Over these 69 years I have had the great fortune of many friends. And for any readers, you likely won't find your name, because I am doing a Life Review, and my current friends don't need reviewing.
My childhood memories are of Newt Coker, Charles Raines, and Ed Towers. There was Ronnie Budd, and Hank Hitt, and Darrell Allen too. Ed died last year. Hank has been dead many years now. I saw Charles at our 50th High School reunion last year, and he really hasn't changed too much. I have tried to communicate with Newt, but since we visited them in Houston about 20 years ago, he hasn't responded. Last I heard he was in NM.
From High School friends, I moved on to College buddies. Bob Bird, Chris Schlear, George Stringer, Andy Tolk, Greg Mead, Tom Jones, and Fred Pottschmidt were some of those. Greg is dead, now, I just saw George and Fred last spring in OH. From here I went to a ship for 7 months, and for better or worse I don't recall any friends from that era. The Squadron, VQ4, brought several friends. Vern Lochausen went on to command a VQ squadron, I think. I saw Jack Carr 10 or 12 years back when I was speaking in Athens, GA. I flew many hours with Frank Caruson. He and Carr both were career pilots with Delta, and I used to look for them any time I was on a Delta flt. I was also on crew with Jerry Curran, who was driving in England when we almost got a ticket for passing someone turning right and "got clear on the verge".
My VQ4 cruise book shows that I was on Crew #1 (of 13) in those days. I flew with LTs. Bill Newton and Chuck Wolcott, and LtJGs Buddy Baker and Mark O'Leary. That was a busy 4 years, since we ended up flying over 3000 hours in that period. We kept an aircraft airborne 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, year-round. It's no wonder the Squadron was big, and though I recall some names, that ended in 1977 when I left the squadron for NROTC duty.
From here, my friends were the Ph.D. students in Exercise Physiology at UGA. Susan Vickery, Jesse DeMello, Dave Hill, Chet Ray, and Mindy Millard are the names I can recall, with a little help from Brenda. The only close friends outside of UGA was Chuck Carson, Terry Mercer and Lowell Jett. Chuck I hunted with and helped as a "Plumber's helper" with a doctoral degree. The other two were Church buddies.
Most of my friends since moving to Alabama are my colleagues, students, and Church friends. Some of those date back over 30 years. I won't even TRY to name all of those.
Friends are a TRUE treasure. Thanks be to G^D for all these friends.
My childhood memories are of Newt Coker, Charles Raines, and Ed Towers. There was Ronnie Budd, and Hank Hitt, and Darrell Allen too. Ed died last year. Hank has been dead many years now. I saw Charles at our 50th High School reunion last year, and he really hasn't changed too much. I have tried to communicate with Newt, but since we visited them in Houston about 20 years ago, he hasn't responded. Last I heard he was in NM.
From High School friends, I moved on to College buddies. Bob Bird, Chris Schlear, George Stringer, Andy Tolk, Greg Mead, Tom Jones, and Fred Pottschmidt were some of those. Greg is dead, now, I just saw George and Fred last spring in OH. From here I went to a ship for 7 months, and for better or worse I don't recall any friends from that era. The Squadron, VQ4, brought several friends. Vern Lochausen went on to command a VQ squadron, I think. I saw Jack Carr 10 or 12 years back when I was speaking in Athens, GA. I flew many hours with Frank Caruson. He and Carr both were career pilots with Delta, and I used to look for them any time I was on a Delta flt. I was also on crew with Jerry Curran, who was driving in England when we almost got a ticket for passing someone turning right and "got clear on the verge".
My VQ4 cruise book shows that I was on Crew #1 (of 13) in those days. I flew with LTs. Bill Newton and Chuck Wolcott, and LtJGs Buddy Baker and Mark O'Leary. That was a busy 4 years, since we ended up flying over 3000 hours in that period. We kept an aircraft airborne 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, year-round. It's no wonder the Squadron was big, and though I recall some names, that ended in 1977 when I left the squadron for NROTC duty.
From here, my friends were the Ph.D. students in Exercise Physiology at UGA. Susan Vickery, Jesse DeMello, Dave Hill, Chet Ray, and Mindy Millard are the names I can recall, with a little help from Brenda. The only close friends outside of UGA was Chuck Carson, Terry Mercer and Lowell Jett. Chuck I hunted with and helped as a "Plumber's helper" with a doctoral degree. The other two were Church buddies.
Most of my friends since moving to Alabama are my colleagues, students, and Church friends. Some of those date back over 30 years. I won't even TRY to name all of those.
Friends are a TRUE treasure. Thanks be to G^D for all these friends.
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