Far Horizons - A get together

Last night a friend of ours decided he wanted to have a corn roast.  He went out bought a bunch of corn told a bunch of people to come to the open grill by the pool at five P.M, to bring your own eating utensils, something to prepare on the grill, and whatever you wanted to drink.  This is not an abnormal occurrence here in our little community on the east side of Tucson.  What made this one different is that no one new anyone else or just had a passing acquaintance.  I am not sure if the guy doing the inviting new this but I for one thought it a great treat.  To often there is a party and the same people get together all the time.  Nothing wrong with that but your horizon is limited and isn't this place called Far Horizons? 

There are about 1200 people down here at anyone time, many are just for a few days at a time, others are here from one to six months out of the year.  Still others like myself live here year round, there are about 60 of us who do that.  There are other parks in the state that are much bigger but for me if I wanted to live in a place much bigger I would stay in Independence at paint cati on the walls and sit under a heat lamp.  But bigger places have there place and many enjoy them.

I made some new friends last night and although they wont be the type of friends that I grew up with it will be nice to see more familiar and friendly faces.  Sometimes you like to be where every one knows your name. 

Just a Basic Day - Graduation

When ever a Basic Training Cycle is completed the military has a "Pass in Review."  That is when the entire brigade and brigades assemble on the parade ground and pass in front of the reviewing officer, after said officer gives a short speech congratulating everyone for completing the training.  It is sort of an elaborate and complicated affair but has been done often enough that it goes without a hitch.  After the speech the commander of the unit  parading in review shouts out "Pass in Review."  The review is lead by an army band and each unit at company level marches and when they pass the reviewing officer the commander of the company level unit sounds off "Eyes Right."  The officers leading each company and platoon size units salutes, the squad nearer to the reviewing stand keeps their eyes and head straight ahead and the other columns turn their heads to the right.  After the reviewing stand is passed the same officer yells "Eyes Front."  The salutes are completed and the heads snap forward again.  It sounds sort of hokey but those participating do feel elements of pride.  I practiced the event several times but was unable to attend the ceremony.  I was recovering from an event that happened the night before.

A bunch of us were celebrating are completion of basic at the beer tent.  Another guy and I decided we didn't like each other and my only one real fight in my life ensued.  The guy beat me to a pulp.  I would like to say I put up a good fight but in reality I did not.  I remember very little about the fight and was black and blue and my face was swollen.  Several of my comrades helped me back to the the barracks and propped me up in the shower.  Several guys from the other platoons came by and said they would go down and beat the other guy up if I wanted them too.  They said they really didn't like the guy anyway and he had been a bully the entire eight weeks.  I told them not to bother, it was my fault for letting my masochism get in the way of sound judgement. 

Needless to say I was somewhat embarrassed and had no desire to see the guy the next morning before the parade.  So when the platoon fell out the next morning I remained in bed and did not get up till noon when the troops arrived back to the company eara. 

We started processing our way out of Fort Benning, several of my closer friends and I jumped in my car and headed home.  My basic days were over and while I don't dwell on them or want to relive it in any way shape or form, I don't want to forget even the most horrific parts of it and will treasure many of the events that occurred in the summer of 1968.

I Digress, again

In my last post I made a mistake.  The tornado was on May 20, 1957, not 1947 on May 5, both of which were my birthday of course.  There is a small epilogue however.

I eventually got over air sickness and have spent many hours in small air crafts while in the army and living in Alaska.  My fear of storms was overcome and even resulted in my working for the state version of what is now FEMA where I encountered severe weather all the time.  The air sickness was over come sort of naturally but my fear of storms took on a mystical quality.

It seems that after the tornado on May 5 of '57 the summer was full of storms and storm warnings.  We did not have a basement so every time a warning would come up we would go to the neighbor's house and either sit in the basement or their front room ready to head for the basement if things got sticky, so to speak.   I was always petrified during the warnings or even when a bunch of clouds gathered.  So like most people when they get scared I would pray or even resort to reading the bible. 

One evening I was prone on the floor reading some passage of the bible, don't remember which one, full of fear and anxiety.  A breeze came in the front door and caught the edge of the page I was reading and blew across the bible and my eyes fell on a passage that went something like this, "you shall not be afraid because you do not know my ways." 

I have tried several times to find that passage or something like it but have failed every time.  However I was never afraid of a cloud, storm, or tornado from then on.  I wish all my fears could be handled in the same way.

I digress

I was in a quandary on what to do with a bunch of Pilot Log books my dad had kept for many years.  They were almost a complete set of logs dating from 1944 when he began flying.  I hated to toss them out but was tired of moving them from place to place.  So while backing stuff to take to Tucson I thought that perhaps I could donate them to some organization like I did his letters from Korea (they rest with the Missouri Historical Society right now.)  I first tried the TWA Museum at the old down town airport, they were not interested, then to the Airline Museum across the field.  They were not interested either.  On a fluke I went to one of remaining pilot training centers close by and asked if anyone there would be interested in having them for nostalgia or historical purposes.  To make a long story short the owner of the flight training and charter service remembered Dad and said that he (dad) had given him his Check rides and that he was sure that dad had written his name in the logs.  He as them now.  When I got back to my house I noticed that a log book had fallen out of the box and as I was thumbing through it noticed a entry dated July 28, 1957.  I read "snapper's first flight."  I decided to hold on to that book.  All I remember of the flight was that we followed the path of the Ruskin Heights Tornado rebuilding project (a tornado ripped through Ruskin Heights on May 20, 1947, my birth day.)  I also remembered I got air sick and almost threw up.

Just a Basic Day - Religion

If I were to be a preacher or priest or rabbi, I think I would join the military.  There are always plenty of sin going round and those who need to be saved or at least brought to the light.  I do not remember attending church while in Basic but I do remember a LTC Chaplin coming by the beer tent just to see if we were all doing OK and hinted that he was willing to talk to us anytime we wanted.  Of course we were not going to admit that we needed anything he had to offer, being the macho soldiers we were.

One other time a minister who was not in the army came out to one of our bivouac areas and held a small little service.  He gave us some inspirational words and let it be known that God would take care of us if we would only let him.  That he would clean our souls with his tears.

That night God cried a lot because there was a drenching downfall of rain that washed our camp site out. 

Just a Basic Day - Propaganda

There is a great big sign or at least there was right outside of the basic training complex.  It read, "more sweat in training, less blood in battle." 

Getting one all charged up is one of the major reasons basic training was invented.  Of course there was the conditioning and the learning how to be a soldier, but without being mind washed the rest is all for naught.  There are numerous ways the army and the military in general go about psyching one out.  Music is used, giving awards to place on your uniforms, different kinds of uniforms and some are by signs.  I had my share of awards, had four differnt kinds of uniforms, could choke up when an army band played but signs seemed to be every where.  A few I remember are "Think War," "Mission First, People Always," "God Hates Communists."  There were more but 40 plus years have erased most of them, but I am sure if you go on a military base today the signs and slogans will be displayed.

As almost an aside I remember that one day at Ft Benning we were all in an out door class receiving instruction on how to enter a village.  They had a mock up of a Vietnamese village.  The tactic are not that important here, but I thought then and do today how funny it was that the narrator said, "after the village is stabilized, you go to the village bulletin broad remove the enemy propaganda and replace it with our information."

Just a Basic Day - Camping

(my spell check just went out.  It will be wrose than normal.)

My cousin asked my dad to go camping once.  Dad said he did not want to go and when asked why and had he ever been dad replied, "Yes once, but we called in Korea."   Well I almost think the same way and if I had gone to Viet Name or something like that, I'm sure dad and I would agree.

As an officer you are given to shelter halfs to make one small, what we all call, "pup tents."  They were made from canvas, green, and very heavy.  If you were an enlisted man or a traniee you were only given one shelfter half and you had to find a guy who you would share a another shelfter half with. 

Depending on if you were tactical or administrative you would sit you tents up in neat rows, dig drainage ditches around your tent in such a way that if it rained the water would run to another trench that others had dug in front or behind their tents.  In theory the water would run off your tent into the trench surrounding your tent and then flow into the trench that would carry the water away and you would stay high and dry.  It never seemed to work that way though.  If it rained a lot you just figured on becoming wet.

If you were tactical you just put your tent where ever you wanted with in a defined area and make sure you were at least 10 meters away from the other tents (the distance that a hand granade would kill at) and make sure you were camouflaged, an art in itself.  (If you were really hard core you could use your poncho and poncho liners together with commo wire and make your self a nice little abode. I am far from hard core but I have done it, it works and I prefer it.)

With all the technology I hope the military has figured out a way to make the tents lighter weight and individualized by now.