Happy Memorial Day/ Post your service

[NoBones]

I never served in the military as Pres. Nixon ended
Vietnam the year I graduated HS 1972..
My draft card was in my wallet and ready to go.
Big Thanks to all of you and the rest of our armed
forces, for keeping us the land of the free and
the home of the brave.
God Bless the USA !!!

See ya, Ken

[gofastsandman]

I am the first generation of the family Stark to have never fired a gun in anger since the French and Indian war prior to the Revolution. I don`t count the turkey that took both barrels from my L.C. Smith 20 ga. not once or twice , but three times. I was Partridge hunting w/ 7 1/2 shot.

Papa flew right seat in a B-24 named Hell`s Angel with the 485th Bomb Gp. 831st Bomb Sq. in Venosa, Italy from 9-44 - 4-45. I still have his leather 831st patch designed by Walt Disney. Some of their missions were to Polesti, Poland to hit the last Nazi refinery..... Because of their limited range, they could only fly one vector in and out. I have 48 brownie snapshots of his time there. Some from the right seat looking into all of the flak Hitler could muster. His best friend and tail gunner died in his arms. Papa took some flak to the head and had he not ducked, you would not be reading this. The Tuskegee airmen, among others, flew cover w/ the 485th and Papa loved them. He said they never broke formation and only engaged when necessary. They also had limited range and returned long before the mission`s objective was reached. Of course the enemy knew this.
Papa retired in `66 as a Lt Col. due to pressure from the wife. He was 43.

After a career in architecture he went back to work at Langley with a g 14 security clearance. He died in E. Germany before the wall fell. His body was cremated before it was sent home. His colorful friends at Langley saved his personal effects for me as they knew my mother didn`t get it. Camaro Boy told me he died on a train in the company of a woman. I asked him if papa was in Costa Rica on his coconut farm. He would neither confirm nor deny. He told me to let it go and I did.

God bless our troops and their families.

Live Free Or Die
Gen John Stark

Thanks for the memories,
GFS