Love Came Down

Love Came Down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and angels gave the sign.

(Christina Georgina Rossetti - 1885)

This lovely old Christmas hymn spells really it out! As Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame asks "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Many of us have also asked or are asking this also.)

Linus Van Pelt answers this question so well with "Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about." He goes on to explain "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." (from A Charlie Brown Christmas - 1965)

Karin and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and hope you have received and accepted the best gift of all...the Gift God sent down that first Christmas more than two thousand years ago, the Gift of eternal life that Jesus Christ offers.

Thanksgiving 2010

Good Morning Everyone!

I'd like to wish you and yours a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving! I found this proclamation by President Ronald Reagan, and I wanted to share it with you.

"America has much for which to be thankful. The unequaled freedom enjoyed by our citizens has provided a harvest of plenty to this nation throughout its history. In keeping with America’s heritage, one day each year is set aside for giving thanks to god for all of His blessings.


"As we celebrate Thanksgiving in 1981, we should reflect on the full meaning of this day as we enjoy the fellowship that is so much a part of the holiday festivities. Searching our hearts, we should ask what we can do as individuals to demonstrate our gratitude to God for all He has done. Such reflection can only add to the significance of this precious day of remembrance.


"Let us recommit ourselves to that devotion to God and family that has played such an important role in making this a great Nation, and which will be needed as a source of strength if we are to remain a great people. Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 26, 1981, as Thanksgiving Day."

My Great Adventure - Part 2

(Author’s note: This continues my autobiography of my experience as a Christian and how my time in Vietnam has played an integral part of who I am today. Part 1 of this saga was published on this blog on October 9, 2010.)

Part 2 – Southeast Asia

I spent maybe three or four days at Oakland Army Terminal, during which the normal drudgery of hurry up and wait was made a little bit more fun for me and a bus load of other GIs who had volunteered to give blood at the San Francisco blood bank. You see, if we gave our pint of blood, then we would be on light duty for then next 24 hours! What better incentive was there? So, we assembled to board our OD green bus and headed off across the Bay Bridge towards downtown San Francisco. We arrived a little while later, donated our blood and then loaded up again on the Army bus, driven by a civilian Army employee, to head back across the bay to Oakland. However, the driver, before even starting up again, asked us if we would like to see Haight-Ashbury Street. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight-Ashbury) To a man we all said yes! And off we went, in our khakis, and in our OD green Army bus, to the center of the known world for the Flower Children, the Love Generation, the Summer of Love (but this was February). What a trip! We didn’t want to go to Vietnam, and the Love Children didn’t want us to go either! Amazingly, looking back on this mind-blowing scene, we were on each other’s side, GIs and Flower Power as one!

Well, we finally got back to Oakland, and the next day, after a couple of miscues and more hurry up and wait at Travis AFB, I was on an Eastern Airlines stretch DC-8 charter headed for SE Asia. I distinctly remember that as soon as we were off the ground, and the no smoking light went off, this long tube we were sitting in almost instantly acquired a blue haze atmosphere from all the cigarettes that were lit! We refueled in Honolulu at Hickham AFB, again at Wake Island (I remember thinking to myself as we came closer and closer to the whitecaps under the aircraft on our final approach that “There’s gotta be a runway down there somewhere!”) and again at Clark in the Philippines. As we reached the coast of South Vietnam the pilot announced to us in the cabin that if we looked out the right side of the aircraft we would see Vietnam for the first time. As we all moved to that side of the cabin, the DC-8 made a significant attitude shift banking right! (Too much weight on that side I think.)

On February 15, 1968, I was celebrating Tet with most of the other Americans in Vietnam by ducking mortars and rockets that had been thrown at all allied forces by Charlie and Papa Ho since the end of January. If the Army had told us that this was happening, I would have tried to catch a later flight!

This is what I wrote on this blog in November 2007 about those first few days in Vietnam: “On 18 February I was assigned to pull sentry duty (without any kind of a weapon, however!) at the 93rd Evac Hospital at Long Binh. My job was to stand by a door and just monitor who came and went. I don’t remember what the entrance was, but there were a lot of people coming and going. I had not been on duty very long when, all of a sudden, there was a terrific whoomph! and the air was transformed into a fog of dust!

“Turns out it was Tet. And the enemy had just hit the hospital with a rocket attack. I don’t remember if there was more than one explosion, but I imagine there were multiple rockets and mortars; these lasted pretty much all night. As I was laying flat on the ground (must have been a basic training learned reaction) my thoughts were “Oh shit!” and “Welcome to Vietnam!”

“Later on, after my shift, I went back to the barracks to try to get some sleep. That was a little difficult, what with the VC attacking, the gunships that were in the air all around and the huge amount of adrenaline that was being pumped through the bodies of all us new guys. At about 3:00 in the morning there was a HUGE explosion when the VC blew up the 12th Combat Aviation Group’s ammo dump where 8 pads detonated with a total ammo value of $2,774,348 (in 1968 dollars).

“I have had a picture in my mind of the massive explosions that night, but I had never seen a photo of it. Last week, at http://www.nonags.org/members/raffia/, I found a photograph, which is published here and is remarkably very close to what I remember.

“Later that day, my name was finally called and I was on a C-130 on my way to Nha Trang, and the 17th Group HQ. They told me I was assigned to the 225th at Phu Hiep (I responded “Phu What?) and not long after that I became a member of the Blackhawks .” (http://225observer.blogspot.com/2007/11/welcome-to-vietnam-or-how-i-celebrated.html)

I ended up serving twenty-eight months with the 225^th (several of our company spent much more than the one year there, Rob Jensen and Dennis Wert come to mind), during which time I became friends with many guys who have remained my friends over these past four decades, having reconnected with them beginning in mid-1998 because of the marvel of the Internet. Some of you are reading this now! We all had a shared experience that was unique and has bonded a lot of us together for the rest of our lives. Stay tuned for the next installment in my story.

To Be Continued...

My Great Adventure

(Author's note: This is my story. As Steve Bogner pointed out to me in an e-mail today, I totally forgot to say who wrote this. It was me, Gordy. Thanks Steve!)

Part 1 – The Adventure Begins

My aviation career consisted of on-the-job-training as a Flight Follow Observer (a special 225^th SAC MOS) in Vietnam in fall of 1969. I was never a “Mohawk driver” or a pilot of any kind. The closest I ever got to becoming a pilot was when Joe Beckham, Dugan Lawrence or one of our other incredibly talented and able pilots let me handle the controls at twenty thousand feet in Double Zero somewhere over II Corps. I well remember a flight with Mr. Beck where we did very close passes around big, high, beautiful cumulus clouds in an otherwise bright blue sky over the South China Sea. Tight banking to the left and then to the right and then up and over the top, complete with a pencil floating in right in front of my nose! What an exhilarating experience for a 22 year old!

But I do know that whenever you go on a flight, you’re supposed to file a flight plan. Of course, in Vietnam forty years ago my part of the flight plan consisted of the target runs I had been assigned and our estimated time of return (plus lots of other information). For us Flight Follow guys, we plotted the target runs for all the missions we were following.

This was a really an amazing time in my life, those days some forty years ago. Now that I have reached the six-decade mark of my life (actually I am 63 now) I have realized God has had a plan for me all along, even when I was in that map room at Phu Hiep plotting targets in the wee small hours of the morning so long ago.

For a long time I have wanted to write my story to tell what Jesus Christ means to me and what he has done in my life, and put it on this blog to share in order to maybe help someone who may be looking for something more, some additional meaning to life. It kind of reminds me of that old cartoon of the guy climbing the mountain, finally reaching the summit just to encounter the old guy at the top just to discover the sage doesn’t know the meaning of life any more than he does. Well, just as I have seen with my 20-20 hindsight how Jesus has been involved in my life these past forty-plus years, I thought it would be better to not keep it all to myself.

I have been in a quandary, however, on how to present this without sounding preachy or judgmental or holier-than-thou. When I started the 225^th Observer blog in July 2007 my purpose was connect those of us who had had the shared experience of serving with each other as Blackhawks or Phantomhawks at Phu Hiep AAF and Tuy Hoa AFB. I didn’t want to alienate anyone by presenting old, worn out clichés that we all have heard since our parents made us go to Sunday school when we were little, but may have rejected “religion” as irrelevant later on. Suffice it to say that this short essay has been a long-time incubating.

When I was a high school junior a friend invited me to a local church youth group called Lamplighters that was sponsored by a local Presbyterian church. You see, I had never gone to church, except occasionally with the neighbor kid when I was in elementary school, and my parents didn’t go either. My dad was sort of a Christian Scientist and my mom, well, I don’t know what she was because religion was never talked about in our family. The impression I had growing up, and it was only an impression, was that religion or church was not a thing to be involved with. Curiously, however, I can remember dad watching a Billy Graham crusade on TV and even asking me if I wanted to send away for the free literature.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, after three weeks of building up courage (why that was necessary, I don’t know) to go to Lamplighters, I went. Well, at the youth group I “accepted” Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I asked him into my heart. But no bolts of lightening came down, no life-changing events happened immediately, life just continued on.

In 1965 I graduated from high school, went one year to the University of Washington (and did miserably grade-wise), got a job in a television station and then attended community college. Sometime in the early spring in 1967 Uncle Sam (or was it Uncle Lynden?) sent me a notice to appear for my pre-induction physical. The dreaded draft notice was sure to follow, and the one thing since I was a little kid that I never wanted to do, to be a soldier, was now looming just over the horizon. To avoid the draft, I decided that I would enlist to at least get a job in the Army that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee I would die in combat. The staff sergeant recruiter signed me up to be a photo lab tech (MOS 84G20); I was to report to begin active duty to the Army Entry Station of the Seattle waterfront on June 20^th, 1967, my 20^th birthday!

So, almost exactly two years out of high school, I was off to North Fort Lewis, Washington, for eight weeks of Basic Combat Training, and then on to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the Army’s Signal Center and School for four or five months of photo lab training. In February 1968 we took a day trip to Fort Dix for Vietnam orientation (in a snow storm!), and I received orders for Vietnam, along with the rest of my photo lab class. I took a couple of weeks leave to come home to the Northwest and then I was off on a flight to Oakland Army Terminal for shipment to Vietnam.

All the while, I had no clue that Jesus Christ was watching over me, putting people in place ahead of me who would have a profound effect on my life. He was setting the stage for my great adventure in life.

To be continued....

Some Fun Stuff To Look At...

Good morning Vietnam! (Remember listening to AFVN and hearing that?)

Anyway, I thought I would compile some fun stuff that you all can link to when you have a few minutes to spare.

Chuck Galloway sent me the Google Earth coordinates so we can see what Phu Hiep AAF looks like today. You gotta download Google Earth to see it then put in the coordinates (13° 0'41.91"N 109°21'40.70"E) being sure to include the parentheses. The place looks better than when we were there!

Terry Carlson sent this:
Ultra Deep Field - - - Here is what happened when professional astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at absolutely nothing and left it there, first for 10 days, and then for 11 days. Then they made the images into a
3-D presentation. 
 Go to 
http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm. 

By the way, 13 billion light years are about equal to
880,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (880 sextillion) miles.

Kurt Olney sent this by way of his brother Dave:
A nice website for the Air Force’s 456 Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Click on http://www.456fis.org/OV-1.htm.

From Jim Taylor who sent me the following which is from an Army Aviator friend who takes another trip down memory lane:
It was just before Thanksgiving '67 and we were ferrying dead and wounded from a large GRF west of Pleiku. We had run out of body bags by noon, so the Hook (CH-47 Chinook) was pretty rough in the back. All of a sudden, we heard a 'take-charge' woman's voice in the rear.
There was the singer and actress, Martha Raye, with a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues, with subdued markings, helping the wounded into the Chinook, and carrying the dead aboard. 'Maggie' had been visiting her SF 'heroes' out 'west'.
We took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku. As we all started unloading our sad pax's, a 'Smart-Ass' USAF Captain said to Martha.... "Ms Ray, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show!"
To all of our surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said...”Captain, see this eagle? I am a full 'Bird' in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a 'Caduse' which means I am a Nurse, with a surgical speciality....now, take me to your wounded.” He said, “Yes mam'... Follow me.”
Several times at the Army Field Hospital in Pleiku, she would 'cover' a surgical shift, giving a nurse a well-deserved break.
Martha is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Ft. Bragg, NC.
Hand Salute!
Check it out! Martha Raye Civilian Warrior

Ed Paquette sent this great video link about the 68th Reunion of the Doolittle Raiders. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/user/MsPolleyVision

And finally, Jim Taylor sent this great clip of the ultimate Short Take-Off aircraft. We shoulda had these at Tuy Hoa….my son said it is just really an old F-35!
http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/cpasley/4823/

Thanks to you guys who sent these links! Keep 'em coming. Have a great weekend everyone!

A Russian P-39 Cobra

Noble Atkins sent this link to me.....

Pete Gallivan reports on a warplane that went missing for 60 years, and is now back in its birthplace. I thought you might enjoy watching it also. http:\\link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34757272001?bclid=0&bctid=87804472001

The F-35 Lightning II...What An Airplane!

Our friend George Drago sent this neat video link to me the other day. We flew in amazing war-birds in our time, but the young pilots of today have some really incredible technology and machinery to drive. Aviation has sure come a long way since those bicycle brothers in Dayton first flew their Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk 107 years ago!

To enjoy this short (about 4 minutes) video, click the link. F-35B - Taking STOVL to a New Level - Videos - AircraftOwner Online

Steve Bogner Found! (And he didn't even know he was lost!)

Well, they just keep coming out of the woodwork!

In June I got an email from Steve Bogner, who was in the 225^th when I arrived at Phabulous Phu Hiep By The Sea in February 1968. I had not heard from or seen him since he DEROSed. Due to the wonders of the Internet, my replies to him bounced back to me. But Steve sent a card, with his phone number, by snail mail, so we talked for quite a while trying to remember names and all the goofy things that went on so many years ago.

He’s been active in photography all these years (he was an 84G20 photo lab tech in the 244^th SAC, then was transferred to the 225^th), and is now retired, living in Palo Alto, California.

Memorial Day 2010

Please take a moment to remember the friends we lost so many years ago.

(click the arrow on the lower left of the screen below)

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (on May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action. (from Wikipedia)

4 More Blackhawks Found!

A while ago you will recall that we had located Dennis Wert, another 84G20 who had served with us in the 225^th. Well finding Dennis seems to have opened up the floodgates a little bit because four more men have turned up in the past few weeks! On March 6^th Gary Chambers, another Photo Lab Tech signed in on the OV-1.com Guestbook (www.ov-1.com/roster). I put his email address on my alert list and emailed him. Then on March 19 Mike (Luke) Christ signed in on the Guestbook, so I immediately put him on my alert list for this blog and emailed him also. Luke was a 05C Radio Teletype Operator (Luke let me know if this is not correct). We’ve talked on the phone and it’s been fun hearing each other’s stories! Luke sent me Gary’s phone number and I’ve talked with him too. Then, Chuck Galloway let me Dennis know that he had found Rolin Randall who was also an 84G Photo Lab Tech. Rolin lives in Alaska, where he’s been since returning from the war.

Well, that’s three more guys with whom we’ve reconnected! “Who is the fourth” you ask?

Here’s where our connections are becoming more and more important…about a month ago Terry Carlson sent me a copy of the 223^rd Aviation Battalion (Combat) 1969 Yearbook. I saw the photo of Garry Ryals and remembered that he lived not all that far from me in Western Washington State. So I looked him up on Facebook and found a Garry Ryals who was about our age and sent him a message asking if he had served in Vietnam in the 225^th. Before long I received an answer: “Yes Gordy I am the same Garry Ryals that was stationed with you in Nam. And the one that you gave a ride to when I came home on leave that time.” I’m hoping to talk with him soon.

I’d encourage you to look for our buddies and connect with them, before we don’t have the energy to do so. Serving together in the 225^th Surveillance Airplane Company was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and to share our memories with each other 40+ years later has been a good experience for us.

I would also encourage you to consider coming to Dayton, Ohio, in September for the 21^st Annual OV-1 Mohawk Association Reunion. It is shaping up to be a very good time, and we will have the opportunity to visit the National Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB. Check out the Association website for more information.

Gary, Luke, Rolin and Garry: It is so good to hook up with you guys again !

An Easter Message for All of Us

I published this in March 2008, but Easter Sunday 2010 is not a bad time to reflect on who the real Saint Patrick was and what he did......

Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about what I would like to share with you in celebration of Easter. Since it is so close to St. Patrick’s Day this year, I looked online and discovered that March 17 has been very important throughout the Christian Church’s history; in fact, according to Wikipedia “…the date of the feast is occasionally, yet controversially, moved by church authorities when March 17 falls during Holy Week; this happened in 1940 when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on April 3 in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and happened again in 2008, having been observed on March 14. March 17 will not fall during Holy Week again until 2160.”

My pastor, Rev. Steve Wilkinson of Northwest Presbyterian Church, writes a column in our church’s weekly online newsletter, and his thoughts in the March 13 issue made me aware of Patrick’s importance as a model of how Jesus Christ would have me live as a true disciple of His. Below is an excerpt of Steve’s Pastoral Pondering entitled “I’ll Never Go Back There” (used by permission).

“In the early 400's, a sixteen-year-old kid from a well-off family in Britain was snatched by Irish marauders and ended up slaving as a shepherd in the remote, mountainous areas of Ireland for six years. He was able to escape to France, and in the course of all this, developed a significant commitment to Christ. He matured in his faith and sense of call, and was finally ordained to ministry.

“Now most of us avoid places and people who've hurt us. But Patrick had a vision for Ireland to know Christ, and he returned there with a passion to help others know real hope and freedom in Christ. His concern for those who had held him captive was infectious. Not only did the gospel spread throughout Ireland, Irish Christians gained a reputation as "go-anywhere" Christians, taking the gospel to remote and threatening parts of the world. I’m sure this attitude was picked up from Patrick himself, who faced and faced down opposition to his work and the past that surely haunted him, who would go straight to those who were against the gospel to explain it and encourage them to believe.

“Patrick rose above whatever animosity or personal resentment he might have felt toward the Irish, and that made all the difference. Far from resenting them, he recognized their need to be right with God, got his personal issues out of the way, put Christ at the center, and "blessed his enemies." (Matthew 5. 43-48)

“To me, Patrick is a model of visionary evangelism and of a heart shaped by the love of God. Because of Christ he overcame natural human fear and probably hatred with a desire to share the love of God and the hope Christ gives. His own experience with grace and forgiveness gave him a heart bigger than most. I’m humbled when I consider that his willingness to put aside self-interest prepared the way for so many people to know Christ and re-shaped an entire culture. And it’s kind of fitting that this year St. Patrick’s Day falls the same week we’re remembering Christ’s service to the world, his death, and his resurrection. St. Patrick’s Savior set the bar for loving one’s enemies, didn’t he?”

Karin and I wish you a very Happy Easter!

Some of Terry Carlson's Photos

Terry has sent me some photos over the last months, and I thought it was about time that I put them on the Observer so you guys could see them. (Sorry to take so long Terry!) I'll be posting some more in the next few days, so check back frequently.

These particular pictures, except for the ones that are of airplanes in revetments and formation, were all taken at Tuy Hoa AFB. Here's what Terry wrote me when he sent them: "These slides are tagged May 71. They were taken at Tuy Hoa. I think I was at the east end of the runway, just up from the beach. I'm not sure, but I think all the Mohawk pictures are Phantomhawk 17, making "touch and goes".

St. Paddy's Day 2010

(Be sure to look at the slide show at the bottom of this article also.)

Last Sunday morning my alarm went off at “oh-dark-thirty,” rousing me out of bed to run in another St. Paddy’s Day Dash in Seattle. I had mentally, and somewhat physically, prepared myself for the 3.8 mile (6.1 km) jaunt that my son Pete and I were to begin at 8:40am. I had to get going early, however, because I was picking him up at the Fauntleroy ferry dock in West Seattle at 7:40. While I was waiting for the ferry to dock, the Olympic Mountains in the background to the west were absolutely spectacular, as was Mount Rainier to the south!

We arrived near the starting point on this beautiful, clear, sunny Seattle day in plenty of time to join 15,225 of our closest friends to begin our jaunt at 8:40am. With the beautiful strains of some local bag pipers playing somewhere in the crowd we were off!

It was more difficult that two years ago (click here to see the blog article I wrote then) because the route had changed…about half of the nearly 4 miles was up hill! Ugh! Two years ago it was all virtually level (or downhill). What a sneaky Irish trick to play on two guys named Darragh (which means “oak” in Irish)!

We both made it, though! Pete’s official time was 48:36, and his old man’s was 51:42. Not too bad considering I am twenty-nine years his senior!

I must admit that I was sore for the next two days, but I am excited to run this again next year. It’s just way too much fun to pass up!

F-16 vs C-130

John Ferguson sent this to me a little while ago. You may have seen this already, but I thought it was great enough that it's worth reading again!

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.

The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?

The C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!' The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: 'What did you think of that?' Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'What the heck did you do?' The C-130 pilot chuckled. 'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, took a leak, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.'

The moral of the story is...

When you are young and foolish -

speed and flash may seem a good thing!

When you get older and smarter -

comfort and dull are not such a bad things.

Flying High in a U-2!

Our friend Roger “Superman” Kent sent this link to me, so I thought you’d all like to take the ride too!

Fasten your seat belt for a fantastic ride in a spy plane.

See the world at 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 and finally at 70,000 feet. From 70,000 feet you look down 35,000 feet at a jetliner passing below at its normal cruising altitude of 35,000 ft. The views are spectacular as the U-2 flies at altitudes that constitute "SPACE." Only the International Space Station is higher!

This video is a once in a lifetime experience of a British civilian, James May, getting a flight at over 70,000 ft. in a U-2 spy plane. (He is one of the hosts of the popular and somewhat whacky car show “Top Gear” on BBC, shown in the US on BBCA.) Please note at take-off the assist wheels on the outer edges of the wings drop away. The wings are so long that they need temporary support until lift-off. What is not shown is at the landing the plane actually slows to a slow enough speed that two guys are actually able to grab the wing tips and put those assist wheels back on.

(I saw one of these take off from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on my way to R&R in 1969. It was on the runway, and then like a shot it went up at a 45 degree angle and was gone!)

Use your full screen and turn up the sound as this is a high-quality film clip, only 10 minutes long.

Click the link to take the ride! http://www.wimp.com/breathtakingfootage/

223rd Combat Aviation Battalion - 1969

Terry Carlson sent me these wonderful scans of the 223rd CAB's 1969 Yearbook. Take a look and see how many faces you recognize. You might be surprised!

Another 84G20 Has Been Found!

For many years I've wondered whatever happened to Dennis Wert, who was part of the Photo Lab for a very long time. After I DEROSed in June 1970 I lost track of him. Yet almost 40 years later on New Years Day I got this email from Chuck Gallagher:

Jan 1, 2010
Gordy
We have found another old friend from the photo labs of the 225th. I could not wait to send you this picture [above] that Dennis Wert sent to me. I am going to make him a DVD of the photos he sent and then a CD of the images to send you to share on the 225th Observer web site.
Happy New Year
Chuck Galloway

I talked with Dennis a couple of weeks ago, and it was wonderful! He and Chuck sent some pictures which I have put into a slideshow below. The picture above is one I brought back with me from Phu Hiep...I didn't know that Dennis had one also. We are looking forward to seeing each other in Las Vegas on Veterans' Day 2011 at the 22nd Mohawk Reunion!

Jerry Murphy's Photos

It's been a while since I've posted anything on the 225th Observer, so I though I'd better get Jerry's photos up for all to see. Jerry was in Nashville last fall at the Mohawk Reunion, and it was great to see him! He sent his slides to Chuck Galloway who digitally transfered them so he could share them with you. He also had some movies of the company area transfered, but I haven't figured out how to get them on the web. As soon as I do I'll get them on the Observer.

Lots of memories came flooding back when I saw these pictures. Thanks, Jerry, for sharing these with us!