Olio

Have any of you who read my blog now and then read my profile?
If you don"t recognize some of the stuff I'll fill you in.

Mark is in town for an annual party and we finished three cross
word puzzles today. Missed one letter on one. Some kind of Spanish
name.

In the year 1944 we lived near an army base. There were several
civilians working in some position on the base. One of those was my
future sister in law. She worked in a place that served food and was
there late in the evening. There was some concern about her walking
to her car late at night. There was a big black soldier that started showing
up ever night and would stay around till closing time. At first if was a little
scary. However he walked her to her car ever night that she work there
to make sure she got there ok. 1944

After WW II my brother, Merle, had a restruant in the small town of
Vermont IL. In 1949, just before I went into the service, I was working
at the restruant. One night near closing time, Merle went out the front
door and found a black man sitting on the step. This was something that
never happen in Vermont that I knew about. He wanted to buy something
to eat so Merle invited him but he refused to enter. Merle work up an order
for him and he disappeared into the night. 1949

A family who had moved to the area shortly after the army base was build
had to depend on handouts from area farmers to survive. The husband had
skipped. There were four or five boys and the helped out by delivering papers
on the army base. One of the boys was so small that he had to drag his paper
bag. Each morning before he went to school he would go to the base to do his
job and each morning there was a big Sargent that woud be there to meet him.
The Sargent would pick him up in one hand and the paper bag in the other.
They would then go to the mess hall. The Sarge would deposit the papers
and a collection box at the entrance and take the boy and provide him with
a full breakfast. He would then advise the soldiers that no was to leave the
chow hall until the paper boys money box had the correct amount of money.

I went through the process of obtaining a Band Album Cover. The results were:

Band Name--q Velorum ( dwarf star)
Song Title--We Can Solve This
Album Cover --An untitled picture by Alex Soybel"s Photo Stream of
lovely blonde lady, head, shoulder and clevege view. Cannot get it to save.

TO BAD

How many blogs are in this olio?

Challange number one

Mike, Sam, Bill, Sue

For all those experts who can use the internet better than I
can. That should include everyone.

When I was growing up my father would sing a song to us
that included some of the following. The title may have been
Ole Dunderback.

Some of the words included pussy cats and long tailed rats.

Another part included the following "Ole Dunderback, Ole
Dunderback how could you be so mean as to grind up all
the little boys and girls up in the sausage grinding machine".

Thats all I remember. The challange is to get on the internet
and find the title and the complete song.

GEORGE

You all knew I would get bad to my hero sooner or later.

George was Gunners Mate and as such, when we aquired the
LST 914 back from Japan for use in Korea he was responsible
for finding, stealing, trading or what ever, the armament for
the ship. The first job being the Inchon landing he mounted
a three inch army cannon and a couple of 20 mm weapons.
So with this and a crew one third the size to properly operate
the ship they completed the task. The rest is history.

The most interesting accomplishment was during the ship board
contest to grow the fanciest mustashe. There was a Boatson Mate
with a real hansom handle bar mustashe. This guy was three times
as big as George. The Boatson Mate was fast asleep when George
cut off half his mustasche. The Captain said that half mutashes
can't enter the contest.

George wasn't a very big guy and was a little crippled up from his
ordeals and advancing age. We were touring an aircraft carrier
and my wife thought I should stick close to him and make sure
he could climb all around and not get hurt. I told her "He was
tough." She should go talk to Bob, the one who lost his coat. And
she did. This occurred at a ship reunion some 50 years after the war.

Lesson learned!

As some of you know I try to make wine. Some people like
it, two people don't. I like it.

Had three bottles that I made in Jan. 2007 in the cooler.
It was to sweet for anyone's taste so it was never touched.
Last week two of the bottles blew their corks. Had a mess to cleanup.
I opened he third bottle to a large puff. Should be good stuff
but to sweet for my taste.

This, of course is better than the time a few years ago when I
had a gallon jug full still fermenting. I had sealed a cap on, not
knowing it wasn't ready. We had a blast heard throughout the
house. The explosion was so strong that it shattered the glass
jug, sprayed wine all over and inbedded glass in the walls.

Took a while to clean up and repair and paint the walls.

Lesson learned.

My Hero

The year was 1950 and the time was after the Inchon landing, and after the UN
forces had reached the Chinese boarder and after the Chinese hoards had crossed
in Korea and after the Chinese had driven the UN forces well into The South.

A massive evacuation of men, equipment, and North Korean civilians fleeing the
Chinese army was taking place at Hungnam. Every type of boat imaginable filled
Hungnam Harbor to evacuate men, material. and the nearly 100,000 civilians from
North Korea.

During this evacuation the Marines and Army unit were holding off the Chinese
until the evacuation could be completed.

It was here that my buddy (we'll call him George since that was his name) decided
he would go give the Marines some help. Since he was Gunners Mate, he had access
to weapons and was able to pick up a rifle. Next he borrowed a Marine field jacket from
his friend Bob. He joined a Marine unit that was in the process of being over run.
To slow the Chinese advance they called in aircraft to strafe the Chinese. George was
hit by three bullets from the aircraft. As the Chinese came through their lines they
were making sure everyone was dead. They looked at George but did not bayonet
him. Shortly the Chinese were pushed back enough so medics could come and pick up
the dead Marines. The first medic checked George and went to look at others. The
second medic saw George eyes move and hollered "HEY this one alive". George was
moved to a MASH unit in Hungnam which was in the process of evacution. During his
time laying on the ground it was so cold the blood from the wounds froze. The doc's
were so busy they didn't detect the extent of the wounds until the heat in the medical
unit started them bleeding again.

At a reunion of our ship some fifty years later, George and Bob meet again. Bob asked
for his coat back. George advised him that it was full of bullet holes and no use to anyone.

The Marine officer wanted give George a medal. The Captain of our ship wanted to give
him a court martial. He didn't get either one.

There are other stories about George but I'll hold them for a later time

Shameful Incident

Since I spent two tours of duty in Korean War I guess I can comment on the subject
without anyone raising to many objection.

I have a couple of items I will touch on. One is a recent story by Charles J. Hanley,
Associated Press. The other is about a friend of mine who served aboard ship with me.

I will cover the AP item today and the other later.

The primadona five star general and his kiss butt staff intentionally
ignored intelligence reports that China was moving troops into North
Korea and the 8th Cavalry had been sent to a position just 50 miles
from China. The Chinese troop quickly closed the trap that they are famous for
setting. Higher headquarters rejected requests for a pullback. Then they
refused to send artillery forward to support a rescue. Finally they ordered
a pull back. Trapped by two Chinese divisions, troops of the 8th U.S. Calvary
Division were left to die. The 3rd battalion lost some 600 of their 800 men.

This is just one of the shameful and little know incidents caused by a sickness
in leadership in the military and inadequate leadership at home. Our president knew
that our military leadership needed to be replaced but did nothing. The loss
of so many lives was completely unnecessary. Mass grave at Unsan still holds
260 of the MIA's from this Division. This abandonment at Unsan was without
a doubt one of the worse and most shameful to have been thrust on a military
unit.

FAMILY DEMANDS

Well I started to write a blog about very bad leadership
during the Korean War but two children under 12 years
old interuped and wanted to use my computer to fly an
airplane. I then grabed a book and went to the other room
to lie on the couch. Very soon they appeared in the room
where I and the TV were resting. It was time for THE PRICE
IS RIGHT. So I took my book to the bed room and lay down
to read.

Soon Ellen come home, started on plans to either go conoeing
in 95 degree weather. We soon ate lunch and headed for the
river to swim instead of conoe. The river was low and the
current was swift. Ben and Jordan would go upstream , flow
down with the current and hope that I would catch them before
they were swept on by. I was fully dressed an soon had to add
to the fun by accidently fallig down an getting wet.

A good time was enjoyed by all. We are going back tomorrow.

Horoscope

Libra: You expect yourself to behave in a certain manner,
but it's not the only way. Why be so controled? Trust yourself.
Give yourself permission to express yourself however the mood
moves you.

SO I WILL!

Hello

This is a test. This is only a test. It is a test of Ted's new blog.

If this were an actual blog entry there would be something by Ted written here.

Thank you and check back again soon.