We weren't fighting for freedom.

Hello Everybody,

In the midst of all the study that surrounds our Country from the late 1700s till today, I came across a thought that I've never considered before. We weren't fighting for freedom, we already had freedom. We were fighting for the "American Way Of Life".

As I see it, that's the way it is and has been since the day we took on the Brits and eventually, the rest of the world that decided they wanted all our stuff and all of us. That's not an abbreviation for United States even though it's true that you can't have the United States without getting control of us.

Well, maybe not every one of us but at least those of us who have the American blood lines that go back to the beginning days of our Country. I'm not having a problem with us, I'm only having a problem with that part of us that seem to be worthless. With all the hype about changing things, I think we need to go back to the old saying that you "Don't fix it if it ain't broken".

When it comes down to outlining or categorizing the many different aspects of our growth, I've been as thorough as I know how to be. I really haven't messed with the pilgrims all that much but I have presented a whole lot of stuff from the 1760s forward. I'll have to admit that we probably should have put that: "All men are created equal" thing into a different perspective and made all men free actually mean "All men".

I don't know if that would have eliminated the Civil War but I will admit that taxes weren't the only stimulation and that slavery had a big part in it. I certainly don't want to change the Constitution but I do think that it's time to put some laws into effect that would fix that part of the system that is broken.

Here's a thought or two about that. If you don't like the "One Nation Under God" thing, that's okay. Pack your bags and move to where ever you want to go. The only criteria would be "You can't stay here".

If you don't like that "Christian Nation" thing, that's okay, too. The Jews have done very well here and have assimilated into our society in a manner that has been most productive. Christian Nation doesn't mean you have to go to a Christian church every Sunday. You can pretty well do what you want to do, go where  you want to go and think what you want to think. Despite that, here's where the problem begins.

I like to call it "The Cult". After studying Maximilian Weber and his explanations that Cults form to affix some sort of rationalization to their own actions, I think I figured it out. If you look at it this way, it may help you figure it out. Use Fienstien's latest babble about Veterans. She said something to the effect that :"All Veterans are mentally ill in one way or another and the government needs to take their guns". I'm trying to recall her words from memory but even if I missed one or two, that's what she was reported to say. Let's call that the Anti Gun Cult.

History has taught us that the various leaders who demand the guns, do that so you won't be able to blow their brains out when they try to come and blow your brains out. In a very real sense, Yamamoto knew that and told the Japanese Army that there was a gun behind every blade a grass. To me, that means that IF they had defeated the armed forces of our Country and managed to invade, every citizen here would have simply blown their brains out with their home owned guns.

If you put that thought into practical use, the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima was a decision that was made to send a message. Even though it was a very loud and clear message, apparently they didn't hear it. Another message was sent to Nagasaki a couple of days later and that one got through.

Atomic bombs are a hell of a long way from the power exerted by one guy with one gun but the connection is quite interesting. One one hand, guys like Hitler and Tojo wanted the natural resources of the United States. On the other, if the entire Country was destroyed or radiated, they wouldn't have been able to get a single drop of oil, no trees, no agriculture, no nothing.

Now onto the scene comes this hammer head from Iran. He doesn't want to take over Israel, he wants to wipe it off the map. With regard to us, he's made it clear that his idea, the one that comes from his belief system, is to dominate the world. I'd call that a Cult, wouldn't you?

Since they can't put up with our belief system, they have no choice but to kill us all. They just want to start with the Jews.

I guess that's it for today. I simply don't like the idea of Americans seeing millions of people like that in our Country and not having a gun handy to defend themselves. You can take all that peace, love and happiness crap and throw it in the trash. That's not what this is about. This is about Cult power.  I want our way of life back. If I could roll us back to the 50's, I'd do it in a second and begin the motions to "Purge" the cultists, not the military commanders who have served us so well. What a bone headed maneuver this purge thing has become!

Word Recognition Game #2

Okay, gang. Here we go again. It's time to play another word game.

I really thought that I should start off with the Duck Dynasty thing as that one is already past "The Going Viral" point. I may get to that later as part of the information in A&E's statement used the word "Beastiality". 

I suggest that you go to Google for a minute and type in the name: "Maximillian Weber". If you do, you will find that he did a great degree of study in the area we describe as a "Cult". We all know who belongs to one of the biggest Cults in America but understanding how people can profess a belief in such craziness, such anti American thought, is typically beyond most folks. Weber described it as " a rationalization that individuals attach to their own actions". Do it, you'll like it.

I got off track somehow, I guess the word game was interrupted by all the hype about Phil Robertson. Let's get off that for a second and move on to a different target. Let's try a recent quote.

"All Veterans are mentally ill in some way and government should prevent them from owning guns".

Curt, you and Ed already know the answer as I sent the email outlining all of that before I decided to share it here. There are lots of folks that read this but are not members so give them a chance to answer by email.

I hope the diversion regarding Duck Dynasty hasn't taken you away from the initial thoughts about the quote listed above. Enjoy the game.

My State of the Union Address.

Recently, as I was reading the daily posts on the 11thacraviation.com site, I noticed that there were continuing frustrations from the combat vets. That frustration surrounded a number of things that brought me to a realization that things haven't changed much since the beginning days of our Country but the manner in which we handle them have.

One of the common topics surrounded the negative effects that the anti war groups had among the pilots that watched some of the protest marches while we were in the Officers Club in Long Binh. I've written about it before and recall telling everyone here that I overheard a comment from a gun ship pilot as we were watching the hippies raising hell in Washington. He said: "Those are the sons a bitches we need to be making gun runs on".

Now, all these years later, with Jane Fonda being mentioned in the news and John Kerry being in office, those memories continue to haunt many of the men and women who fought like hell in Vietnam. That was completely different than the things that Fonda and Kerry proved to represent.

As I began to consider the sources of that aggravation, I concluded that it surrounded a certain type of person. Going back to a time frame prior to Vietnam and focusing on Korea, I noticed that McArthur caught so much hell that he was eventually removed from Command even though he pulled off the Inchon invasion which was a master piece of military strategy.

I continued my trek backward in time and came to December the 8th, 1941. That was only one day after the Pearl Harbor attack. It was however, long enough after the attack for us to know that there were thousands killed and wounded during that strike. As another important note,  December 8th was the day that the Japanese were attacking other areas in the Pacific and doing so only 24 hours after Pearl Harbor.

Believe it or not, there was a vote of "NO" from Janette Rankin who was a Representative from Nebraska. The press gave her an appropriate nick name. They called her Japanette. I tracked her voting record and saw that she had voted not to support the troops in Vietnam. The point I wanted to make from that has to do with tenure. Any way you look at it, she was liberal and remained that way for decades. If you weren't aware of that, take a moment to do one thing. Don't forget John Kerry's conduct.

I decided to go back to the 30s when Churchill was having to deal with the death and destruction that the Germans were spreading all over Europe. He was surrounded by near sighted people who were still sick of the losses and the costs of the first World War and didn't want to spend a dime to prepare for the Second World War. I wondered if that liberal bitch from Nebraska had any relatives still living in England.

As I thought about the negative impact that came from the likes of Jane Fonda, John Kerry, Janette Rankin and that stupid Cindy Sheehan woman who lost her son in Iraq, I began to think about the time frames beyond the 40s when so many didn't want to make the sacrifices to prepare their Country for the inevitable war that was coming.

I went back to an address that Churchill made to Parliament in the summer of 1934. He was addressing another issue than Hitler but the words he wrote have, to me, been effective throughout time. I'll quote them now.

" You have unsettled everything. You have settled nothing. Those whom you have sought to conciliate are those whom you have most offended. Those to whom your mission is most necessary are those whom you have most entirely abandoned. Those on whom you have to count most are those whom you are teaching least of all to count on you".

Despite the fact that his words were directed to the House of Lords and the House of Commons and they were focusing on some dumb ass thing they did relative to India, I thought that they were so appropriate that I wanted to recognize the dangers of idiots who are allowed to vote. I decided to go back even further in time to see what those effects were in our society.

I found myself studying the effects that came from the Boston Massacre of 1770. Even though there were only 5 killed and 6 wounded when the British opened fire on the citizens in Boston, the effect was every bit as large as Pearl Harbor or the taking of Paris by the Germans. I decided to look into it further to see if I could find any of John Kerry's kin folk in there.

As it turned out, my research uncovered the population numbers during 1770. Google links stated that there were only 2.1 million people here when that occurred. They eventually divided that number into Loyalists and Patriots. As it turned out, there were 500,000 of the 2.1 million that chose not to support Independence and not to reject the tyranny of King George. If my math works out, that's 23% of the entire population in 1770.

If you convert those numbers to the population we have today, there could easily be 60 million people here who are NOT in the category of people who seek freedom from tyranny and worse than that, VOTE THAT WAY. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I have some more math to do and will continue with this later but for now, if nothing happens from this post other than you thinking about the liberal population in our Country and the lessons learned from that, I will consider this writing well worth the time. Thanks. More later.

Sailor of the Year Award to Tim Jr. and the Navy Ball.

Last night I attended the Navy Ball / Christmas Party for the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC). To say it was "Something Else" is an under statement. Talk about "Tradition", these sailors have it and never intend to let it go. It was great.

Tim Jr was presented with the Sailor of the Year Award. It was the absolute "nuts" to see my son's name called when the award was called for presentation.

They started off with the National Anthem. That was just a warm up for the Invocation. Yeah, that's right, a prayer. After that, a "Welcome" was delivered by the Commanding Officer, Commander O'Neal. She told a story about a Vietnamese kid who left Saigon during the fall, managed to get on a fishing boat and make his way to the United States.

This kid worked hard, entered the Academy, worked his way up the ladder and became a Captain of a ship in the US Navy. Talk about an immigrant who did it by the numbers, this kid is it. She explained the story of his life and success in such a manner as to receive a standing ovation at the end of the presentation. I'm telling you, it was the nuts!

I brought my walking cane with me as I knew there was no way I was going to be able to be on my feet for that many hours without needing it. Despite that, at the end of the presentation and during the beginning of the music, she walked over to my table and asked me to dance. I held up my cane and said" Are you sure". She just smiled and said: "You'll be fine". We went to the dance floor and started to do my version of the jitterbug, cane included.

I saw Tim Jr looking at me dancing with his Commanding Officer and I noticed that "Oh, My God" look on this face. I told her Tim Jr was watching and we both began to laugh. When it came time to do the "Swing your partner around" part of the dance, my cane was in my right hand and as I put my arm around her back, I realized where the cane MUST be landing. I just looked at her and said: "Don't worry, THAT'S MY CANE". We both had a good laugh off that comment.

We both returned to our seats and I noticed that her husband looked exactly like my nephew, Mackey. I realized how young they all were and really got a good idea of that when they asked everybody who was over 60 to raise their hands. When it came to the part where they asked everybody who was 65 or older, I realized that there were just a few of us and for the most part, the room was full of kids and young adults just over 30.

They recognized two people that were key to the success of the NOSC. One guy, Scott Wells, was in a wheel chair and was recognized for doing charity work for Service members who suffered from TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury and Spinal Column Injuries. He wheeled himself over 100 miles for charity and was a most deserving honoree.

The other person was an older lady named Cybil Kelly. She put together care packages to send to Sailors that had deployed overseas so they would know they weren't forgotten. She had sent more than 600 of them. These two people were rock stars among the Navy people there. It was one sweet feeling to be around that group and I'm still digging on it.

After we ate, they have a tradition where they propose a Toast to whoever they wish to. One officer, a medical officer who was sitting at my table next to Tim Jr, stood up and announce the he "Wished to Propose a Toast". When he was recognize and addressed with "Propose Your Toast", he said: "I would like to Propose a Toast to the United States Army". There were cheers and lots of chants of "Here Here". .

The next person proposed a toast to the United States Navy. After that, it was the Marine Corp, the Air Force and then the Coast Guard. Cheers and Here Here filled the room. Talk about pride. These are real Americans.

Toward the end of the evening, I approached the Commanding Officer and told her how much I appreciated her opening comments especially the part about the immigrant from South Vietnam. I've been giving hell to some of the bad ones and have neglected to mention the great ones that we have the good fortune to have as citizens of our Country. I apologize for that here and now and hope that focusing on the problem has not taken away the good part and the asset that comes from great men and women who migrate to our Country.

I told the Commander, as we were preparing to leave, that I had a vision that came when I looked around the room at all the military members. I told her that her reference to 1975 and the accomplishments of the immigrant she spoke about, gave my an insight to the members of the military that were in that room. I said:

" If you go back further than 1975 and return to 1770, the year of the Boston Massacre, you may remember people who gathered in barns and taverns to prepare for the war that they all knew was coming. If you look around this room, you may see the same thing I do. This is a room full of Patriots and I want you to know that I'm proud to be here among so many great Americans and I wanted to thank you for allowing me to attend". With that, she told me that I was welcome at anytime.

As we were talking toward the car, I told Tim Jr how wonderful it was to witness the whole thing especially the awards and decorations ceremony that included his Navy Achievement Medal. For the next 20 minutes he began a non stop explanation of what the Navy had done for him in his life and how he, just like his Grandfather, had a 30 year plan that included going from E 1 to E 7 and then Officer Candidate School. Papaw, Major General George McGovern, (rip) did it that way and it was Tim Jr's firm commitment to follow in his Papaw's foot steps. What a great plan. I can see him making Captain one day even if I might not be around to make it.

I wanted to share these things with you especially with all the concerns we older Veterans have about the current state of affairs that come from the circumstances that our military is having to put up with now. Not to worry. Things will change for the better when the next administration comes on board to put our military back in the order it was before 2008. I will close this by saying "Our Navy Rocks".

God Bless our military men and women.

Welcome Aboard to Gordon Lopez

I would like to take a minute to issue a "Welcome Aboard" to Gordon Lopez.

If there was something like "Naval Royalty", Gordon, and his family would certainly be listed at the top of the page. That's a long story but for now, suffice it to say that I've never heard of any family that has a back ground of service in the United States Navy like Gordon's family does.

Gordon is a good friend to one of my old buddies from High School days, a retired U.S. Navy Captain. I don't have permission to post anything specific about their history in our Navy but maybe he will let me put down something more definitive at a later date. With all due respect, I will give you guys a hint.

He might not admit it but there's a chance that his family's service to our Country goes all the way back to the days of sail. From the stories I've heard from John Roberson, Byrd High classmate of mine, there's no one with a pedigree longer than the Lopez family. I am extremely proud to know that he is reading these posts.

Gordon, since I haven't gone back to previous emails from you or John that list your family's background, let me give you a hint about some of the members and non members here that read these ramblings I make.

We have a U.S. Army Ranger that I served with in Vietnam. There are Cobra gunship pilots and Scout pilots that flew with me on Hunter Killer Teams in Vietnam and in Cambodia. Some of those readers are purple heart recipients. Two of them are former room mates of mine during my tour in Vietnam.

There is a group of ARPs, Aero Rifle Platoon members, that are the best of the best that the infantry has ever seen. Many readers here are Huey pilots that flew in and out of landing zones all over Vietnam. One was my tac officer from Primary Flight School at Ft. Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas where I learned to fly helicopters in 1969. His daughter is even a reader.

A couple are former Nighthawk Gunship pilots are here and a few of them have flown the Nighthawk missions with me. A couple of these members went on to become Doctors and continue to help people 43 years after our combat tour ended.

We have a U.S. Marine Corp plane captain that served in Chu Li during Tet of 68. That would be my brother. Several readers are members of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association where the famous Robin Olds was the foundation upon which that group was built. Within that group, there's a FAC pilot that flew missions in Cambodia from Tay Ninh during the time I was flying Hunter Killer Teams across the Border from the same base.

There are a number of people from the V.A. hospital that read these posts. One is another old high school buddy and a friend of John's as well. Guy is his name, John will probably read this and tell you about him. There are nurses from the VA that also follow this site. We even have mothers and fathers of Veterans who read these posts. A couple of them are also high school friends that live in Ruston, Louisiana where John and I attended a reunion one year. Let's not forget Tim Jr, a U.S. Navy man and multiple SOQ winner and hopefully, this year's Sailor of the Year.

I say these things to let you know that you are in very good company and that I am extremely proud that you are reading the posts and ramblings that I make here. I hope they meet your approval. Please pass along to your family.

Welcome Aboard.

Tim

Name Recognition Winner Is: Lt. General Ed Wolfe, Patriot Corp Commander.

See there! Even though I left out J. Edgar's name, my first room mate from Vietnam knew the answer right off the bat. For those of you who aren't aware of the answer, you can do a little research and find out who they are and where they are working. It's scary, kinda like putting Herman Goering in charge of  airline passages for the German Jews in the late 30's and early 40s.

Craig, Dudley, that would be Eddie. Guy, Roger, he's the one I told you about long ago when we started talking about the first day I spent in Vietnam.

Eddie, congratulations. You are now referred to as the 3 star, Lt. General instead of Major General.

I sent the first 36 pages of the manuscript of "The Patriot's Cabin" to Mike in Bentonville, Arkansas. I haven't heard back from him yet but expect to hear his opinion shortly. I will add Lt. General Wolfe's name to the attendees. This is going to be fun. I don't want to give the story away but maybe I can copy and paste a part of the meeting that will take place in the Ozark Mountains near the Buffalo River.

Y'all just stand by. More coming. Way to go, Eddie, er............General, suh.

Connecting the dots between names and dates.

Okay, here's a quick name recognition game for you to play. Let's start with Teddy and go to Franklin Delano, John Fitzgerald, Harry S, Ronald and Jimmy. That's a good beginning. Those are spread out over a long period of time but they are relevant to today's test.

Now lets go to some other names. Alif Alikhan, Mohammed Elibiary, Rashad Hussain, Salam Al-Marayati, Imam Mohamed Magi and Ebo Patel.

Remembering those names are important but so is remembering dates. The following dates in history seem to be intellectually relevant for today's circumstances. Let's take a look at some of the occurrences that should help lead the way.

On August 23, 1996. Osama Bin Laden declared War on the United States. It would appear to me that a logical thought process would have eliminated any such move but, then again, logic among those who kill themselves on purpose isn't necessarily a logical thought itself.

Another important date in history that occurred in August was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. That was August 6, 1945. That produced the instantaneous death of 80,000 people and tens of thousands more shortly thereafter.

A few days later, Nagasaki was nuked and another 87,000 were killed. Pretty gruesome, but somewhat necessary to get the attention of a large group of idiots who were in denial that they were defeated and that they were the ones that started the whole damn thing in the first place.

Now, with this latest "deal" cut with the Iranians, did you think about a suitcase sized atomic bomb being set off in New York City? Apparently, the head of the Israeli Defense Force did.

I seem to have another "Stuck Point" here. When a guy says he's going to kill me, I don't really need anymore information than that. I take him at his word especially if he's killed before.

Now that I've presented the names, dates and circumstances, I'll just leave this alone and let you guys do some thinking. Enjoy any attempt you make to connect the dots. We will talk again about this.

Jesus Ain't Goin' Nowhere and Neither is Mr. Stupid.

I've been viewing recent articles on multi-cultural-ism. I also watched some of the mini series titled "The Bible". I just wanted to say that after 2,000 years it would appear to me that the best informed people in the world would figure out that Jesus ain't goin' nowhere.

With regard to Mr. Stupid, he will eventually go away but that won't happen until he is respected in the same manner that others like them were treated. You know, Hitler, Tojo and that bunch.

Would one of you bible scholars help a blind man find that verse in the bible that said something about killing every man, woman, child and beast of burden? I'm pretty sure that referred to the Stupid tribe way back then.

Mike, Murray, RLB, give me a hand on this one. Grab that bible and send me an email so I can quote it directly. Thanks.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.

It appears that I've become some kind of a lab rat. In a sense, with all the interest in my brain functions after brain surgery, there are lots of people at the VA hospital that want to know how I've managed to deal with it all.

Vietnam, Cambodia, killing the enemy, the death of pilots I flew with and went to flight school with, the memories of dead bodies, both theirs and ours, and the effects of ground attacks that brought with them, rockets and mortar fire from the enemy. 

Flying Scouts in Cambodia was an experience that, for the most part, was a really difficult thing to survive. If there was ever anything in my life more dangerous than flying helicopters in Vietnam, flying Scouts as a member of hunter killer teams in Cambodia, was easily it.

To put it bluntly, I remember one mission where I was scared shit less as death was everywhere and, even at altitude, you could smell the dead bodies. I was literally shaking in the cockpit as I began to roll in on a target that had already proven to be deadly. Just prior to that mission, John Robb had already been shot down and before I began my gun run on that day, Wayne Morvent was shot down.

That was the first time I had ever seen a "human wave assault" that was just like the Banzai attacks that the suicidal Japanese made during the Second World War. I remember watching the Cobra roll in and shooting flechette filled rockets at the enemy as they attacked.

We saw the NVA before anyone did. That was our job. We had to penetrate the Cambodian border under the radar, not get caught, search for the North Vietnamese from tree top level, not get shot, return to Vietnam without getting shot down along the ingress and egress routes, refuel, rearm and do it all again. Sometimes, we had to do that 4 times in one day.

There was one particular area along the ingress egress route that had a radar controlled anti aircraft position that was a very dangerous place. We had pilots hit at 5,000 feet and I was always below that altitude. If I had to guess, I would say that 90% of the time, I was below 100' altitude.

I can think back and remember radio calls instructing me to : "Break right, you're taking fire". I can also vividly remember the sounds of AK 47 rounds hitting the helicopter in the skids, the dog house and the mini gun housing. Those memories don't go away. You learn to deal with all that but they never go away.

Hindsight, regarding one of the many the Nighthawk mission I flew with Wollman, proved to be more deadly to the enemy than all the missions I flew in Cambodia. The difference can be found in the fact that it was dark and I never saw the kinds of sights I witnessed in the daylight battles of Cambodia.

The point I wish to make here has to do with the process of dealing with Veterans who suffer from PTSD and or Traumatic Brain Injury. I say that because some way or another, I managed to make it through 43 years without doing anything to get me arrested or suffering anything catastrophic due to PTSD. More than anything, I stayed busy with my career and family and even though the memories never faded, they didn't control my life,

Now, with a daily dose of PTSD reports that I have to write, reports called "Stuck Points" that outline the thoughts that are Stuck in my mind, it seems that dealing with it daily, instead of staying busy with other things, finds me STUCK in Vietnam and Cambodia. That has produced a constant recollection of the most ungodly things that man can witness.

In any event, I wanted to put this into black and white and send it to my high school friend at the VA that has been such a huge help in getting me through all the hell that comes with malignant brain cancer, brain surgery, chemo, radiation and the horrors that come with that. Guy, please print this and get it to Roger as I don't have a printer and I've already submitted my reports to him for this week. Thanks, Tim

You CAN take it with you.

I attended the funeral of my first cousin yesterday. He was the Marine's top shooter and held that record for 3 years. His name was Aubrey Brooks and he was the son my mother's sister. Aubrey was a most successful business man and almost certainly the wealthiest of all of my relatives.

When my brother called me to tell me that Aubrey had passed away and that there were some special arrangements made for his funeral, I have to admit that I laughed out loud instead of crying. Among the many requests that he made, the one that stood out the most contained a list of things that he ordered to be put in the casket with him.

He had a flask of whiskey, a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes, a buckeye and most importantly, a check for a million dollars that I'm sure was a good check.

I only had one business venture with Aubrey but I felt that it was worthy of note here as some of you Vietnam Veterans will get a kick out of it. It had nothing to do with combat but in the end, combat was the thing that brought the venture to a screeching halt.

I had worked as a distributor for a rock crusher manufacturer for many years. Along the way, I learned a lot of things about particle acceleration, instantaneous deceleration and the resulting product that was produced when a rock is impacted against a stationery object when flying through the air at 6,000 feet per minute. With that, I learned how to take stone, gravel, glass, sand and other materials from their present state and reduce them in size to something more usable.

I needed some money to help design and build a machine that would take the "down hole rock cuttings" from a drilling rig and reduce them in size so they could be re-injected down the annulus of a well. This is part of the process that occurs after the drill bit cuts the stone into little pieces and pumps them back to the surface with the mud that was recirculating throughout the drilling process.

The point in all this was to eliminate the need to pump the cuttings overboard into a barge that would take them from offshore wells to a disposal site. We all know about the EPA so I won't get into that part of the equation. I'll simply say that producing a machine that would eliminate that step was worth millions.

To make a long story short, I will simply say that I made the geometric changes in the crushing chamber to accomplish this task, built a prototype, tested it, had the Department of Transportation witness the results and began the work to market the machine. Since we were going to sell it on an international basis, I named it the "International Collider".

I went to a friend in Opelousas, Louisiana and after telling the story about the machine and the application of it in the oil and gas industry, he told me to get on with the project and build one in his shop. I did that and made arrangements to take it to an oil field service company for testing and approval by the Associated Petroleum Institute. When it passed, you can well imagine the excitement that was shared by all.

We had a production well set up in Navisota, Texas and through that, we were to confirm it's suitability for 24 hour per day operations, something we had already proven in other applications such as stone quarries and gravel pits. As soon as that was finished, we were off to the Middle East to put the machine to work there. I figure to make a ton of money as there were lots and lots of drilling rigs working there every day.

As I was anxiously awaiting my orders to leave for the Middle East, Saddam Hussein showed his ass.

My dear friend, Laddie James (rip), was most anxious to get the show on the road as he was an innovator himself and a most successful man in his own right. Unfortunately, my departure was brought to a screeching halt when Saddam shot the Scud Missile across the border and into the base where our troops were stationed during that time. Laddie didn't want to risk one of his guys so he ordered the project to be put on hold until all that ended. I saw a fortune fly out the window with all of that and learned a great deal about hating dictators at a different level than I had before that time.

I guess that's about it for today but I just wanted to leave this little note about a guy who helped me along the way, the kind of guy that "took it with him". So long Aubrey and thanks for all the help.

Cousin Tim