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The items, descriptions and opinions on this site are an attempt to reduce to writing my thoughts on the places Lois and I have visited since retiring. Some of the descriptions were taken as excerpts from research so as to give the viewer some pertinent facts about whatever region or town we visited and make it more interesting.

Left are photos of me standing atop of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris France circa 1964 with the Eifel Tower in the background and then actually on the Eifel Tower railings. 

I was a "little" prettier (and much lighter) then than now:) 

I traveled to Paris from Evreux Air Force base.  The U.S. Base is no longer there but on a recent trip back to France I had an opportunity to visit the area where the base once was.  It brought back a lot of great memories.  I traveled throughout all of Europe (excluding countries behind the iron curtain), the Middle East and Africa from this location.  From Oslo to Adana (Incerlik) Turkey, to Bombay India and Kabul Afghanistan, to Rhodesia and Cape Town, to the Ivory Coast and the whole of the United Kingdom, I saw it all

Asia was a real trip.  To my 19 year old eyes it represented the most exotic, exciting place I had ever been.  And Vietnam was the most terrifying place I had ever been...

This photo (Left) was taken on the flight line circa 1964 - 1965 (that's me with my head just below the aircraft number "951') at Tan Son Nhut, Air Force Base, Saigon, Republic of Vietnam and some of the types of air-drops we participated in.  This photo is depicting a Low Attitude Parachute Extraction  System (LAPES) air-drop (see http://www103.pair.com/adsd/riggers/introduction.pdf  For more information). 

I was a combat Loadmaster flying aboard C-130 aircraft and as such, I performed many of these type drops when it was too dangerous to actually land or there was a firefight in progress. We used another airdrop technique called a ground proximity extraction system. GPES is conducted from an Altitude: 0 to 20 feet. This system is designed so that ground equipment hooks the cargo as the plane flies by and yanks it out of the cargo compartment. 

The technique resembles the hook-and-cable System employed in carrier landings, with the aircraft literally flying out from around the cargo. A single system can bring in 2500 to 12,500 pounds per pass. This was a "Hairy" and very scary airdrop technique.  We took a lot of ground fire when performing this very dangerous airdrop method. For some airdrop "bloopers" go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DopZgJaWstk .  

This is what could happen during a LAPES drop when things go very wrong or you take a hit during the drop....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4L50eMI8gY&feature=related

The C-130 was/is a very versatile aircraft.  To prove a point, here is a video of a C-130 taking off and landing on an AIRCRAFT CARRIER...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNyQvhsQE8&feature=related  

In Vietnam, I had seen and done much, and it has affected me my entire life.  On a recent trip to Asia, I had the occasion to return to Saigon, Nha Trang, and Da Nang Vietnam (but more about that later). 

Here's a "Jump" Menu that will take you to my other sites:

  JUMP MENU 61st TCS Squadron Sewart AFB Reunion Site 2nd Aerial Port Squadron

It should be noted that I was only 23 years old when I finally left Vietnam in 1966, and I felt like an "old man"...pessimistic and suspicious about everything,  and everybody. 

Memories of combat are still, to this day, very vivid and are forever etched into my mind.  It's very hard to reconcile the tragedies, and terrible things my young eyes witnessed. 

It made migration back into civilian life a very difficult endeavor.

But, on the positive side, all the hours of traveling back and forth over the long 31 months I was in, out, and around Vietnam, I was fortunate to visit Hawaii, Guam, Midway Island, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and many other exotic places.  Lessons learned were applied and used to my advantage over my entire career and definitely shaded and colored my management style and skill-sets.

This past May, we spent 40 days trekking 11 Asian countries and many different cities.   ALL those many places with the lone exception of Vietnam have dramatically changed over the last 40 years, and the changes have been nothing more than a miracle of biblical proportions.

The third photo, out of all the iconic places I've traveled, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Tower  Bridge, the Pyramids, the Blue Mosque, ect. pretty much tell you about the city and country visited but the Opera House in Sydney Harbor is a classic so I chose it for my home page. And yeah, that's me kissing a dolphin.  There are lot's of photos of all these places and much more contained in this website and there will be more as we continue our travels around the world.

That brings me to the fourth photo which is Lois, the captain and me holding a live stingray, and behind it is me cuddling with a real live tiger. As you can see we've played with stingrays, tigers, dolphins and elephants. We've also had some interesting experiences with Tasmanian Devils,  giraffes, koala bears, and even water buffaloes and much more. 

I hope you enjoy the tour.