Another 6 hours on the ladder yesterday and all but completed the west side of the house...a little more scrapping today, and some trim work will finish that up. Meanwhile Patricia is into her final push to do her summer house cleaning, canning, and will also do some more window trimming later today. Just 3 more weeks and she will be back at school. This week we are going to a Fort Wayne "Tin Caps" game in that Indiana city...The Tin Caps, formerly known as the "Wizards" are the San Diego Class A farm team, who moved into their brand new stadium downtown early this season. Later in August, we will go with Anissa and a group of the men{handicapped adults} from Mercer Residential Services to see the slumping Cincinnati Reds.
Tonight and this weekend Sam and I will be doing our final baseball games of the season...Celina is hosting The Dale Harter Memorial Little League Tournament. Now I admit I don't do LL games, have not done this age group(12 and 13) since 2001. It's a change from High School and American Legion baseball to say the least. 7 or 8 games over the next 3 days should be interesting...hopefully my legs and back will hold out. Football scrimmage season begins 2 weeks from tomorrow...not a big break, but will keep me focused, and busy.
Vietnam-Those that came before us____
As I go through my 40th Anniversary from my days in Vietnam, I try to give my experiences...let me be perfectly clear. I was a Air Force Cop, nothing more, nothing less, no War Hero, no Purple Heart, no Broze Star, just one of the players in that ill conceived conflict. Although Security Police in Vietnam had one of the more dangerous jobs in that conflict. I never felt in any real danger, except one time during a lightning storm while I was at Tan Son Nhut. Lightning bolts were hitting the perimeter wire, while I was sitting in a 25 foot metal tower, with just a lighting rod...a story for later, but I felt in danger, not from the VC or NVA, but from Mother Nature.
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By the time I arrived in Nha Trang in the Summer of 69, most SPs had barracks, at least 2 hot meals a day, a laundry, women(mamasans) that cleaned our clothes, bed sheets, and the barracks...compared to the ground pounders and grunts, we had it made. The Security Police that got it all started in 1964 though 1966 didn't have such "Luxury". For the most part their jobs were more dangerous, the slept in tents, had outhouses and out showers, we had hot running water, and hot showers.
My blogging buddy Mushy was one of the early Security Police at Da Nang:
So was Joe Pizzimenti and his flight the "Skoshi Tigers".
The Tigers were assigned to the 4503 TFS, and ran security escorts out of Bein Hoa and Da Nang back in 65 and 66. 23 Air Force Security Cops, trained by Army Infantry, who did the grunt like work of the early Security Police, long before we came into country, in much better circumstances. Although about 200 Sky Cops were lost in Vietnam, some in combat, and others not, the Skoshi Tigers did not lose a single man, despite being engaged with the VC, killing several and capturing more.
My salute to these early Security Police of the Vietnam War.
The Weekend____
A large batch of rain passed just south and east of us last night, another batch north...we remained dry, and the weekend looks to be warming up as it goes along, with little chance of rain. To nobodies surprise, this month was the coolest July in west central Ohio, since 1984...Global Warming indeed!
Photos-On the top we have Joe Pizzimenti's Skoshi Tiger patch from his days (1965-66) in Vietnam...below we have a before and after photos of the front of the house, with messed up Ivy, and then after Patricia completed the Red Trim....and another Sunflower pops out. The small ones(Evening Shade and Citrus) are slowly coming out, my mammoth Sunflower Stalks have reached as high as 14 feet, and the large Sunflowers are just starting to form, I expect head sized and bigger flowers in the next 10 days, and photos will follow.
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back later>>>>
I know most of you that have any lives at all, don't watch as much TV News/Listen to Radio Talk Show/ Read Newspapers, in the summer time as we do in the cooler months. Just to much else to do, we let Washington DC take care of business, and then come fall, we wonder just what the Hell happened?
By this time in July 1969, I had been in-country for almost 4 weeks. I had settled into a routine, with Tuesday being my usual day off, I finally headed to Downtown Nha Trang City. Nha Trang was a rather large city nestled in the hillside next to the South China Sea. The one thing I remember well, was the stench of the country as a whole and the cities in particular...not good, and something I really never got totally used to. 
Well at least the Ivy on the upper front facing of the porch. Our porch area is covered with Ivy that has been growing there for about 20 years....we moved in back in 1995, and the previous owner had it pretty well growing gung ho. It's a hearty variety, and even in winter the leaves stay with it....over the past decade I've battled Poison Ivy{which I defeated} and sparrows nesting by the hundreds in it. The birds I tolerated, but the nests have become so entwined in it, and was making the Ivy a mess. Not to mention the front steps, and parts of the porch area, were being affected, so it was time for a cut and trim. I figured to use the house paint as a way to get rid of the birds for the most part...they are not nesting or producing as much this time of year, but Sparrows, like Rabbits, continue to breed all year round.
On July 20th, 40 years ago, fellow Buckeye Neil Armstrong, of nearby Wapakoneta, Ohio, became the first person to step foot on the Moon. Armstrong, a civilian, joined Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin aboard Apollo 11 and became the first "Men in the Moon". Neil Armstrong became a sort of a recluse, a very private person since those days, Buzz, not so much. Neil went on to become a professor near Cincinnati and lives in that area today...Aldrin has been on the talk TV circuit of late, pushing books and pushing for more in the space program efforts.
