During
the early years of my retirement I was involved with my church. I was in the
choir for about 10 years until I began to have some problems with my vocal
cords. My son, Michael, was the choir director for three years
I also performed several functions for my church. About 1996 I created
and maintained a web page for my church. I also created several software
programs for use by churches. I had some major health problems in 2001-2002
and also changed churches. Since I have been with the new church I have
created a web page and I have written some additional software.
In 2005 we moved to the Greenspring retirement Community in Springfield,
VA. Here I have been attending a Monday night ecumenical church service. I
support this service by keeping attendance records and publishing a weekly
letter from the pastor.
In
2003 I became the Secretary of a new organization, the 1st
Signal Brigade Association. This is the unit I served with in Vietnam.
We have a web site,
www.1stSigBdeAssn.org. We had a web site from 2003 untill 2010 at which
time I assumed the responsiblility of create a completely new Web site for
the Association. This new site went operational in March 2010 and has helped
us greatly increase our membership by nearly four fold.
We have held four reunions. The 2004 and 2006 reunions were held in Washington, the 2008 reunion
was held in Augusta and Fort Gordon, GA and the 2010 reunion was held in
Tuson and Fort Huacucha, AZ. They were all a great success.
Originally there were three founding Directors of the 1st Signal Brigade
Association and only two officers, a Secretary and a Treasurer. At a meeting
in late February 2005, I was elected to a Board of seven Directors and
elected to continue to serve as the Secretary. We now have nine active
Directors.
I
began building model airplanes at the age of eight. I continued for the next
nine years at which time I entered the Army. Three years later I again built
models for the summer of 1947. In the fall of 1947 I reentered college and
my model career was terminated for 58 years.
During the 1947 I read an article in a magazine written by Hank Cole.
Hank was a pilot aboard an aircraft carrier at the time. His article was
about a plane he designed called the Cirrus Cruiser. This was a 36 inch wing
span, rubber powered model. The plans were on a half a page and I scaled the
plans up to full size and built the plane. The model flew well and during
the summer of 1944 the plane caught a thermal and flew out-of-site. I then
built another and before the summer was over I had a repeat performance.
In the spring of 1947 I built my third Cirrus Cruiser. During the summer
I enter the plane in a contest and on its third flight it flew out-of-sight.
I won the event and an all expense paid trip to the 1st International Model
Airplane Contest in Detroit. I had to quickly build my fourth Cirrus
Cruiser.
My trip to Detroit and later to the National Model Airplane Contest in
Minneapolis was very exciting. I did not do well in flying but I got to see
the many great plans fly. In the fall of 1947 I reentered college and my
model career was terminated for 52 years.
In 1999 I again started building model airplanes. I am again in my childhood. In February, 2005, I
joined a local model club where most of the guys are over 60, my kind of
guys. I learned that Hank Cole continued to design and build model planes.
I wanted to build the Cirrus Cruiser again. I did some research on the
Internet and located Hank, then 83 years old. We corresponded and he sent me
copies of published articles of three planes he had designed together with a
copy of his drawings of a fourth plane along with some personal notes and
photographs. I was able to find a source of full size plans of Hank's
planes.
I have built two of Hank's planes plus two others. Our club has the use
of a farm in Virginia where we fly once a month in the good weather.
In
November 2005 we moved from our home in Vienna, VA to the Greenspring
Retirement Community in Springfield, VA. After 42 years in Vienna, in two
different homes, the move was quite a change. We enjoyed our new home
from day one. We had a fourth floor, two bedrooms, two bath apartment with
spacious rooms and a beautiful view.
When we moved Martha had major back problems and had lost a lot of
weight. She had to use a walker in our apartment and a wheel chair when we
went out. She had been suffering from some dementia for a few years. Even
with these problems we had a good life here.
In August 2006 she fell and broke an ankle. After four days in the
hospital she was transferred to our physical rehab facility. While there she
received therapy to assist her in walking. This went well but I noticed that
her dementia began to get worse. Over the 10 weeks she was in the rehab
facility she went downhill and finally went to heaven peacefully on November
12, 2006, just 37 days before her 80th birthday. She is buried at Arlington
Cemetery.
I have learned a lot about grief. It is not easy to deal with but life
goes on. Before Martha fell we met a special couple, Neal and Betty Jones.
Neal is a retired Baptist pastor and Betty is from south Alabama, an area
that I know well. Since Martha's passing they have become my best
friends and they helped me through the initial period of grief. Neal holds a
Monday night church service here at Greenspring. I maintain attendance
records for this service and publish a weekly letter from Neal to our
congregation.
Many times at dinner with friends Martha would say, "If I live till
December I will be 80". Did she know that her life was short? I do not
know but she never showed any fear. On her 70th birthday I surprised her
with a birthday party. We had many friends there and it was a wonderful
evening. What better way to celebrate her life than to celebrate her life
and 80th birthday. This was a very special evening. Each attendee had to
read their memories of Martha.
At Martha's funeral I got so much support from our former church that I
decided to visit one Sunday, I got such a warm welcome I thought I would
alternate between the two churches. This lasted two or three weeks and I
thought this is not good enough. I now go to the 8:30am service at the
Oakton United Methodist church in Oakton, VA, have breakfast at Bob Evans
and then attend the 11:00am service at the Church of the Good Shepherd, a
United Methodist church in Vienna, VA.
A few months after Martha passed away, I mentioned to Neal that I was
thinking of "Life after Death", that is my life after Martha's death. He
encouraged me to write it up and present it to our congregation in June. I
did and a copy is attached in the Publication section of this web site.
I then wrote a "Tribute to Martha". A copy of this article is also
attached in the Publications section of this web site.