During the summer of 1975, I got a chance to salute my mother with a flyby, of sorts, near her childhood home of Somerset, Ky. She had returned home to be with her mother in my grandmother's final days, and I happened to be flying a mission on the Richmond, Ky., bomb site on a route that circled Somerset. I thought a minor flight plan deviation would not ruffle any feathers and would provide a richly deserved tribute to my formative parent.
Naturalist Pat Arinder's talk on the archeological history of local Indian culture presented at the Plymouth Bluff Center last Sunday brought back several quandaries I have pondered.
In pilot training 42 years ago I made a mistake that haunts me still. As a solo student I rolled out on a visual final in my T-38 and quickly knew something was terribly wrong.
I've never been to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. I've gotten near it several times on the Mall but have never had the strength to venture in. There are emotions I've locked securely inside me that I fear will erupt if I actually enter. I may eventually go, but alone, so no one I know will see me fall apart, Starship Trooper on his knees sobbing into his hands. So many names, so many dead, and for what?
During the summer of 1978 I got a chance to salute my mother with a fly-by, of sorts, near her childhood home of Somerset, KY.
I wandered over to the pool this weekend looking for relief from the heat. But as I looked into the deep end and contemplated the cold shock that would accompany my leap into the water, I noticed a bright yellow tulip poplar leaf floating on the surface.
The fast approaching Congressional Debt Ceiling deadline is playing out as a slow motion train wreck, one that has perhaps a fair chance of becoming a full blown economic train wreck. While there is blame on both political parties, I am again aghast at the current methods of the Republican Party I spent 30 years within.
A May vacation to Spain via military space-available transportation presented two revelations I had not anticipated or sought. I thought relaxation and sightseeing would be my most stringent tasks, yet events impinged.
Since the 1970s America has doubled its per capita education spending yet gained no increase in standardized test scores.
What is that noise outside?, Several days ago I heard a constant background hum in the distance but couldn't figure out what it was.
I must ask a question, why do men wear their baseball hats while dining in restaurants? I admit I might be a bit of a prig on such things since, in the Air Force, I'd have been pounced upon and severely upbraided if, while in uniform, I didn't take off my hat immediately when coming indoors, or immediately put it on when going outdoors.
Something very strange has happened to the Republican Party I called home for 32 years.
In 1970, soon after pilot training equipment issue, I took my helmet into the bathroom and locked the door.
I recently attended a book signing in Oxford by Karl Marlantes, author of current Vietnam novel "Matterhorn" that graphically displays the personal horror and uncomfortable ennui of that war, a war we both sought out.
There are two types of people in the world, those who read books, and those who do not.
Flying large Air Force cargo jets provides a marvelous tour of diverse cities world-wide. I found few as I expected them to be.
Of all Mother Nature’s gifts to mankind proffered to apologize for a long and miserable winter, none in Columbus catches my attention as stringently as wisteria.
Saigon, the defunct capital of South Vietnam, no longer exists except fondly in the memory of several hundred thousand American soldiers.
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1. Burkhalter Rigging files bankruptcy COLUMBUS & LOWNDES COUNTY
2. Monday Profile: Bookkeeper, former substitute and receptionist hopes to one day work as a teacher COLUMBUS & LOWNDES COUNTY
3. Slimantics: Rhonda Keenum's role on Reeves' campaign goes beyond bad optics LOCAL COLUMNS
4. Hotel death suspect pleads guilty to manslaughter COLUMBUS & LOWNDES COUNTY
5. Slime dunk: MSU center McCowan teaches Starkville children how to make slime at Emerson STARKVILLE & OKTIBBEHA COUNTY