Mr_Dirt

No Olham I believe he was a door gunner in Viet Nam so he has flown on the Huey's I was talking about.

Congratulations CJ. I would be lost without my 3 grand-babies, enjoy her they grow up so fast.

UncleAl will probably know this, but I have read that chopper pilots in Viet Nam would go into landing zones so small they would break the tops out of small trees. They said it sounded like small explosions. Those blades are pretty tough. My hat is off to UncleAl and all who flew into battle in these insane flying machine. Hts off to Birddog and the people who save lives flying them also. My wife is a nurse who has flown transporting patients on them. I always worried, but she said I.m saving a life.

RIP and thanks for our continued freedom.

As always great writing and masterful story telling. Thanks Lou I cannot wait until the next installment. Thanks John

Very nice Lou and many happy flights to you Javito1986.

like Steve58 I am more a lurker than a poster, but there are some very fine gentlemen here. Olham has helped me by translating a document. I never let the day go by without checking on the people on this fprum. Lou is a great writer with his Paul Blum tales. It is an honor to see so much talent that is displayed here. Thanks to all who come here for a break in a hectic day. If you need help or just something to smile at you can find it here. Thank you gentlemen for all you do

Matador I lost my hard drive and all my HITR files also recently. I repurchased HTIR because it was money well spent. I also remember when the dev team gave us OFF 1 and 2 for free unless you chose to give a donation. I figure the extra I spent was another donation for their continuing hard work. Their software is great and they stand behind it with great support. I also considered it a cheap lesson in learning to back up my hard drive. I lost alot of pictures that can never be replaced. So this time my hard drive is backed up!

Shrapnel you can buy the reflective dots from Natural Point and stick them on a hat or visor. I f you get the vector expansion you also need a clip that has three reflective spots which attaches to the bill of your hat, I use the Pro 3 with vector and it works well. I am not sure if the clip comes with the expansion package. I would go to WWW.naturalpoint.com and check it out. The worst problem about buying the clip that attaches to your hat is the shipping costs more than the clip. I have brought extras because my grandchildren like to misplace mine.

Congratulations and thanks for your service WD. Wear your medal with pride you earned it and your country's admiration for your service.

Well said Lou, these vets are passing way to quick now. I see many wearing their unit or Army hats now of days. I get some weird looks when I walk up and thank them or any vet for their service, I also get some big smiles after I thank them. I regret that I have not spent more time talking with them. I started thanking them and talking with them a few years back. I was born on Dec. 7th. so I have always been interested in anything related to Pearl Harbor. I was working in a gas station when a gentleman came in with a Pearl Harbor survivor Cap came in. I was able to talk with him as I filled up his car. The story he told was unforgetable and nothing like the movies. I regret not thanking these men for our freedom sooner.

Oldham my Grandmother's maidien name was Vossler. Her family came to the states before the Civil war. I have some records where her father served in the German military. I cannot read them as it is written in German. I also have papers where his widow filed for his pension after his service in the Civil war. If you could check for Vossler I would appreciate it. Thanks John

WM bowfishing for carp is very popular here in Missouri. Carp are considered a rough fish by the conservation department so you can take up to a hundred pounds if you want. I have a friend who has a shooting platform built on the front of his jon boat. They cruise the bays of our lake and watch for carp in the shallows. We use to have an old bridge that crossed a small river we would go out on a hot summer day and bowfish for Gar which would cruise the top of the water looking like submarines. we would hang over the bridge and shoot them as they cruise by. My dad and I spent alot of time fishing for carp. We would use treble hooks and doughballs for bait. Everyone had a recipe for doughballs. Our recipe used wheaties and anise extract. We also used sour corn on a straight hook at times to catch them. We would tight line on the bottom, it took alot of time sometimes. The largest carp I ever caught on rod and reel was 25 pounds. I was around 11 yo at the time it was great fun, I sure miss those day with my dad.

I was very lucky, that and mad. I kept telling myself I will not die hung on this tractor. I might die walking to the truck but not hung on this tractor. I had ben around machinery most of my life. I worked in rock Quarries and farms. My whole life changed in a split second it took to pull me into the pto.

zz pto on an auger. went around and around until my weight finally caused the tractor to die. The left arm was bent way behind my head. I pulled my coat over my head unwrapped my coat from the pto and walked to my truck. I could not drive because it was a 4 spd stick. I called the boss's wife told her to come and get me. Went to the hospital told the Dr. to save it if he could, cut it off if he could not, but at least I was alive. When I woke up I was afraid to look because I thought they would cut it off. I went back to school became a pharmacist.

sorry about the double post

I agree zz, but who polices the system the Dr's can not because they are the ones who order the tests that are not needed. The gov. can not because they do not know how to manage period. I see the people as the ones caught between a rock and a hard place. I t is almost impossible to get one Dr. to disagree with another. The problem is the greed built into the system. When you go to the Dr. and he puts you in the hospital and another Dr. is brought in because your disease is beyond the scope of the first you end up paying both Drs. instead of one. Twenty years ago I had a Dr. who was an ortho surgeon who rebuilt my left arm after a farming accident. This Dr. saw me every month for 3 years and only charged me one office call. He did 8 surgeries on my arm and was payed for them, but he did save some of the use in my left arm and hand. I should have lost the arm, but 3 surgeons worked 10 hrs to save it. This was done in a small hospital. I was in the ICU for 6 weeks and the total hospital bill was around 40 thousand dollars. The thing about it was my insurance paid most all the bill. I would hate to stay in the ICU 6 weeks now I would most likely have to take a loan against my house to pay the bill. The Dr now want MRI and CAT scans every time. Like you said this adds cost to your bill which the insurance does not like to pay.

I agree zz, but who polices the system the Dr's can not because they are the ones who order the tests that are not needed. The gov. can not because they do not know how to manage period. I see the people as the ones caught between a rock and a hard place. I t is almost impossible to get one Dr. to disagree with another. The problem is the greed built into the system. When you go to the Dr. and he puts you in the hospital and another Dr. is brought in because your disease is beyond the scope of the first you end up paying both Drs. instead of one. Twenty years ago I had a Dr. who was an ortho surgeon who rebuilt my left arm after a farming accident. This Dr. saw me every month for 3 years and only charged me one office call. He did 8 surgeries on my arm and was payed for them, but he did save some of the use in my left arm and hand. I should have lost the arm, but 3 surgeons worked 10 hrs to save it. This was done in a small hospital. I was in the ICU for 6 weeks and the total hospital bill was around 40 thousand dollars. The thing about it was my insurance paid most all the bill. I would hate to stay in the ICU 6 weeks now I would most likely have to take a loan against my house to pay the bill. The Dr now want MRI and CAT scans every time. Like you said this adds cost to your bill which the insurance does not like to pay. I agree zz, but who polices the system the Dr's can not because they are the ones who order the tests that are not needed. The gov. can not because they do not know how to manage period. I see the people as the ones caught between a rock and a hard place. I t is almost impossible to get one Dr. to disagree with another. The problem is the greed built into the system. When you go to the Dr. and he puts you in the hospital and another Dr. is brought in because your disease is beyond the scope of the first you end up paying both Drs. instead of one. Twenty years ago I had a Dr. who was an ortho surgeon who rebuilt my left arm after a farming accident. This Dr. saw me every month for 3 years and only charged me one office call. He did 8 surgeries on my arm and was payed for them, but he did save some of the use in my left arm and hand. I should have lost the arm, but 3 surgeons worked 10 hrs to save it. This was done in a small hospital. I was in the ICU for 6 weeks and the total hospital bill was around 40 thousand dollars. The thing about it was my insurance paid most all the bill. I would hate to stay in the ICU 6 weeks now I would most likely have to take a loan against my house to pay the bill. The Dr now want MRI and CAT scans every time. Like you said this adds cost to your bill which the insurance does not like to pay.

This is my 2 cents on US healthcare. I do not always agree with a government sponsored insurance, but there is a need for healthcare reform. I am a pharmacist and my wife is a Regsitered Nurse, so our living is affected by healthcare problems. The US has already had gov. sponsored healthcare in the form of Medicare on Medicaid for years. I have watched insurance companies control most of everything we do. We are forced to buy insurance for our autos by law, you can not afford to not have some type of health insurance. I watch as the pharmacy I work for was shut down because Medicare D could take as long as 6 to 8 months to pay their claims, if they paid at all. They were very good at denying claims and not paying at all. Another favorite trick was to pay at a cost less than the medication cost us wholesale. Medicare D is the governments way of letting the insurance companies run gov. healthcare. In the US you will not see many mom and pop pharmacies much longer, they can not compete with the Walmarts and Walgreens. RX drugs in a pharmacy may make you a 5 to 6 percent profit, that is why walmart and walgreens sale all the other things in their stores. I also see the insurance companies side of the healthcare system. I recently had double bypass surgery and stents were put in later because the bypass failed . I have recently started receiving the bills from the surgery. My wife requested the bills be itemized so we could check the cost. I am what the nurses call a hard stick, because the viens in me are deep and small. I had to have an IV placed so they use a needle call an angiocath to do this. The lab tech used 4 angiocaths before she got one to work. I was charged $249.00 apiece for these angiocaths. The angiocaths cost the hospital $2.47 apiece. I know the hospital pads the bill on people that have insurance to offset the cost of the ones that have no insurance. I would not want these kind of price increases if I am an insurance company. The insurance companies offset this by raising their rates and raising deductibles. I know in the long run what will happen, the insurance company will deny paying for the angiocaths and I will be responsible for payment. Our healthcare system is broke and needs fixed, but I do not know how we can do it so everybody is happy.

I like the other gentleman consider my 1981 Honda 900 SS bike my most fun driving machine I ever owned. If I had to choose my most fun car, like the other gentleman it would be my 50 something VW. It had the cloth sunroof and the blinkers came out of the door post on the side. The poor VW was driven hard I had 4 other guys and me in it one day so we decided to go on a slide ride. We went around one corner rolled the bug over. The bug rolled up a hill, then back down landing on the driver's side. Everybody was laughing except me, then somebody yelled it may catch on fire, so we climbed out the sunroof and looked at it for awhile. When we thought about it for a second we realized the gas tank was in the front so there was not much danger of fire. We pushed the bug back onto it's wheels it would not start because the battery was under the back seat and had shorted against the frame of the seat. We rolled it down the hill and it started. Back to town we went. That VW's named became the tumblebug from then on. I then moved on to a 1967 GTO 400 4spd it was fun too. OVS I think I like the NNova wagon better!

I have read JFM'S book I enjoyed it.

Thanks for sharing these links gentlemen. The 8 parts are well worth watching.

XP Pro 32 bit here considering Win 7 after the first service pack. How is the Nova Going?

Thanks for telling us about this program OVS. I watched and recorded it for future viewing. The show was very well done, and I learned some things from it. I magine a sub that could wsail around the world 1 and half times back in those days. Thanks again for sharing with us.

First worked as a welder, then a rock Quarry worker, then a machine tool worker, then a factory repairman, then a farmhand, as a farmhand I tried to let a tractor tear my left arm off that finished that job. Went back to school at the age of 42 and became a Pharmacist. Was originally trained out of High School as an automobile mech.