Lawrence (Larry) Hugh Allen

My parents met in England during the war and were married on July 3rd, 1943. I was born in England in 1944 and lived there with my Mother and grandparents until 1946. I don't remember anything about living in England. In July 1946 the Canadian government transported women from England who had married Canadian soliders during the war, to the towns where their husbands lived in Canada. My Mother, me and my sister Carolyn were sent by ship from England along with 900 other women and their children. I was two and Carolyn was only about 3 months old. No such things as disposable diapers in those days so you can imagine what kind of trip that was for these women. 10 days on a ship across the North Atlantic ocean. Once we arrived in Canada all were put on a train and sent out across Canada. Each woman and her children, were dropped off in the town where their husbands lived. For us that was Regina, Saskatchewan.

My earliest childhood memories are of living in Regina Saskatchewan . When we arrived in Regina we lived in converted Army barracks that had been set up to house Army families. It was not much more than a kitchen, living area and a bedroom. Water was from a hand pump in the kitchen and the bathroom was an outhouse. We had a telephone that was a line shared by several other families - a party line. Each family had a particular ring but it was easy to pick up the phone and listen to someone else's call.

One of my earliest memories is being in a crib near a wall. In those days, people used matches to light fires in the stove. Oddly enough, the container that held the matches was on the wall, just above my bed. Somehow I managed to get one of the matches lit and start the room on fire. As I was told, my father ran out of their bedroom naked to extinguish the fire. There was little harm done other than to my backside once my Dad had put out the fire.

At that time milk and bread were delivered to the place where we lived by horse drawn wagons. Once the driver from the bread wagon arrived, he would place a heavy steel plate down with a rope attached to the horse to keep him from moving. One day I decided to climb up on the seat of the wagon and in the process, fell out of the wagon and spooked the horse. The horse moved forward a bit while my leg was under the wheel of the wagon, running over me. Fortunately I wasn't seriously hurt but it's a memory I still have.

I remember starting kindergarten and having to walk about 4 or 5 blocks to school. That was pretty common in those days as there were no school buses. My Father's job in the Army was to go around to different bases and do what they called "inspections." Because of this he was seldom home except on weekends. My Mother and I spent a lot of time doing puzzles, playing cards and painting paint by number kits. I remember my Mother working at a small fish and chip restaurant and one of the other women in the barracks taking care of a bunch of the kids while the mothers worked. We got to go to the restaurant a couple of times, which was a very rare event for us as going out to eat was almost unheard of. One of the stories my Father told me was about not having enough money to buy food. He usually bought things at a small grocery store and said one day when he went, the owner allowed him to buy enough food for the night on credit. I remember my father telling me this story and realizing how difficult their life was in those days. There was no such thing as welfare of food stamps so if you didn't have the money, you had to find a way to make it on your own. Dad worked at a garage on weekends repairing tires and he said he got 50 cents an hour for the work.

One of my earliest memories of my father was when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My Mom was out somewhere and he decided we needed to have a beer and a cigarette together. I remember sitting down in a chair with a beer on the table and taking puffs off his cigarette.

My Dad had been a boxer in the Army and thought I need to learn, so he bought me some boxing gloves and spent quite a bit of time showing me how to box. One time I hit him in the mouth and broke one of his teeth. When I was about 5 me and a friend had an argument and my dad and his made us put on boxing gloves and fight it out. It was not a fun experience. I remember both of us ending up sitting on the running board of an old car crying.

In the summer of 1956 our family moved from Regina Saskatchewan to Fort Nelson, a small outpost on the Alaska Highway in northern British Columbia. We lived in an Canadian Army garrison of about 200 people. The job of the soldiers stationed there was to maintain a stretch of the Alaska Highway. It was located at mile 295 on the highway. The garrison was 5 miles from town and if you walked out our front door you were only a few hundred feet from absolute wilderness that few people had ever been in. There were lots of bears, moose and wildlife of all kinds in the local area. I was 12 years old at the time and me and another boy the same age, Buster Brown were the only boys of that age in the camp.

Living in Fort Nelson was a dream life for a young boy. Hunting and fishing we close by and much of my time was spent outdoors. By the time I was 14 I had my own rifle, a single shot .22 cal and on a regular basis would walk out the door, cross the street and walk out on what was called a "fire break". As area cleared by bulldozers to stop forest fires. On a regular basis I could go out and hunt partridge and basically shoot anything that moved.

Around 15 both my friend Buster and I had our own rifles and we began carrying them everywhere we went. We were pretty careless and it wsn't uncommon for us to shoot at anything, including the light on the top of the water tower. We were warned that if we did it again, they would make us go up and change the light. We didn't do that again. One of the really dumb things we did was when we went to the landfill to shoot rats, we would find other things to shoot at. I can remember Buster holding up a sign of some kind and me shooting at it. Thankfully we were both very good shots.

One day me, Buster and some other friends were building a fort in the woods. Several of us had .22 rifles. One of the guys had a problem getting his gun to work and in the process ending up firing his rifle accicently and shot me in the knee. The bullet went through the top part of my knee. I spent about a week in the hospital with no lasting damage. Needless to say, my Mother was not a happy camper about this and that was the last I saw of my rifle.

One of my friends at school was Grant Callison. His father owned ranch on the Alaska Highway and conducted guided hunting trips for people wanting to hunt big game like bears and moose. During the summer of 1961 when I was just 15, I worked on his ranch and helped bale and load hay, round up horses and cattle and participated in such fun things as neutering horses. One of the highlights was taking about 50 horses up to their summer pasture. This including crossing a pretty fast glacial river on horseback. It was a pretty scary and exciting experience and of course in those days, there were no such things as life jackets. I was a magical summer where I lived the life of a cowboy and something I'll never forget. My friend Grant was killed in a truck accident two years later.

In the summer of 1960 my father was transferred to Vancouver BC. We rented a house in North Vancouver and I started high school there. We only lived there for a few months then we moved to an area called Jericho Beach in Vancouver. We finally had a nice home and I attended Lord Byng High School. The school had lots of activities going on including dances and other events to socialize in. Had lots of friends, including girlfriends. It was a great time. I also played football and was a wide received with the number 88. The only part I remember was getting my butt kicked when I got tackled. But it was fun.

When we first arrived in North Vancouver I joined the Canadian Army Reserves in a unit called the 6th Field Squadron. It was an engineering unit responsible for building bridges and doing demolition work. One of the great things we did was learn to use explosives. We spent many weekends learning how to using dynamite and detonation cord to blow things up. It was a lot of fun because we would take off for the weekend and basically have one big party in addition to traing. Even at only 16 and 17 years old, we were allowed to drink beer on this weekends so much of the time was spend just having a great time. If my mother knew some of the things we did, she would have pulled me out of there in a flash. At the end of my second year when I had just turned 18 I was awarded the "Solider of the Year" award along with one of my friends. It was a fantastic part of my life.

My High School in Vancouver was called Lord Byng High School. I went there for almost two years. The school had lots of activities like dances and parties so it was a pretty good place to go to school I played football on the school team as a tight end number 88. I enjoyed the rough and tumble of football and often think back to it whenever I watch football on TV. I had quite a few friends from our neighborhood and from school. We all had a graduation party at a friends house and my dad was happy to buy the beer and alcohol for us that we needed. None of us drove anywhere so there was no concern about drinking and driving. It was definitely a different time. I remember walking home from the party and some guy on a corner got in a fight with me. I don't remember why. We had it out for a few minutes and the only other thing I remember is going home where my mother gave me an ice pack to heal my wounds. There is still a picture of me and a friend on the couch, drunk but alive and laughing about it.

Although I lived in Canada I became interested in joining the US Army after one of my friends from the Canadian Army Reserve joined the US Army. Joining meant I had to obtain a US Visa and I went through that process in a matter of a couple of months. Once I had been accepted in the US Army I sort of gave up on school and didn't much care about my grades. As a result, although I completed high school I did not get a hight school diploma. I regret not having done that and within the next year actually completed my studies and got a high school diploma tthrough the GED program that was offered by the US Military in Germany. I officially joined the US Army on June 30, 1962 in Seattle, Washington. I was immediately shipped to Fort Ord, California to start basic training. I remember the very first day when they shaved our heads and gave us uniforms. There was little mercy shown and all of us were exhausted by the time the day was over. Unfortunately for me, with my name starting with an "A" I was first on the list to be sent to the kitchen the next morning for what what was politely known as KP "kitchen police". This entailed getting up about 3 AM and going to the kitchen to help out the cooks. Peeling potatoes, washing dishes and doing anything they didn't want or feel like doing. After half way through the morning I was seriously questioning my decision to join the Army. But I survived.

Basic training was fairly easy for me after having been in the Candaian Army Reserves for the previous two year. I was immediately made one of the people in charge, which basically meant, I got crap anytime did something wrong. We spent two months learning how to march, Army history and customs, shooting weapons, throwing grenades and generally learning how the Army worked. One of our events was called "E&E" - escape and evasion. We were loaded on trucks about 4 in the afternoon and sent to a prisoner of war camp. As soon as we were unloaded there were "guards" there to make us do physically punishing things like duck walking and pushups. When it got dark we were trucked to a location about 5 miles away, split up in groups of 3 and told to find out way back to the front lines. This whole time the "guards" were out trying to find us. Few of us actually made it back without being captured. After we got back in the camp we were shown what it would be like if we were captured and interrogated. One of our group was put in a glass walled room so we could see, then interrogators worked on this poor guy for about and hour tyring to get him to say anthing but his name and service number. They even hooked him up to some low voltage electric wires. This poor guy screamed his lungs out, even though the voltage was very low. But in that circumstance his mind was screaming "high voltage" when he was only get bearable jolts. We all felt bad for him and he did talk. It was a very good learning experience. One of our other fun experiences was to have to go through an obstacle course, that included crawling on your back, under barbed wire about 6 inches above your head, with live bullets being shot about 3 fee over our head. We were highly encouraged not to stand up until we got to the other end of the course. What fun that was. When we graduated in September I was given an award as one of only about 10,000 trainees who achieved 100% on the final tests. I still have the letter I was given by the commandant. In September I started what was know as Advanced Training and trained to be part of a mortar team. I finished that course in about November and from there was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas for my first assignment.

My first assignment in the Army was with 26th Infantry Battalion of the First Infantry Divsion at Fort Riley, Kansas. I arrived in the middle of winter and it was very cold. Every few nights we were assigned to guard duty to watch over vehicles and equipment. It involved walking around in the cold and wind for about two hours before being relieved. This was one of the less "fun" aspect of the military. The only was to get out guardy duty was to pass an inspection and be relieved from duty for that night. The would need 10 people and have 12 show up. Two were relived for having their uniforms done properly and knowing all the guard commands that we had to remember. I was fortunate and was able to get relieved of guard duty on several occasions.

I retired from the military on June 30th, 1982. I had already begun working as a contractor doing small construction jobs around Olympia, WA. We decided to move to Arizona with the idea that there would be more sunshine and work than in Washington. We were definitely right about the sunshine and within 2 months of extreme heat, we decided to move back to Washington. We moved to Blaine, Washington because it was close to Canada and my family. I started doing construction work again in that area. Sadly, especially for my children, we decided to divorce and went our separate ways in 1983.

While doing construction work in the Blaine area, I got most of my supplies from a lumber company called Blaine Lumber. One of the girls working the counter was my current wife, Marjean. We always had fun bantering with each other as I was in and out of the store on a pretty regular basis. One day, just before my 40th birthday, I asked her out to dinner. As they say, the rest is history. Marjean and I left Blaine and moved to Olympia, Washington to start our new life together. We were married in 1985 in Minden, Nevada and have been together ever since.

Once we moved to Olympia, Marjean and I settled on a new life. We had Lesley from Marjean's previous marriage and our son Chris was born there in 1989. I started up a new construction business right away building decks, doing remodels and doing concrete work. While doing concrete work I was approached by a sales rep for a playground company, wanting to know if I wanted to do some work for them. I contracted with them to install playgrounds at fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King and Dairy Queen. Most of the work involved building playgrounds at these restaurants and I ended up working with two guys who were developing playground safety surfaces. I became part of the business. They did the sales, and I did the construction. Eventually, while working at a McDonald's I met one of their reps who asked if I'd be interested in doing remodel work for McDonald's. This turned out to be a great opportunity and over the next couple of years I ended up doing a significant amount of work for McDonald's and Burger King tearing out their interiors and rebuilding them with new decor. It was a great business but put me on the road for a substantial number of days each week, often to other states like California, Oregon and even Iowa. After 3 years of this I had enough travel and decided to go into home building in Olympia. Over the course of the next 15 years or so I designed and built custom homes in the Olympia and Shelton area in Washington. I ended up designing and building 134 homes, did dozens of remodel projects and built custom buildings for several small businesses. I had a business partner named Rick Ryan who is still a good friend to this day. I bought Rick out in about 2005. During this time I began investing in real estate in Florida with my daughter Jessica. It was a great business for a couple of years, but during the 2008 real estate crash we lost virtaully everything we had invested as property prices crashed and sales disappeared. It was a very disappointing time. I was still doing construction during this time but after the real estate crash of 2008, that business pretty well dried up. During all this time Marjean operated a daycare in one area of our house that we had separated off for that purpose. In about 2005 I had built a house across the street from where we lived and Marjean turned it into her daycare called TLC Daycare. She cared for anywhere from 15 to 20 children each day. She loved it and she was very good at it.

1944-1946 - Born and lived in Farnborough, England 1946-1956 - Regina, Saskatchewan 1956-1960 - Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada 1960-1962 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 1962-1962 - Fort Ord, California 1963 Fort Riley, Kansas 1963 Wildflecken, Germany - 3 month deployment 1963 Berlin, Germany - 3 month deployment 1964- 1965 Auschaffenburg, Germany 1965-1966 - Fort Knox, Kentucky 1966 Fort Lewis, Washington 1966 Panama - For jungle training prior to going to Vietnam 1966-1967 - Vietnam 1967-1969 - Fort Lewis, Washington 1969 Fort Benning, Georgia - Officer Candidate School 1969-1971 - Bamberg, Germany 1971 Fort Huachuca, Arizona for Military Intelligence Training 1971-1972 - Seoul, Korea 1973-1974 - Olympia, Washingotn - BA degree St Martin's College 1974-1975 - Fort Lewis, Washington 1975 Fort Gordon, Georgia - Signal Officer Advanced School 1975-1976 - Fort Lewis, Washington 1976-1977 - Fort Hood, Texas 1978-1980 - Fort Lewis, Washington 1980-1981 - Wonju, Korea 1981-1983 - Olympia, Washington 1983 Tucson, Arizona 1983-1984 Blaine, WA 1984 Eugene, Oregon 1984- 2010 - Olympia, Washington 2010-2015 - Round Rock, Texas 2015 - Present - San Antonio, Texas

Because of the work my father did, he was gone most of the time. So much of our family life, especially in the early years was my mother, me and my sisters. Dad was home on the weekends most of the time and he was always involved in our lives. I spent a lot of time with my father when he was home and we did a lot of fishing, hunting and camping. When my father was busy during the week my mother and I did things like “paint by numbers” and playing card games like Canasta and cribbage. I had three sisters, two of whom were much younger than me, so we never spent much time doing things together. My sister Carolyn who was two years younger than me, to put it mildly, we never got along But she had lots of girlfriends so that made up for it. Our family life during the years in Minnesota was pretty darned good. We all had lots of friends and there was always some kind of social activity going on. This was in the late 1950's and where we lived had no TV and computers and cell phones hadn't been invented. We kids had to provide our own entertainment. My sister Linda got pretty sick from the flu when she was about 5 years old. She ended up in the hospital and I think everyone thought she would die from it. As it turned out she survived OK but it was a very rough time for the family. Our family almost always had a Sunday dinner and most Sundays that included single guys that worked with my father. Dad was a very personable guy and had plenty of friends. His grave marker says “Friend to all”. He was just a good guy. Over the years we created a lot of traditions including big meals on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's day. These meals included plenty of drinking and smoking. Everyone in my family, including me, participated and it was always fun. After all us kids moved out our family still got together on a regular basis. We continued the tradition of eating and drinking lots, but most of us gave up smoking. Our family life was great and when Dad and Mom passed away it left a pretty big hole in all our lives. Once I had my own family we continued these traditions - except for drinking and smoking. We always had big celebrations at Christmas and Thanksgiving. We loved getting the kids into the outdoors and exploring. We traveled a lot on our vacations and in 1992 took a 10,000 mile trip around the country lasting almost 3 months. We traveled to Florida, out to the west coast and back home. One of our favorite pastimes was fishing and boating. We spent as much time as we could on boats. We often spent weekends at a lake or the ocean. We spend a lot of time traveling and visiting family wherever they live. Most of our family is distributed around the country so we have lots of places to go in order to see everyone. Once the children grew up and moved out, Marjean and I continued having everyone over for holiday meals - until the kids started having their own and inviting us. We always have huge meals at Christmas and Thanksgiving and our specialty is getting the turkey ready no matter where we have dinner. We have enjoyed having the grandkids over on a regular basis just to spend the night once in a while, or if Mom and Dad need a break. Grandma always spoils them with good food and treats and they always like having coffee with Grandpa in the morning, because they don't get coffee at home.

Saw my first TV in about 1954. Our family never had a TV until 1960. Most of our entertainment came from listening to the radio and going to movies. Kissed my first girl at about 11 years old playing “spin the bottle”. I had my first girlfriend at about 14 years old. We went to school together and went to several dances at school. Started smoking when I was about 14. In those days most people smoked so it wasn’t unusual to see a bunch of kids standing around smoking. My parents didn’t want me to smoke though. When we went on trips to remote areas of Michigan my friend and I, both about 14, carried .22 rifles almost every day. We shot at targets and hunted for birds and squirrels. It was a great way to spend some of my teenage years. One day one of my other friends accidentally shot me in the knee. It was nothing serious but it put an end to our gun toting days Fortunately it was just a flesh wound with no serious long term effects. I attended a one room schoolhouse for a while in Minnesota. The teacher had us boys bring guns to school so we could go out behind the school and shoot something so that he could teach us taxidermy. I shot and stuffed a squirrel for the project. Not sure how that would work today. In the summer of 1956 I spent two months working on a ranch in Minnesota. My friend’s dad had a deer hunting service and we worked with about 50 horses that were used to take out hunters and their supplies. The best two months of my childhood riding a horse and working on the ranch. I owned my first car when I was 19, a 1957 Chevrolet. I loved driving the car and the girlfriends I had enjoyed going to the beach and on picnics in it. It died after about 6 months and I bought a 1962 Chevy Super Sport. What a great car with lots of power. I watched the first moon landing live in 1969 with my father. It was an exciting day for everyone and most of the stories on TV were animations of the event except the view from the moon. It was a very exciting day for the country and the world. I went to visit the White House and meet President Johnson when he awarded the Medal of Honor to Captain Pless in 1968. I bought my first computer in 1984. It was a Tandy computer from Radio Shack. It had a whopping 64k of memory and worked off floppy disc drives and had no internal storage. Owned my first cell phone in about 1985 when they first came out. It was about the size of a brick and you could only get service in and around large towns. I worked on the Presidential campaign to elect Robert Dole in 1996. On September 11th, 2001 we were shocked and mesmerized by the TV images from New York when terrorists crashed planes into the Twin Towers in New York. In Early 2020 we experienced the COVID 19 epidemic. It was a very scary time for everyone because no one really knew what the long term effects would be on mankind. The effects of COVID lasted for almost 2 years before things returned to normal. We got vaccinated and were fortunate to not have gotten sick.

In the 1920s, my grandfather, John Samuel Allen, lived in Regina, Saskatchewan. He was a carpenter by trade. Around 1925, he bought a lot in the city and built his own home. This included digging out the basement by hand and constructing the house with the help of his two sons—my father, Hugh, and his other son, John. When the Great Depression hit Canada in 1930, he, like most other men, lost his job and struggled to survive. To make ends meet, he rented out the upstairs portion of their home to another family, while he and his family moved into the basement. Things worsened over the next couple of years, and when the Canadian government offered people the chance to homestead land, my grandfather saw it as an opportunity to escape their desperate situation. In 1932, at the age of about 61, he rode a bicycle over 100 miles to the small town of Arcola, Saskatchewan, to inspect the land being offered. The land was a 160-acre plot about eight miles north of town. He decided to take the opportunity. So, in late September 1932, he loaded his wife, his daughter, and his two sons onto a wagon and made the journey to their new home in the Moose Mountains of Saskatchewan. The wagon was pulled by an ox, and trailing behind was a horse, all provided by the government in exchange for his commitment to homestead the property and work the land. When they arrived at the property in late September, they dug a hole in the ground and placed the wagon on top of it. This served as their home for the first winter—in a place known for heavy snow and temperatures often dropping below -20°F. The following summer, they built a cabin using timber from the land, and by the next winter, they had a proper shelter. Over the next six years, they worked the land and survived by hunting and fishing in the area. One of the ways they earned money in the winter was by cutting down trees into manageable lengths and hauling them eight miles into town on a horse-drawn sled. My father and uncle worked virtually every day doing this. Once a month, on their trips into town, they received supplies such as flour, sugar, and salt from a government train that provided each homesteading family with monthly rations. Other than this minimal government support, they were expected to survive on their own—and they did. My father often quoted my grandfather as saying, when things got tough: "Root, hog, or die." The meaning was clear—when times are hard, you either find a way to survive or perish. I like to remember that my grandfather took on this challenge in his 60s—at a time when most people didn’t even live to be 60. He was a tough SOB, and I’m proud to remember that it was my grandfather who did these things. In 1952, my father and I took a camping trip to Arcola to visit the homestead. We hunted birds and caught fish to sustain ourselves throughout the trip. It’s an experience I’ve never forgotten. In January 2000, my wife, my son Christopher, and I traveled to Arcola to visit the site again. We still found remnants—old pieces of a stove and other metal objects scattered on the land. It was a windy and bitterly cold day, reinforcing just how difficult life must have been for them in those days—when an adult’s coat was the blanket a child had at night. Before we left, we placed a plaque on the property to commemorate and honor the hardship and resilience it took to build a life from almost nothing. We secured the plaque to a large rock on the property, and here is what it said: **This plaque has been placed to remember John Samuel Allen, his wife Caroline, his sons Jack and Hugh, and his daughter Vera. On October 2, 1932, during the Great Depression, Sam, at age 61, and his family arrived at this site in a covered wagon to homestead this ¼ section of land. Despite the hardships imposed by the land and the Depression, Sam and his family forged a life from this ground for over eight years. John Samuel Allen, his wife, and children are proudly remembered for their perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity. Placed at this site in the year 2000 with pride and in loving memory by their descendants.**

I went to Vietnam in December 1966, and I experienced two significant events during my time there. The first occurred on March 6, 1967. At that time, the U.S. Army was actively trying to drive the Viet Cong out of the country. Many times, we were sent out on what were called "search and destroy" missions. We would assemble a sizable force and be helicoptered into an area to seek out and eliminate enemy units. On this particular day, we had been airlifted into an area that consisted mostly of rice paddies and canals. I was a squad leader with nine men under my command, and we made our way through these areas, knee-deep in water and mud. We fanned out into a line and were moving through a fairly open area when, all of a sudden, one of my guys said, "Hey Sarge, I think I just tripped a wire." The Viet Cong were known for setting up land mines connected to trip wires. I immediately told everyone to stop and not move. I walked out in front of the squad to approach from the other side, trying to spot the wire. I had just started back toward the line when a massive explosion went off. The blast threw me across the rice paddy, and I landed in one of the canals, submerged in about three feet of water. We later determined that the wire was probably part of a notification system designed to alert the enemy that we were in the area. Once alerted, they manually detonated an explosive— which they did. My squad pulled me out of the water, and we quickly realized that I had been hit in the back of the knee by several metal fragments. Fortunately, I was the only one injured, and my wounds were not serious. A medical evacuation helicopter was called in, and I was transported back to the hospital at our camp, where they removed the fragments and stitched up my knee. There was no permanent damage, but I had to hobble around for a couple of months, which meant I couldn’t return to a combat unit. I was reassigned to a helicopter base farther north and placed in a security unit that didn’t have to conduct missions outside the base. At the time, I thought this worked out pretty well for me—without realizing what would happen a few months later.

The second time I was wounded in Vietnam was on August 19, 1967. It startd out as a normal day and I was scheduled to fly up north to take care of some administrative stuff. I don't remember specifically what I had to do. There were a few other soldiers flying up that day, one of them to do his processing for retirement. He was one the guys who would die on the beach that day. I didn't know any of them. We all carried weapons every day and mine was an M-16 rifle. Not wanting to lug that around all day I swapped weapons with a friend. He had a .38 caliber revolver, similar to the pistols that the police carried in those days. They were only effective if you were within about 5 feet of someone so they were almost more of a decoration than a weapon. They were particularly effective if you threw them at someone and hit them in the head. This was a decision I would later regret. Later that morning I left on a CH-47 (Chinook) helicopter and flew up to Da Nang and took care of whatever it was I went up there for. That afternoon we took the same helicopter back to our base near Qhi Nhon. We had several extra passengers then as a USO touring group was flying back with us. They were a bunch of young entertainers including several women. As we were flying down the coast, about a mile offshore from the beach, all of a sudden then helicopter lurched violently to one side. Not knowing what the problem was the pilot heaed for the beach to land and check out what had happened. Once we landed on the beach, me and two of the other guys onboard, plus the crew chief, got out to stand guard as we knew we were in enemy territory. A couple of the women from the USO tour wanted to get out but I told them to stay in the helicopter for their safety. The other two guys kind of stood guard up the beach while me, the crew chief walked up to the front of the aircraft to check it out and immediately saw that a bullet had done through the plexiglass windshield and had apparaently knocked the controls out of the pilot's hands, causing the aircraft to rock to one side. Just as we decided it was safe to go back onboard there was an explosion off to side of the aircraft and all four of us raced to the back to the aircraft where the loading dock was to get back on board. Unfortunately for us when the explosion went off the pilot immediately pulled the controls back to lift the aircraft off the beach. By the time I got back to the loading dock he was already about 6' off the ground and I couldn't grab ahold of anything to get back on board. All four of us were suddenly on the beach with what was estimated to be between 50 and 100 enemy soldiers, shooting at us and throwing hand grenades. I remember shouting as we watched the helicopter leave "that son of a bitch left us." The beach we were on was a typical beach where there is an area of sand that extends from the water inland and runs into a small wall of sand at the high water mark. Beyond that was a little more beach and then jungle. Three of us immediately headed for this small wall of sand to use as a protective barrier. The crew chief we saw was laying on the beach not moving and we assumed he had been shot. I believe he actually might have been seriously hurt when the aircraft took off because he was still plugged into the communications system with a wire from the aircraft to his helmet. Now it was the three of us against this sizable enemy force. The two other guys both had M-16 rifles, but only one magazine of ammo each. I only had my trusty .38 caliber pistol with 5 bullets in it. For the next 10 minutes or so, as I remember the time, we would pop up and shoot at them and they would shoot at us and throw hand grenades at us. On more than one occaision when the grenades landed close enough, we picked them up and threw them back. It was definitely not a fair fight and we were running out of ammo and time. When one of the grenades landed fairly close I jumped up and tried to jump away from it. As I was flying through the air I was shot in the arm. I distinctly remember landing and I couldn't see my arm as the bone had been broken and it had whipped around behind me. I remember yelling something the effect of "those bastards shot my arm off." As it turned out I realized what happened and grabbed my arm and pulled it around in from of me. By this time I had been shot in the arm, had a grenade go off close enough that it blew my left eardrum out, and had shrapnel hit me on the chin and in my back. Both of the guys with me had received similar woulds. I remember that while this was going on I thought I should ask God for help. But I realized that I had not been particulary religious and thought it would be a little hypocritical of me to ask for help, so I decided not to ask. One of the prouder moments of my life. By now we were pretty well out of ammo and had nothing else to do but wait out the inevitable. We knew we were dead. As we waited for the enemy to close in, one of the guys pulled out a knife about the size of a "bowie" knife. I said to him, "you're crazy man." The three of us were lying on the beach and I was in the middle of the two others. About this time I saw one of the enemy step over the little sand wall, point his AK 47 at us and start shooting. Both of the guys on each side of me were hit multiple times, but miraculously, I was not hit by any of the bullets. I saw the enemy soldier and a couple of others come down the beach towards us. The only thing I could think to do was to play dead, and that's what I did. The enemy soldiers came over to us and starting taking our weapons and gear. I had rolled over onto my side and was covered in blood so I'm pretty sure I looked dead. One of them got to me and turned me onto my back. He took off my equipment belt and went through my pockets and took my lighter. I could see this happening with my eyes almost closed, but seeing enough to know what was going on. All I could do was control my breathing and hope they didn't realize I was still alive. Just as this was happening I heard several explosions and the sounds of a helicopter. This caused the enemy soldiers to pack up and run away from the beach. I realized then that I had survived what had been certain death. I rolled over and looked towards the jungle and could see the enemy pulling back into the treeline. I saw what was a Huey gunship making what was called a "gun run" down the beach, firing rockets and machine guns into the enemy. The gunship pulled up and went out over the ocean getting ready to come back and make another run so I rolled onto my back and waved my good arm at them. They later said that they assumed everyone on the beach was dead, but when they saw me wave they realized that there were survivors on the beach. They made another short gun run and then turned around and landed on the raised portion of the beach between me and the enemy. As soon as they landed I got up and started moving towards the helicopter One of the crew chiefs jumped out and asked me if needed help. I said no but the other guys did. I got in the helipcopter and climbed up on the seat. The door gunner asked me if I could handle a machine gun and I said yes. He sat his M-60 machine gun on my lap and left to go help the crew chief bring the other guys on board. By this time the co-pilot had also gotten out to help carry the other two guys on to the aircraft. One was a fairly big guy and it took all three of them to carry him on. While they were getting the other guys on board the pilot attended the aircraft controls and I was firing the machine gun trying to keep the enemy away from the aircraft. It only took a couple of minutes for them to get the other guys on board and they were both still alive. They didn't bring the crew chief on board because they determined he was already dead. Once everyone was on board the pilot immediately took off heading out over the ocean. I remember us literally hitting the water a few times as he tried to gain altitiude. The crew chief and gunner were throwing things like ammo and equipment out the door to try and make the aircraft lighter as it was severely overloaded with three extra bodies on board. The pilot finally managed to get control of the aircraft and we headed back to Da Nang where the Marines had a field hospital As we were flying back I remember the crew chief saying to me "don't you pass out on me". I didn't. I did see that both the other guys had multiple bullet wounds. They both died after we arrived back at the hospital. One of them, the bigger guy who was between me and the enemy with the AK-47, had 17 bullet wounds. Had he not been lying where he was, many of those would have been mine. As we landed at the hospital landing pad I remember seeing and hearing alarms going off in the helicopter. As it turns out it had been hit multiple times during the event and probably would have been unflyable much longer. Once on the ground medics came out with stretchers and carried us into the hospital. I remember it was raining and suddenly realized how wonderful it was to feel rain on my face. I was alive. Of the four of us who exited the aircraft that day, I was the only one to survive. The pilot of the rescue helicopter was Captain Stephen Pless of the Marine Corps. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. The co-pilot, crew chief and door gunner were all awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the scond highest award for bravery in the Military.

Fishing has always been one of my favorites activities. It started when I was young up in Northern Canada. We fished in lakes that few people had ever seen before because they were in the wilderness areas around Fort Nelson. I still have a picture of my friend Buster and me with about 20 fish strung on a stick after a day of fishing. When we lived in Olympia, Washingotn, fishing was a big part of our life. We took our boats to many different places over the years including Port Angeles, WA, Seiku, WA, Westport, WA and to Vancouver Island in Canada. Caught lots of big salmon and halibut over the years. Puget Sound was our playground.

I've always been a big boat enthusiest. I got my first boat in Tacoma, Washington in about 1968. It was an old wooden cruiser about 18' long. I spent a lot of time fixing it and fishing it. Over the years probably had another 10 or so boats. The biggest boat we had in Olympia was a 36" Fairliner Cabine Cruiser. We also had a 28" Carver cabin cruiser and several alumumim and fiberglass fishing boats. There was always a boat in the yard from the mid 1980's until we left Olympia in 2010. When we got to Texas I bought a small bass boat but was pretty dispappointed with the fishing in Texas and ended up selling it. Today I am "boatless.

In the last few years as fishing has gone from our life, golf has replaced it. We have a local golf course called "Olympia Hills" that is only a 20 minute drive form the house. Marjean and I go out golfing almost every day. I golf and she looks for golf balls. She tried golf couple of times and decided it wasn't for her. I run the Seniors golf league at our golf course and we've made a lot of good friends over the last 10 years. My golf game still stinks, but we have a lot of fun and get plenty of exercise almost every day.

I've always enjoyed music, but never considered my self a musician. For many years I played the guitar, but never very good. Marjean and I love listening to music, Our favorite artist is Lionel Richie but we both love country music and soft rock.

Book - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book explains in detail how important it is to be our own person and how bureaucracies can get out of hand. Poem - The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole. A poem that shows how important it is to care how you leave the world for those who come after you. Expression - Root, hog or die by my Grandfather. It basically means fend for yourself. Quotes: Never live your life for the sake of another man, nor expect another man to live his life for you.” from the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it makes being miserable a lot easier.” John Wayne “Only beaten men walk beaten paths.” Ted Turner. Song - Remember When by Alan Jackson. Great lyrics and wonderful music. Singer - Lionel Richie. Great love songs. Music - Country and Western & Soft Rock. Piano player - Jim Brickman, beautiful music and lyrics. Sports - Boating, fishing, racquetball and golf. Car - My wife’s 1992 Pontiac Firebird with the Corvette Engine. It was fast and fun. Only got one ticket. Boat - My 21’ aluminum sports fishing boat with a 225 HP outboard. Caught a lot of fish from this boat and enjoyed talking it out on big lakes and the ocean. Food - Homemade by my wife. One of our favorite things to do is to have a nice home cooked meal and eat it at our table with candles and good music and look out over our peaceful backyard. Drinks - Craft beer and domestic wine. Movie - Zulu, A story of 130 British soldiers defending against 5,000 zulu warriors in 1896. Games - Scrabble, Bridge, Pinochle and Cribbage Sports and activities I’ve played - High school football and basketball. Hockey, curling, soccer, tennis, racquetball, softball, dirt biking, archery, shooting and golf. Pastime - Working on the computer and watching tennis and golf on TV. To this day I still spend a lot of time on the computer working on our small business venture. Activities - Socializing with friends, fishing, golf and traveling abroad. Subject in school - Science and physics. I’ve always enjoyed the wonders of science and how physics plays a part in every aspect of life. It’s simply fascinating. Subject in college - Accounting. I’ve always enjoyed working with numbers. European Country - France. The French have perfected the art of eating. They are not big on quantity but make up for it in quality. Architecture - I think France has the most beautiful buildings in the world. The churches and museums in France are a must see for anyone who enjoys history and architecture. Asian country - Korea where I taught English to a group of young professionals. The Korean people consider themselves one large family and treat their guests like family. One of the best years of my life because of what I learned about another country and how they value their society. Just great people. Place to vacation - Mexico. We love going to all-inclusive resorts when the drinks and food are plentiful and the service is fantastic. It’s always very relaxing. Favorite vacation venue - Cruise ships. We get to go to many places we might not otherwise see and everything is taken care of. It’s a very anxiety free vacation. Just show up and go.

Wish I had learned to fly an airplane and play the piano. Wish I had more experience being a Dad before I had children. Wish I hadn’t been married the first time when I was so young. I had wonderful parents who made being a family important. Children appreciate far more the things you do with them, than what you do for them. I was fortunate to meet and marry my wife Marjean. We became best friends and have both enjoyed a full and rich life together. We are truly a 'happily married' couple. Being in love with someone is wonderful, having them as your best friend is even better. Having children has added a whole new dimension to life. Being able to have them around to visit and travel with has been a wonderful part of life. Having grandchildren has only added to our life experience. Wish I had understood and accepted religion more than I did. I sometimes envy those of faith. I feel very fortunate to have lived in the United States. Despite some of the problems our country has, it’s still the best country on earth. I wish mankind would find a better way to settle their differences than war. War exacts a horrible price on the men who have to fight it and in many ways is even more painful for the women and children who are left behind. One of the most important lessons in life. Always be humble and kind. If I had anything I’d like to pass on, it would be this: Treat other people the way you would like to be treated. The Golden Rule really is important. The world would be a far better place if we all did this. Take responsibility for yourself and your actions and be intellectually honest with yourself and others. Lying to yourself never made any sense to me.