Friday, February 20, 2009

Another precious American born.

Tom's Journal.
http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/
tschuckman@aol.com

Gabrielle_Erwin_2-17-09.jpg, GJDE2.jpg

This is my youngest sister, Denise's son's new baby, who recently got married prob a year ago. Denise passed away at age 35 from a horrible wasting disease and Sarcoidosis in 1998, and left behind 6 boys and her husband, who was a farmer. That really shook our family up, but especially my mom.

I vividly remember that while I was in my 1st tour in Vietnam at age 19 with USARV in Bien Hoa air base, I was with an Army Aviation Company living in tents, and I bought a bolt of expensive blue silk that I sent home to my oldest sister, Linda, and she made a beautiful pair of pajamas [for Home EC class- in high school] for her baby sister Denise, and then sent me a picture. I don't talk about this much, but there was a small girl in a "hot LZ" one day--one mission, when I got to my next Hel. Co. the 240th AHC, the next [2nd] tour at Camp BearCat, RVN [Vietnam], and she reminded me of that picture of my little sister. I will tell you the rest of the story some other time... OK? Let me put it this way... I NEVER shot anyone who wasn't an enemy who was shooting at me, or my ship/ people! But being in a "kill zone" --there were 3 ships [helicopters/ slicks] following my ship with all guns firing for "full suppression" and everything was 'fair game.' I saw my bullets dancing around that girl of about 6 years old and pulled up/ stopped firing in a heart beat. But a few seconds before the A/C [air craft commander] gave the order to "open up" fire and kill everything in that kill zone, and I could have legally killed her! But I did not. Many strange and terrible things happen in the heat of battle, and then a soldier's mind [has a little tape recorder in the back of his brain] keeps playing it over and over again... tormenting himself forever, that is just one part/ facet of PTSD --Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
That was just one of many days that stuck in my mind laying dormant until a few minutes ago when I opened up this email sent to me by my sister, Linda. Linda has a son, David, who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and is now a Lt. serving near a combat zone, and a lovely daughter named, Emily, who is a college grad working with mentally challenged children, and another son, Kent, who was 'acquired' Autism... many think that he got it from shot/injection that is given to new born babies. Linda was the president of the National Autism Society a few years. Her hubby is an Electrician in WI and I saw them all last at a Christmas party in 08.
:-)

Now... we don't use the term, "White-American", or 'European- American' or German-American [unless we are trying to distinguish our extraction from another group] DO WE ??? Why is it that Dark skinned people who live in America seem to need to ?? If they don't love the term AMERICAN-- why can't they just leave/ go to another country.. like Iran...lol ? Just some food for thought... and my own personal opinion.


Got to leave for dinner.

Tom



3 comments:

Marlos ACE said...

Thanks for stopping by. So glad to find your blog!

Lynne said...

I think Satan uses anything to divide and conquer the heart including race. I look forward to heaven where we will not see color, but only God's love for each one of us, worts and all.

Trader Rick said...

Tom, glad to meet you! You've got a great blog and indeed, we seem to have a lot in common. I have added your blog to my blogroll.
I like how you combine the personal with your commentary and witness.
--Rick, postman357@hotmail.com