After Sandy Hook

Our friend Ed Balanger sent me this note a few days ago.  I encourage you to click on the link to watch his son Jeff's video that was produced for PBS.  Ed, thanks very much for sharing this with us.

“As you know, I live in Sandy Hook CT.  My son Jeff is a writer, author and lecturer.  He does TV work as well.  This video was done for PBS and most of the scenes that are inside are at our house in Sandy Hook.  It is a very well done piece but may cause tears.  I had a difficult time watching the entire clip. I work as a volunteer for Newtown Memorial Fund 7 days a week so I have not had much of a break from this sad tragedy.  Ed”

http://video.wgby.org/video/2337692550

Howard, Milt and Me

A little over a week ago I had the feeling that I should give a friend who I had worked with at KOMO-TV for over 30 years a phone call.  In the past, I have ignored such “impulses” only to find that I should have called because of some important reason or other.  I’ve come to recognize that these “feelings” are very often promptings from the Lord.

Anyway, I gave Howard Stott (left above), who was a radio and TV newsman and news director at KOMO, a call last weekend.  After catching up on the past few years (I hadn’t seen or talked with him for three or four years) he mentioned that another mutual friend, Milt Furness (arrow above), was in a rehab facility in Seattle after suffering a series of strokes and that he was going to visit him.  He asked if I would like to come with him.  Of course I said yes!  Milt was a news reporter and anchor for 15 years at KOMO while I was there. 

I met Howard at the rehab center on Friday afternoon, and the three of us spent over an hour talking and laughing, all of us having great fun trying to remember names of people we knew back in the “KOMO days,” reminiscing about the TV station that we worked at during the last 3 decades of the 20^th century.  

Afterwards, Howard and I decided that we would have to get together much more regularly if only because time is flitting by so quickly and we aren’t getting any younger!  Howard, Milt and I had a great time together despite our friend’s health issues.  I would urge you that if you have a feeling that you should call someone or reconnect with an old friend, that you don’t ignore that inclination, but make that phone call or write an email.  

The Adventure: Post Surgery + One Year!

Well, the Adventure continues to continue!  It’s hard to believe but it’s been a year since I had surgery to remove my prostate and the cancer that went along with it.  Since then I’ve had 4 blood tests as part of the normal follow-up and all have proved to have a negligible result of PSA (prostate specific antigen).  And that’s very good news!

Also, the Veteran Affairs Department ruled on my claim for Agent Orange related prostate cancer and has awarded me special monthly compensation.  Only took about fifteen months, but considering the number of claims they’ve been inundated with, from not only us older veterans but from Iraq and Afghanistan vets, I’m pleased that it only took this long!  My Service Officer at the D.A.V. who handled my claim told me that in November alone the Seattle VA office processed 3,500 claims, but that they received 5,000!  So they were behind almost before they got started.

I decided quite a long time ago that when the claim came through I would get something that I have been thinking a long time about – a tattoo.  Not just any tattoo but one that had significance in my life experience.  I found one called the Veteran’s Cross that was described as one that Scottish warriors would have on them when they went into battle.  I chose it for several reasons – I am a Christian (the cross), I’m Irish with family ties to Scotland, I am a veteran of a 28 month combat tour and one with cancer (it’s on my the left shoulder), and I could customize it with the 225^th’s patch colors (blue, red and gold).  Below is a photo of the finished work that I had done a few days ago. 

I thank God for his goodness and grace as I have progressed along this adventure called life!  I especially thank him for my family, for friends from the Army, for people I know and have known from lots of church communities and from my jobs.  And the fun hasn’t stopped yet!  The Adventure will certainly continue!

My Eight Years with the Mohawk

One of the interesting "problems" the Board of Directors of the OV-1 Mohawk Association faces annually is choosing who our speaker should be for our annual reunions?  In 2008, as we were planning the 20th Reunion to be held in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009, we wrestled with this question a little bit and decided that we would ask one of our own members to share his experience as a Mohawk driver.

We asked MG Bill Page (US Army, Retired) to be our featured guest to relate to us that part of his Army career that centered around this wonderful piece of machinery we call the Mohawk.  We were treated to a marvelous presentation!

Click on the video below to watch as he recounts his Eight Years with the Mohawk.  (Note that this is over an hour in length so it may take a moment to load!)