!!! 

David Mitchell

Go for it Larry!

Michael McLeod

Ok Larry wait a minute. Gotta get my jammies and my blankie and a cup of hot chocolate.

. OK. Go!

James Hamilton, M. D.

Lawrence Foster

Thank you Jim for the kind words.  Scary stories are notreally my thing but that was the prompt so ...

Mike, Hope you enjoyed the stories and the hot chocolate! 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Larry, I enjoyed reading your short stories.  Please share more when you are inspired to write. 

I thought that maybe you and some of our former IC classmates might enjoy seeing this video that I took at Immaculate Conception's all-school Mass.  Each Wednesday, one of the classes is chosen to be responsible for the liturgy and select several students to do the readings and to bring up the gifts.  This week the primary grades children's choir lead the congregation in singing,  This hymn, Here I Am to Worship, was sung at the offertory.   

https://youtu.be/gOP-Yex3qpk 

Timothy Lavelle

Frank...I am worried that your grandchildren, after spending so much time with you, will all own guns and want to build a wall in southern Florida to keep "those damn Koobuns" out. Or maybe they will just be Mary Margaret smoking golf nuts. I am going to ask Trumpy to look into this babysitting hoax of yours because he is so good at getting things done.  I love you like a brother; Trumpy, not so much.

Loved Jim's wildlife. I used to wallk the dog at nights here and believe me, I am way too much of a city boy to do that without getting the heebie-jeebies some nights...dark as pitch unless the moon is helping and the occasional owl lends a lot of creepiness to the walk..."who, who, who goes there?"

Linda B: I get a kick out of your posts because you make a litte fun of yourself and I think we can all stand a dose of that. If you think your had your head hidden somewhere dark "back then" please trust that a very high percentage of us did. Imagine that they held a war like VN today and invited young folks to come and play. Knowing what we know now, probably no one with a glimmer of IQ would show up but back then we all drank the cool aid that Uncle had fed us since the end of WWII. We all wanted to "do the right thing" because we believed the old men in Washington wouldn't be lying to us...only Russians and Chinese commies lied!!

"..and it's one, two, three,

what are we fightin' for ?

Whooppee, well I don't give a damn,

next stop is Viet Nam."

C'mon Dave, sing it with me...The Fish Cheer by Country Joe MacDonald.

Larry....dude if anyone is found nearby your house drained of blood with tiny puncture holes in their neck...you'll pardon me from sending the cops to say hello to the compulsive blood sucking writer. I'll ask Al Judy to take the lead unless he has enrolled as a minnion in your Vampire Squad. Good stuff. Enjoyed both.

David Mitchell

Tim, 

I forget the words so I'll just have to hum along.

You remind me of my favorite songs back then;

Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", (still love those guitar riffs), Erik Burden and the Animals "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", and my personal favorite, Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Leavin' On a Jet Plane."  The week before I was going home for my second and final time, I sang that song so often to deliberately annoy my platoon buddies that I think I drove them nuts. There were an awful lot of nasty words and a few beer cans hurled at the door of my little sleeping cublicle.  

* for those not over there, it might help to understand that the Arm Forces has broadcasting facilities wherever we have large deployments of troops. So the stations in Saigon were one FM radio station AFVN Radio, (which we could get in the cockpit while flying) - and for TV it was AFVN TV. (AFVN = Armed Forces Viet Nam). We had TV in our little hooch (dozens of rows of "cottages" with 8 to 10 guys each) and radios with all the latest music. So we were hearing what you all were listening to back home - including news. You may all recall the film with Robin Williams - "Good Morning Viet Nam" - true. I remember one afternoon disc jockey show pre-ecorded in L.A. where the guy would play a few records and interview some hot Hollywood babe - including always asking her measurements!  Stella Stevens and Marylin McCoo are two that I remember.

And our three favorite TV shows at night were "Star Trek" - which we watched religiously and mocked some of their phrases in the cockpit  - "Laugh In" (and oh, how we did laugh) - and day-old Chicago Cubs games. And lots of public service announcements. One of the most common was Ricardo Montalban standing in a plain studio, live in Saigon, holding an AK-47 in his hands and warning us "Friends, please don't deal in captured weapons". One of my single most moving meories was watching Simon and Garfunkle, standing in that same un-decorated studio, singing (live and unplugged)  "To Emily, Whereever I may Find Her".  That song still gets me. 

(Although I have never been to the annual national "Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's Assoc." reunions, I understand they have engaged Erik Burden and the Animals to perform their song at the event every year.)

David Mitchell

After several attempts to reach him, I finally got a call back from Kevin Ryan a couple hours ago. He has not been on the forum and it's not my busines to get into details, but his news of Jodie's condition was excellent! She has been through the worst of it and things are going very well. Kevin was very upbeat and we had a great conversation.

Life is good!

David Mitchell

Tim,

I forgot another favorite - "Universal Soldier" by Donovan. But that may have been later. And besides, it lacks a good country style beat.

And I think the answer to the question in your song is that we were fighting for politicians to save face - a worthy cause indeed!

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Jim,

How could I forget that. And I might add, Mary and I got to enjoy John Denver at Red Rocks twice in two years back in the day, plus my all time favorite, the "Canadian mumbler", Gordon Lightfoot. Red Rocks is quite an experience. If you sit high enough you can look back over the top of the stage at the lights of Denver while watching the moon come up! We also saw Denver's own Judy Collins perfrom with the Denver Symphony orchestra - but some of it almost put me to sleep. But her early song, "Someday Soon" is still a favorite.

"He loved that damned old rodeo,,,, as much as he loved me"

Oddly, as much as we loved John Denver, my favorite song that he sang was not his own, but a song by John Prine - "Angels From Montgomery".

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery. Make me a poster of an old rodeo.                             Just give me one thing that I can hold onto,,,to beleive in this livin' is just a hard way to go"

Michael McLeod

I interviewed Mary as a young reporter. I think it was when I worked in Pensacola at the newspaper there. And I was so nervous that at one point I just sat there speechless. and she looked at me and said: "run out of questions"? And I said "uh, yeah." 

She was nice about it but I sure felt like a dork.

I got better at interviewing but I was often tongue-tied and nervous with celebrities.

Timothy Lavelle

Mike...as Mark is the link to Holywood,  I wonder if you will be the link to journalism for a moment? I am not interested in Trump bashing for the moment...at least by me...but I am interested in the news industry handling of "all things Trumpy".

While it is obvious that I am not in favor of our President, it seems to me that the news is almost in a permanent reaction phase to their own flubbbing of the Nov. election outcome. The mission statement seems to be "We will regain the respect of the 'Murican people by attacking Trump at every turn".  It seems to me that every day is "pile it on day" with respect to Trumpy. I should like that, but in truth it feels as lacking in real value as the main man himself. It is boring and makes me fast forward through the opening news reports on the national news each evening. I would apreciate the insight of an insider to how you feel the news industry is handling The Donald. Or Plan B, ignore this post completely...I'll get it.

PS. Frank, you are not allowed to answer for Mike.

Dave, normally I think you wax poetic about VN. But the songs you mentioned...incredible heat...a shack for an enlisted men's club...a miserable little band from Thailand on a tiny stage and a crowd of drunken men singing "We gotta get outa this place" with tears running down the faces of even the bad-ass boys. Dude, you're killin' me. I think the most common and honest prayer back then was "God please just let me live through this".   

David Mitchell

Tim,

So true. Your final prayer was my frequent auto-response "prayer" (preceeded always by a quick "W.T.F., or "Jeeesuz") many dozens of times when those tiny high-speed projectiles passed trough the cockpit and left a powder burn in my eye, or scratched the crystal of my "trophy" aviators watch on my left hand (down at my side holding my "collective"). Funny, but there was no, thought of fighting for Old Glory or the honor of the Cavalry. It was simple animalistic, "just get us - (me and the guy in my left seat) - through this moment".  

As for your  "miserable little band from Thailand - does this ring a bell?

We had an officer's club that had a flat roof and leaked like a sieve during the rainy season. And there was a little low stage in one end of the room. We would often have one of those traveling Thai, Korean, or (if we got lucky) Aussie bands. But the rain would drip on them and thier equipment. One night they kept getting shocked by their own electric equipment and they would get frightened and stop their songs. We just laughed and hooted and egged them on until it got too dangerous and they had to quit performing. But the girl lead singers were always cute, always had a tiny skirt with heels, and the music was always mediocre - and we loved them. 

David Mitchell

p.s.

I think we must have heard "The Letter" (by the boxtops) about a million times too. And whenever they sang "Detroit City" the room would go quiet and lots of guys sang along. 

Mark Schweickart

Dave-- the picture you posted reminded me of a terrific movie that came out a few years ago about a group of Austalian Aboriginal girls becoming a Motown-sound band hoping to travel to Vietnam to launch their career by performing for the troops. It was called The Sapphires. It is more about the girls and their relationship to their white (Irish of all things) manager, played by Chris Dowd than it is about their time in Vietnam, but if you haven't seen it, I think you would enjoy it immensely. Here's the trailer:

David Mitchell

Thanks Mark,

Looks good. I'll have to check it out sometime. 

      (Think maybe we saw that group in Vinh Long - LOL)

David Mitchell

Stupid me!

I just had a wonderful lunch yesterday up in Beaufort with Mary Ann Nolan and her husband Jeff, who I met for the first time. Really nice guy.

But I forgot to take a picture to send along. Oh well, you can all just picture us in a hip little restaurant looking cool together. 

(Well dammit, use your imagination.) 

Michael McLeod

Tim:

Great question.

I'll have to start by disagreeing with your premise, which I understand to be: "the press feels bad for buying into the polls that indicated Trump will lose, therefore writes bad things about him in an effort to regain the respect of readers and viewers."

This reminds me of a highway patrolman I was talking to who had picked up a guy on some rap and the guy was telling him that the highway patrol was just out to get him, that it had a vendetta against him. And the patrolman said: "You give us way too much credit. We're too busy putting out fires to have the time to organize a vendetta against anybody."

We are in an extremely tempestuous time in our history -- and by "our" I mean the world, not just our country -- and we have an extremely tempestous president, a maverick with no governing experience, whose job is to lead us through it. He appears to have a temperment and a battle plans that involves confrontation and my-way-or-the-highway style. He has used it against journalists, whom he calls enemies of the people, so you probably shouldn't be listening to me in the first place. He has also used it against scientists,  whom he discredits and disbelieves, so I guess you can't believe what they say about the environment, either. He has used it against our allies nearly as much as he has used it to get into a verbal pissing match with an equally tempestous dictator with his finger on a nuclear trigger. I am not saying he is wrong in doing any of this. It's what he does. It's who he is. I am not saying this style is not wonderfully effective and absolutely perfect for the challenges of our time. What I will say; the sole argument I am making, is this: Anyone who operates in the way that Trump is operating will be challenged by a free press that is doing its job. And you should be pretty damn grateful for that.

I'd suggest that you consult a variety of llegitimate news sources to see if you find indications of good, analytical, professional journalism taking place. One thing you might consider is to get a digital subscription to the New York Times, which is one of the few remaining print publication with the resources to track the news of an extremely complex world. It's dirt cheap. Like 20 bucks a month. And one hell of a lot more reliable, whatever you think of the main stream press, than the crappola available in the dark recesses of the internet. Trump, of course, likes to attack the NYTimes. But I've never see a single word out of his mouth about it that had any logical analysis in it. And that's what I have been living by for 50 years. Had too. If I so much as mispelled a name I got reamed out for it. Any trained journalist will tell you that. We do our best to tell it straight.  I have my prejudices. I have my blind spots. But I know common sense and logical argumentation when I see it. And I know we are lost as a species when we lose track of it.  And frankly, these days, I am scared to death, and very, very sad for our country.