Dear General Lee

Dear General Lee,

I haven't heard from Robert or Richard Lee yet but I sent them a personal email to see if they checked out the previous post for accuracy. They are both very busy guys and I'm sure that they've been too busy to read the post on a daily basis. I'll let you know what they say when we catch up with each other. More than anything, I wanted to bring you up to speed on some of the things that have been going on down here so I'll just keep plugging away on that.

Even though a lot of the guys came back from the civil war okay, many of them had trouble with these wise ass bureaucrats that came down from the north. It didn't take long for our boys to figure out what to do and when they settled into little towns like Coushatta, Louisiana, which is just above Natchitoches on the Red River, they began to try and start their lives over.

Despite the low population numbers around Coushatta, the Yankees sent some people down there to put their tax agenda into place. I'll skip all the bull shit and just say that the alligators gained a lot of weight and before long, that area of Louisiana was more or less left alone and the trouble with the Yankees ended.

You can google Coushatta, Louisiana and find out about all of it. It's a cool read and I laugh about it a lot as I have a 31' Winnebago down there that we use for camping. It's really a good base camp as it's close to the Red River and is heavily forested. Lots of fish, lots of Deer.

Despite all that, there have been a couple of World Wars since you passed away and it appears that another one has already begun. We kicked the shit out of the Germans during the first one but some guy named Guerdian didn't take the loss very well and he and a guy named Hitler began planning another war right after the first one was over.

You'll be happy to hear that some of your fellow graduates from West Point made a big impact during the second world war and we ended up kicking everybody's ass again. They graduated long after you did but they were top notch commanders anyway and did an excellent job.

Unlike your situation with equipment, supplies and logistics, they had every weapon they wanted and all the ammo they needed. I guess the bottom line on all that has proven that our guys, when properly equipped, can kick all the ass we need to kick to get the job done.

Even though we can demonstrate that to be true, some of the politicians wanted a bigger say in things and ever since that day, our military has more or less had their hands tied when it comes to decisions made in the field.

In any event, you wouldn't even recognize the Country today. We have horseless carriages, machines that fly through the air, cannons that move by themselves and we've even built a machine that let some guys go to the moon and check out stuff way up in the sky. It's really something else. Unfortunately, there are other areas where we've really fallen down on the job.

There was a guy named Teddy Roosevelt that was born in 1858 which was only 12 years before you passed away. They called him a "Rough Rider" cause he was tough as nails. He ended up becoming the number one guy in the Country and lived until 1919 so he knew all about the first world war.

One of the things he did was related to immigrants. He said that it was okay that they kept coming over here as long as they "assimilated". He said that meant that they had to learn to speak English and that they had to pledge allegiance to the flag. That was a pretty good thing cause everybody knows we've had some great people come here from other places.

Unfortunately, some of our own people didn't take it much further than saying they had to assimilate. They didn't have any checks and balances with that idea and stuff went to hell in a hand basket shortly after that.

About 20 years or so after Teddy was gone, that asshole Hitler started the second world war. This time, those flyin' machines were everywhere and he partnered up with the Japs and the Italians and tried to take over the whole world.

We had real fancy ships by then and we didn't even have to use sail to make 'em move. The Japs took those flyin' machines, put em on ships that had flat tops on the top deck so they could take off like ducks. Those ships allowed them to sneak in real close to Hawaii, take to the air and blow up all our stuff. They killed a lot of people and really pissed off everybody in the Country. That happened on December 7, 1941.

One of Teddy's kin folk was runnin the show by then and he had the Congress get together so they could do one of those formal declarations of war. Everybody voted to fight the war except one bitch from Nebraska named Janette. That's right, they had a woman in Congress and by that time, women could actually vote and hold office. When she voted against the war, the newspapers started calling her Japanette. I liked that a lot.

No matter how you cut the mustard, that's when some of the really bad people in the world showed up. Even though Genghis Khan was around a long time before the world wars began, he had some kin folks that went sour and when they left China and headed to the middle east, they stayed there and mixed with folks we call camel jockeys.

One of his kin folk took Constantinople and that was kinda like blowin' up the Vatican in Rome. It was a real mess cause it pretty much took Christianity out of that part of the world and all those people started screwin up everything and they're still at it today.

Even though he was born 700 years before the civil war, they just kept fightin' and killin and when the second world war came along, they partnered up with Hitler and helped him stir things up even more. Can you imagine that!

In 1865 there were only 35.2 million people in the United States. Hitler and Stalin killed more than that when they started fighting each other. I mean to tell you that those dictator types were a hell of a lot worse than the Kings and Queens that tried to rule everybody all over the world. Oh yeah, we have a word for Queens that don't mean no ruler. We call queers Queens, if you get my drift.

Anyway, before I go any further, I just wanted to bring you up to speed on all this stuff cause I know you've been doing that rest in peace thing. I'll get into some more details tomorrow or the next day but I'm gonna stop for now cause I'm real tired. I've been at the hospital a lot lately and it really makes me tired. Don't give up, I'll keep up with this sit rep and give you some more information about us Rebels so you can rest easy and know that we're takin' care of bidness as best we can right now. See you soon.

Tim

A LITTLE TALK WITH PEARLIE MAKES IT ALL RIGHT..

TO:       General Robert E. Lee, CSA
FROM: Former Chief Warrant Officer T.L. Butler, USA

I can't believe it but it's already been 143 years since you left us. For whatever it's worth, I want you to know that the old adage: "Gone but not forgotten", is as good today as it ever was and we still miss you and speak of you often.

I see you everyday as your picture sits on my mantle place at home. Mike and Sharon Rose gave that to me and even though I haven't had it framed yet, I immediately put it along side my pictures of Tim Jr and his beautiful wife, Kristin.

In addition to that, I think you would be happy to know that I still get to talk to some members of the Lee family from time to time and I want you to know that they are all doing well. You would be proud to know that they carry on with the fine traditions of the Old South and you would be very pleased to see what the Lee Family is up to at this time in our history.

Robert is an attorney and Richard is one of the best financial consultants I ever met. They have carried the traditions of the Lee family a long way and still have the fondest thoughts about you. I've shared a story about Robert and Richard's childhood with many friends but I thought you would be interested to hear one of my favorites about their Grandmother, Pearl.

I don't know when Pearl was born and I'm not sure which member of the Lee family she married but I've been to her house near Homer, Louisiana where Richard and Robert used to play when they went to visit for her birthday.

One day, roughly 55 or 56 years ago, Robert and Richard were playing in her front yard. As kids often do, they began to argue about something that typically surfaces when kids are at play. Even though Pearl was in the kitchen baking a surprise for the kids, she heard the argument that Richard and Robert were having. She walked to the front porch of that little white house, opened the door and told both Robert and Richard to stop arguing and come inside, wash their hands and sit down at the kitchen table.

As the boys were cleaning up, Pearl took the surprise out of the oven and set it on the kitchen table. I can't remember if it was a pie or a cake but I'm sure that one of the boys will read this and let me know.

In any event, when the boys saw another of their Grandmother's masterpieces, the argument became ancient history, their eyes lit up like a sparkler and Pearl began to serve them each a share of the goodies. She gave them a minute to get into the surprise and then backed off a foot or so and said: "Are you the two boys who were outside arguing and crying"?

I don't think either of them skipped a beat or answered the question as they kept on with the attack they were conducting on their Grandmother's masterpiece. I guess it doesn't matter if it was an apple pie, peach pie or a pound cake but I wanted to remember it as it may have been some delicacy that came from your days as the leader of the Lee family and I figured you would enjoy knowing.

When the feast was finished and Pearl had the kitchen table cleaned, she again looked at the boys and asked them if they were the two boys who were embroiled in the argument. I don't recall if Richard or Robert had an answer to that but I do remember that Richard told me that she gave them a statement that has lived with me since I first heard the story over 30 years back. She said: "Boys, whenever you are having an argument, just remember that: " A little talk with Pearlie makes it all right".

I don't know if those words of wisdom led Robert, who we call Bob, to become an attorney or if those words led Richard to become the consultant that he was when I first met him. Regardless of it's impact on the boys, I taught the same thing to my son and during troubled times he was having with a test or anything that comes along to cause problems in the life of a teenager, we would talk and I would repeatedly finish those conversations with Pearlie's words...."A little talk with Pearlie makes it all right".

I have a lot of other things to tell you but time is demanding that I save the story about me going to your house for later on. If you can, stand by, there's more coming and I'll include a military sit rep for you to consider.

Thanks,
Tim

"The Red Neck Threat Level".

Some of y'all will remember when Manny was flying as a gunner with the Scouts, was wounded and medically evacuated back to the States. Well, he's still alive and kickin' and takin' part in lots of email information. I have to give him credit for today's inspiration as his morning email discussed the different Threat Levels in England, France, Spain, Germany and Australia .

From that, the Red Neck Threat Level was born.

Some of the boys from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Arkansas are wantin' everybody to know how to listen for key words they might hear during certain conversations that go on at the Bar B Que place, so here are some examples of key phrases that precede a mobilization of the Red Neck Regiment:

1.   Y'all got them Pit Bulls ready?
2.   I don't want y'all to get too excited but you prolly need to make another run for ammo.
3.   Anybody got an ole lady that has a recipe for Terrorist Mountain Oysters?
4.   Walmart has a sale on Outers Bore Clean, Odorless Solvent.
5.   Y'all remember that movie where they said: "Badges, We don't need no badges"?
6.   I want everybody here to know that Justin has a new reloadin' rig.
7.   How many of y'all bought the same kinda scope that Chance has on his rifle?
8.   Any of y'all seen that new lazer beam deal that goes on the top rail?
9.   Anybody got some spare pigs on their spread?
10. All of y'all with military experience handlin' napalm, please raise your hands.
11. I want ya'll to know that the Terrorist Mountain Oysters are for the pigs.
12. I've had just about all this shit I'mma take.
13. Y'all better keep your donkeys in the pen for a few days.
14. Cade said it's okay for kids over 10 to come with us.
15. Vic's manure spreader can now shoot sideways.
16. I want y'all to know that you don't need a license to hunt 'em.
17. The new potato gun uses compressed air instead of hair spray.
18. I'd like to thank Julie and Tabitha for comin' up with the recipe on them Mountain Oysters.
19. Mikey and Sharon donated a truckload of broken glass for them home made potato gun rounds.
20. Greg has a buddy in Louisiana that is willin' to loan us the alligators..

That concludes the top 20 things I've heard. There may be lots more but from this, you ought to get the main idea of how to recognize the key words that leads to one of those mobilization things.

June, A month that will live in infamy.

I bet y'all thought that was gonna be December 7th, 1941. Didn ya? Well, I guess it depends on your perspective. About five and a half to six months prior to the Pearl Harbor sneak attack, Hair lip Hitler, or Asshole Adolph, began Operation Barbarossa which he thought was gonna be a Nazi version of Whip Ass on the Russians. That was June 22, 1941.

Boy, was he wrong about that one. It seemed logical to him, cause he had 3 million soldiers, 3,580 tanks, some 7,184 artillery pieces, 1,830 airplanes and 750,000 horses. Being an ole 11th Armored Cavalry man, I began to see Hitler attacking Stalin as something akin to showing up at a gun fight with a knife.

As that date relates to Pearl Harbor, what about the summer of 1942 when we put a major ass kickin' on the Japanese during the battle of Midway? That was another one of those "Month of June" things. General Tojo may not have known but Admiral Yamamoto knew we learned about Teddy Roosevelt's "Speak Softly But Carry A Big Stick" Philosophy and we weren't afraid to apply that thought process when pushed too far.

I recon the Bushido Boys in Japan forgot that World War I thing we did to the Germans when we geared up for that fight cause it damn sure didn't stop em from doing that Tora, Tora, Tora thing.

I'm beginning to think that there's some kind of a "sexual inadequacy thing" in there but I'll add an item or two about that after I demonstrate a few other things that happened in and around the month of June over many different years.

If that Midway thing in 1942 ain't enough, how about General George Patton outflanking Rommel and the Afrika Corp when the British Commander, Bernard Montgomery, on the other flank, began to kick that Nazi ass completely outta town?

That's when both allied forces beat the mortal dog shit out of the "Never been defeated Nazi war machine". Oddly enough, June of 1943 was the first month that saw no combat between us and them cause they didn't have anymore ass to kick. Seems like those Nazi boys weren't real good in the "Long Haul" thinkin' department.

Moving from June of 43 to June of 44, everybody remembers D Day. There's some more of that ass kickin' going on for you to use as the common denominator about the month of June and the word "Infamy".

Despite all that ass kickin proof from D Day, let's not forget June 15th of 1944 and Saipan. That allowed us to go across the bay, take out Tinian and build the base that would see the Enola Gay on the ramp. For you younger readers, that's the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb.

Just for good measure, lets throw in another June 22nd of 1945 and add Okinawa to the list. I could go on and on about June and it's importance in World history but I think I've made my point as it relates to our Country and the month of June.

Personally, June 22, 2009 was the day I had the wreck and they found the brain tumor but I hesitate a bit to classify that with the other listings about the month of June above. That's World History and 2009 is my history. In any event, June seems to be a really important date.

To close this editorial about June and to explain one last thing about the idiots who forced so much crazy shit to happen in that month, I will explain one last thing. It has to do with that sexual inadequate bidness I mentioned in Paragraph 5.

Before I get on with another month in history, I'll take a minute and see if there's any autopsy information about all the war criminals we executed after the ass kickin was over. Hopefully, I'll be able to see if there's any mention about the size of the penis that each war criminal had. I don't wanna make any bets but I'm assuming that there's something to the graffiti that was on some of the graves of those men. After all, why in the world would anybody write: "Here lies Needle Dick, the Bug Humper".

Stand by for more.   

Don't Screw Up A Good Late.

If the last post makes any sense, if the good first impression that I saw when I was desperate to see one gives you an insight to the value of good character and how important it is to seek out those who have it, this post should allow you to see how I learned to separate the good from the bad during life and death situations.

It certainly proved to be a life saver in my case. As a side benefit of that, it also proved to be a life saver for my OH6 gunner, Lorin Bustin, and several other crew members when I was still flying Nighthawk missions.

I find a great degree of comfort in knowing how to see both. If there ever was a time where all of us need to be associated with those with good character, now is that time. It might be one of those "From all things evil, abstain" things but anyway you look at it, there's no doubt that we need to be careful with those we associate with.

I know that there are a lot of you following the ramblings that I post here. I get many emails on my personal account that discuss the details. More often than not they tell me how difficult it is to post a reply comment here but I just let that slide cause I haven't even figured out how to change the picture on the opening page of this blog.

In any event, I've received another mind blowing email from a guy that I served with when I was with the 199th. That would be Ray Shibe and he told me that he had a little inside information about Craig that he wanted to share.

He told me that Craig had been a "brown hat", the term we sometimes used to identify ourselves. Ray trained with Wolman and remembered CW2 Hampton who was there when my class went through. Despite that, Craig was already training at Ft. Rucker when Diable came into the 5th WOC at Ft. Wolters.

I don't think I ever shared that with Craig or any of the other guys at the 199th as I'm sure if Wolman told me he was a brown hat, I would have seen things a bit differently. Despite all the years, knowing that makes a hell of a lot more sense to me now. Craig had the same people training him that I had training me.

I don't know which class Dudley "Doc" Young graduated from but I know that he was the best navigator I ever met. Dudley had more laminated VFR en route charts than anyone. They were folded in a manner that would allow us to simply flip the page as we flew off the map and flew into the next section.

He had penciled in notes all over it. There were radio frequencies that we didn't often use and that allowed him to immediately dial in the right frequency if we went IFR and had to contact Saigon Center, Long Binh Tower or any other facilities in our area . He even had six digit grid coordinates for various land marks that we used to navigate by. Even after 42 years, I think that Yankee Tango 106601 was the coordinate we used to identify FSB Mace which was our forward base of operations.

In any event, I remember one night during the monsoon season when we were caught in a really bad storm. We had to divert from our intended flight path from Xuan Loc to Long Binh and go to Bear Cat to make an instrument landing as Long Binh was shut down by weather.

It was a really bad storm. I was quite thrilled to have the radio frequencies for Center and Bear Cat at hand before the Aircraft Commander even asked for them or tried to look them up himself.

In a sense, I felt like I'd hit a home run and established myself as a copilot who was prepared, had his stuff together and was worthy to fly with guys like Wolman, Young and Femmer. I'll go ahead and admit right now that the night flight to Bear Cat, in horrible weather conditions, was a milestone for me as I didn't even know where in the hell Bear Cat was.

The point I want to make about the ramblings that go on here, has to do with the mentoring deal. With the influences that came with Dudley's navigation skills and the night fighting skills from Craig, I managed to get a front row seat to observe the masters as they did their work.

One night, Wolman and I flew an all night long Nighthawk mission just above Phan Thiet. That was in the summer of 1970. It was the damnedest, night time, combat operation mission I ever flew in Vietnam. I've gone to Google Earth a million times and flown that mission over and over again.

It had all the ingredients of a nightmare as it was flown in the mountains just above Phan Thiet and it required us to be used as the primary close air support, strafing the NVA from tree top level while trying not to crash into either of the two mountain ranges that were so close together the Air Force couldn't even get their C 47 gunship low enough to do the job.

We had to fly back to Phan Thiet several times to refuel and rearm. On our last sortie in, we had to come to a hover over the troops below while our crew dumped ammo out of the Huey as the guys on the ground were just about out of ammo when we made it back. If we failed, I'm sure they would have been over run and maybe killed to a man. That was flown sometime around 2 or 3 a.m and it was still dark as it could be outside.

I've written about it many times. I haven't looked it up under "older posts" but it may be under "One Long Night In Vietnam". If I wrote that somewhere else, I'll try to dig it up and copy it here as it's well worth the time for me to do it.

In any event, I also know that those of you who have followed this for a while, might remember the times that I wrote about the values of having other mentors teaching "attention to detail". If you recall the first episodes of that, you'll remember my ole tack officer from 5th WOC at Ft. Wolters,  the famous and sometimes infamous, CW2 Diable.

If you remember that and connect the dots between Diable and Craig, I hope you can see two guys, one that already had a combat tour under his belt who decided to come back to Ft. Wolters and teach the new kids going through flight school and the other one, a 5th WOC graduate, already in a combat zone, already an Aircraft Commander and somewhat comfortable in that position. Diable lived in the back of my mind while Wolman, Femmer and Doc Young were sitting across from me in the Aircraft Commander's seat. Talk about lucky! That would be me.

Even though they were very far removed from one another, I learned an incredible lesson from each and, as stated yesterday, I continue to learn from both of them.

CW2 Diable looked  more  like  Audie  Murphy  than  John  Wayne. Despite that, if  you will  remember correctly,  Audie Murphy  kicked  more  ass and took more  names  than  The  Duke  ever did. Wolman,  if  the  war  hadn't  been  so controversial  in  the  public  eye,  would  already  have  had  a book  written  about  him.

In my opinion, these were two really nice guys who you could have hung out with anywhere. At the same time, these were two guys who could generate the worst nightmare in the world if you were their enemy. Good fighters, strong willed, calm under fire, focused, proficient, experienced, brave and tough as tough could be.

On the other hand, as it relates to being "late" with a good first impression, there's that natural born prick out there that not only missed the mentoring boat and made a horrible first impression, but further complicated that situation by trying to continue his command authority using the same methods of Egomania 101 that failed the moment he opened his mouth.

He wasn't with the 199th, thank God. I ran into him when I was with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment when the dearly loved and respected Captain Berry was finishing his tour and preparing to go home. Captain Ron Berry! THAT, my boys, was a prefect example of a real, live, teacher, mentor and commander. Captain Berry's return to the States made a void in the Scout Platoon but, with the arrival of Captain Prick, he was missed more than any of us would have thought.

Captain Prick was already late in his attempt to fit in but since it's impossible for an asshole to mentor anything but asses, his attempts to establish himself as God, while demanding everyone's unearned respect, basically put him in a position where he really screwed up a Good Late. Think about that for a minute.

I'll leave you guys with these thoughts as it's getting close to noon time and I'm still in my PJs and I need to make a run to see my new, 17 day old Grand Daughter and begin today's errands. Bare with me, I'll get through this and finish connecting all the dots. Thanks again for the ear and the comments. TButler94@hotmail.com

You only have one chance to screw up a good first impression.

Yep, you read that right, you know, it's the part about: "Screw up a good first impression" that makes me use that as a title.. There's a concept for you to think about. I initially wanted to write about: "Don't Screw Up A Good Late" but, even though they are connected, that will have to come a bit later.

The reason I am using this title has to do with a lesson I learned yesterday. Oddly enough, the lesson came with an email from a mentor of mine that taught me the same thing in May of 1970. Here begins the lesson.

When you are a newbee copilot and it's your first day in a combat zone, your senses are on hyper alert. A pilot, with all of the training that focused on  "paying attention to detail", can't help looking at every little detail. The kid with the wrinkled shirt, sloppy hair cut and dirty boots is a long way from the seasoned Aircraft Commander who is clean shaven and standing tall. I found that guy on the first day I arrived in Xuan Loc and before I knew it, I found two or three more.

We copilots hung out together as we were trying to get our feet on the ground and figure out who was who and who wasn't. Not long ago, I wrote about a guy named Ed because he was my first room mate and was a newbee at the same time I was.

Eddie had only been there a short while when I arrived but he already knew who the hitters were and he gave me their names and the reasons he felt they were the guys he liked to fly with, the ones that made him comfortable. That's not to say that we had any slouches in the group because most of us were new anyway and we were a long way from becoming Aircraft Commanders.

Of the several copilot newbees among us, several would go on to become top notch combat aviators in their own right but at that particular time, we were hunting for the right guy to follow cause we didn't know shit about combat ops. We knew how to fly the Huey but all the flight hours we had at that point in time was in A and B models, not the D models that were sitting in the revetments.

Terry Femmer, who is no longer with us, deserves honorable mention here. He was a great Nighthawk Gunship pilot and was influential in teaching me some of my survival skills during day and night combat ops. So was Doc and Cpt Moore but I didn't get to fly many night time missions with either of them. The real deal was found in Craig. There's something that Femmer, Doc and Craig had that was completely different than some of the other pilots you would see from time to time. After that, it didn't take me long to find the older guys and hang out with them.

Even though Eddie flew different missions than I did, he found his group too and we exchanged notes as best we could. The point I wanted to make about first impressions came from Craig 43 years ago but the second "first impression" I had came yesterday and believe it or not, it came from Craig again.   
I'm not going to get into the entirety of his email but I feel strongly enough about the content of it to make a point about it now.

We're a long way from trying to find a seasoned combat pilot to show us the way but in a sense, especially after all the stuff that's gone down since 9/11, there's certainly a scent of war in the air and I discover people every week who are looking for the older guy to help them along the way as they try to figure out what to do about the future.

When I read Craig's email and focused on the things he said and the concerns he had, I realized that he still has that trait of a mentor and I felt quite relieved to realize that there are lots of Veterans out there that are like Craig. He's still leading the way and as I thought about all the young guys that have asked me what they should do to prepare for the future, I get back to WWWD, "What Would Wolman Do".  I often times tell them to call me or come get me and I'll lead them along that path just like Craig led me. Thanks Craig. Great email.

Don't Fix The Stuff That Ain't Broke.

 I can't think of a better way to describe the recent mess ups with a number of things than using the old saying about fixin' stuff that ain't broke. I've been happy with my Hotmail account since I first signed on and began emailing but now, some idiot somewhere decided to mandate a change to Outlook or something like that and in an instant, my Hotmail page was gone and so were my contacts and a number of other user friendly things. Want to forward stuff to friends and family? Forget that. No contacts, no forwards.

In view of that, I thought I would get off the current track of things that have been on my mind and ended up as posts here. I decided that it would be better if I passed along a little information here so ya'll could get my idea of what's broke. I don't want to simply point a finger at a problem and not give a solution so I figured I would simply put down a list of solutions and let you guys figure out the problem.

1. Build a wall, not a fence.
2. On the South side of the wall have a sign that says: No Vacancy.
3. On the North side of the wall set up some bunkers and have the 11th Cav man the M60's.
4. Deport all illegals that we are providing room and board for in our prisons.
5. Deport all illegals that belong to cults.
6. Describe a cult as any organization or group that calls for our death or destruction.
7. Stop all social security payments to those who have not paid into the system.
8. Elect me to the Senate

I won't be able to campaign as my health doesn't allow that kind of travel. I can move to Washington if there is a Veteran's hospital there so living somewhere other than one exit from the VA in Shreveport won't be a big deal. Make sure that the podium in the halls of Congress has wheel chair ramps so I can be comfortable when I speak.

You have to admit that the above list, except for item 8, is a pretty good start. I may continue with this later but I felt the need to say this. Thanks for the ear. Tim

You have until sundown to get out of town.

When I turned on the tv this morning, there was a movie on that had Glenn Ford in it. As I watched it, I also saw Ernest Borgnine. I got off that and checked my email. I found a bunch of stuff on there about the recent street murder in London where another terrorist showed up in the street where a British soldier was and then he hacked him to death. Not wanting to start my day like that, I went back to the EWEST channel and "Jubal" was on. There was Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine again.

The thing that impressed me the most had to do with the fact that every cowboy had a six shooter in his holster and was always in a position to protect himself. I can remember a time in my life where I never went anywhere without my 38. I had a shoulder holster because it was more comfortable to wear with a bullet proof vest that I wore when I was flying.

Ernest Borgnine asked Glenn Ford if he had ever figured out that it took more energy to run away than it did to stick around and "find out". That's when the light bulb came on and I decided to write this piece.

It seems to me that it would be much easier for us to stick around and solve the problem than it would be to take very long and expensive trips to try and fix the problem. After watching the various clips on youtube that covered the murder of the British soldier in the streets of London, I figured that the same thing was true for the British. They've been publishing articles about the problems that came with the immigration of terrorists for a long time. All of a sudden, an old saying, from many westerns from the past,  crept into my mind. "You have until sundown to get out of town".

I realize that the local Sheriff had the authority to say something like that and in today's day and time, even that would be impossible. Sheriff Joe has come close to it but he's been blocked at every corner. That's when another light bulb came on. I guess somebody like Glenn Ford or maybe Clint Eastwood is gonna hafta go to the people in charge and tell THEM that they have until sundown to get out of town.

Is that what we are seeing on the news every night? They're already asking Holder to get out of town but they screwed up the part about "You have until sundown".

Glenn Ford just shot a mountain lion. Borgnine said he was going back to town to put up a poster that offered a $500 reward to any bounty hunter that brought in the bad guys. He said that because hunting the mountain lions that were killing everybody's cattle, was messing up his duties as a law man. There's another light bulb.

Since we're at war with the terrorists and the fat cats are out hunting mountain lions, maybe Sheriff Joe should put up some posters with a $500 reward. Yep, there ya go. It just goes to show you that the heroes we had as kids are still giving us solutions to the problems we have today. My suggestion for you guys is to go to Channel 538 and get yourself an education. It may not be a video conference but it sure beats watching the news and wondering what the hell can we do.     

New Grand Baby and other stuff

Tim Jr and Kristin are the proud parents of a new baby girl named after my mother. Nora Ann Butler arrived 59 minutes after lunch on Wednesday the 29th and weighed in at 8.1 pounds and 19" long. The newest member of the Butler family went home 3 days later and all are doing fine.

I am especially thankful for Kristin's mom and dad who were by her side from the get go. They are a perfect example of what it is like to have a great mom and dad who have always been there for their kid. Remember the rule: "If you don't show up for practice, you don't get to play in the big game". Well, Salley and Dale are on the first string and will always be.

I would like to take a moment to welcome Craig Wollman back to the blog. Craig was one of my mentors in Vietnam and he taught me how to survive the Nighthawk Gunship missions when I was a newby co pilot with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Seems as though he had a computer crash and lost this site but I sent an announcement email to him about Baby Nora and also sent the link to get here. Welcome back to Craig.

I've been away for a few days but under the circumstances it's nice to report some good stuff instead of the crap that comes with the scandals in DC, the Boston Bombing and all the other terrorist kinds of things that now invade our life and in fact, our Country.

Before I get back to the reports I'd been working on, let me present a wee bit of information about the shooting of the guy in Florida that was connected to the Boston Bombers and the triple murder that was discovered after the authorities gained access to their computers. My point has to do with the Geneva Convention.

First of all, at some point in time everybody needs to accept the fact that the Geneva Convention doesn't mean anything to terrorists. Not only did they not sign on to it, most of them don't even know how to spell it. I wanted to make that point as there has been some discussion regarding the killing of the guy in Florida who was part of the Chechnian Terrorists that killed the 9 year old boy and wounded over 100 innocent by standers during the finishing stage of the marathon.

Now, if you want to be a part of "due process", you have to be a part of the system. If you are a combatant, you are treated in two ways. One treatment goes to those who conduct themselves in warfare along the lines of the Geneva Convention and are treated accordingly. The other does not.

The mass murderers who do not follow the rules, fall under the scenario where: "The rule is that there are no rules". It's really a small change but the difference is significant. Instead of starting off with "You have the right to remain silent", you generally start off with a pistol shot to the head and THEN you say: "You are silent and you will remain so."

That may seem a bit rigid but it really isn't because there are lots of choices available to those who put their lives at risk as they go about stopping the people who do this mass murder thing. They are allowed to use a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, a tazer or any number of other life saving devices they use as they make sure that they don't suffer another loss while bringing the perps to justice.

See how easy that is to understand! I just wanted to clear that up before I continue with the direction I was on before Nora came along. Tim