Remembering Vietnam...the BUFE

One curio I saw everywhere I went in Vietnam in 1970 were these gaudily colored elephants about knee high. They were flat and just the white of the plaster of Paris or whatever cheap material they were made of on the top. Sometimes they were colored quite well, sometimes pretty sloppy. But, they were THE thing everyone over there seemed to have, maybe like a cuckoo clock if you were in Germany. But these things were too cheap and to gaudily colored to be close to the quality of a German cuckoo clock. One day, thought, I just happened to see one in an office where some GI was pounding away on a typewriter (something few people today ever remember seeing), and I asked him: "What do you call that?" or something like that.
He looked around, saw where I was pointing and replied, "Tha'ts a BUFE."
"A what?"
And then he spoke the letters of this unique acronym, something very common in the army: "It's a Big Ugly Fnnn Elephant."

"The Animal House" or Building 714 at Howard AB, Panama

All the flap over the Secret Service agents and military personnel being caught with prostitutes in Columbia makes me think of Building 714, Panama AB, Panama or "The Animal House," as it was called.
Some veterans may remember Volant Oak, I think was the name of it. It was a mission the US Air Force Reserve and US Air National Guard units shared for several years. Each unit would be there about a month, and then switch out with another one.
Transient enlisted stayed in one of those buildings. It seems to me it was 714 or the Animal House, but it could have been 715.
I learned it about in two trips to Panama with my Air Force Reserve unit then based at Rickenbacker ANGB, Ohio. My unit went down there several times. I went twice.
Now this all happened because the base itself was open, meaning civilian buses and autos ran on a highway that went through it. Fences and military policemen secured only the air strip.
I became aware of where the building got its name the first night there. I was in the shower when someone started washing my back. It was this very pretty young woman. She explained she'd wash the rest of me for a fee. I turned her down.
That was the start, but this young woman and probably a dozen others that night and every night I stayed in the building walked up and down the halls, knocking on doors and selling sex like someone would sell brushes. Door-to-door sex!
I did not partake of any of their offerings, not because I am a prude, but because as in a lot of third world countries, there were venereal diseases in Panama doctors could not name.
Some others did indulge, and I heard on our return several of those who did had to see doctors
Some other famous places for prostitutes that as a GI you learned about included Kasserstrasse in Frankfurt, right across from the Banhof, or main train station. Anyone stationed in Frankfurt will remember that as the street for prostitutes and bars full of B-girls, or girls who'd sit with you if you bought them drinks a very high prices.  There were a lot of American soldiers there in the 1950's and 1960's for sure who can tell you about that street. There was Tudau or Tudeu Street in Saigon, and, oh, yes, the combat zone in Boston, Mass., when the US Navy had a large base there.
The only time I ever bought a beer for a B-girl, incidentally, was across from the Banhof in Frankfurt in a bar full of them. The other GI and I ignored them until this one young woman asked if she could pour my beer? I nodded, OK, thinking that wouldn't cost anything. It did. That's because she cradled that bottle of beer between the most beautiful pair of breasts I'd ever seen, bent over with it between them, and poured my beer. What a lovely sight! We both bought her a drink!
Back to Panama, while the building had a number, it came to be known as "The Animal House."
The funniest part of that adventure, incidentally, came when I noticed "Animal Crackers" in a vending machine on the first floor.
Another curiosity came when I noticed that all these women who made their rounds every night took a half hour break at 7 and went into this one room. Curious, I looked in to see them all sitting in fold-up chairs, all lined up in one row. They were watching a soap opera. As soon as it was over, they were off selling their wares again.
Oh, and there was this real Lothario! He was a fellow I roomed with. He was old, fat and ugly as anything, and did he ever keep those prostitutes busy. I mean like every night, and sometimes twice a night. He had to be almost 55 or close to 60, yet, he kept at it so ardently I one day asked him: "Do you take some kind of pill?"
I don't remember what he said. I also remember that he'd taken $750 down there for his two-week stay, and near the end of the second week he was writing another check to get cash.  Talk about wonders? He was one of them!

B-25's land at Urbana, headed for US Air Force Museum in Dayton

Here are some random photos of just some of the World War II B-25 bombers that still fly today that flew into Urbana, Ohio today. Fun to see them, and a lot of other people felt the same, obviously, judging from the large crowd. I also include a photo of Allen R. Josey who was an electrician's mate on the USS Hornet. The B-25's that first bombed Tokyo during World War II took off from the Hornet. He remembers seeing them take-off. He also was aboard the Hornet when it was sunk by the Japanese.

Camp barber turned out to be VC, NVA in Vietnam War---Many Times?

The camp barber?

I traveled around the then Republic of South Vietnam quite a bit as a newspaper reporter. The whole time I did not report on the big war, but instead on men from Indiana serving in that big war. And, it was rather big then in 1970 when some 440,000 Americans still served there.
As I moved around I heard one story four or five times. Each time it was told, it was told as if it happened at the particular fire support base I happened to be at. And, each time the person telling it, pointed to a spot along the perimeter as the specific place where it happened.
The story? The story was how there was a ground attack one night, and the next morning as they were collecting the bodies of the VC oir NVA, one of them turned out to be the or one of the camp barbers. I'll bet I heard that story at least a half a dozen times.
Then, guess what? Just recently I met a man who'd been in the Marines, not sure the exact date, but he'd be at Baldy. Do not know if the Marines called places like that an LZ or fire support base or what. But, anyway, he told me the exact same story. And, he insisted it did happen at his base, and it was the barber at his camp.
Talk about folklore? Now that is true folklore. Wonder if there are stories like that coming out of Iraq or Afghanistan?

Politcal TV Ads coming! Oh, my, oh, my!

Can you imagine what TV is going to look like this year, already is looking like this year with President O'Bama ready to send $1 billion on his campaign and Mitt Romney, no doubt, going to spend at least in the millions? That will have to mean television turns to mostly political advertising with a few programs squeezed in! When I worked at the Union Leader in Manchester, NH, the paper sold ads on page one.
And, as election approached almost the entire front page became a big political ad or multiple political ads!

Ernie Pyle Home Needs Saving

Ernie Pyle was a famous World War II  correspondent who became especially important to the families of men fighting the war. That is because while the other correspondents reported the "Big Picture" of the war, Ernie Pyle wrote about the individual soldier, the airman, the sailor and later, the Marine.
He wrote from ground level. He saw the bodies and smelled the smoke of war. I visited his hometown, Dana, Indiana, just a few weeks ago to personally look at the town and home where he was born and then to look for a replica of a special monument erected on the spot where he was killed by a sniper on the island of Ie Shima.
Funny, I set my GPS to Dana, Indiana, and it gave all these streets in the town, asking for an address, I think. Of course, I had no idea of the street where his home was located. So, I just punched one, and I found myself out in the middle of a cornfield probably two or three miles from Dana. I could see the outlines of the town, so I was able to find it.
When I got there, the museum that includes his home and two buildings that house whatever the collection about him contains was closed. It is only open in the summer, and I learned it is on hard times because visitors to it have dwindled as the World War II veterans and their families have died. He no longer has meaning to current generations. The day I was there, I saw a postman or maybe it a UPS or FEDEX guy who'd stopped to look at the house and museum. He said he had often passed, but had never stopped. Again, though, all we could do was look on the outside.
I looked and looked for that replica of the monument erected to him at his home, and didn't see it. I felt disappointed because of it. Then, as luck would have it, I spotted a place called Ernie Pyle Rest Park on the way out of Dana, and there it was, the replica of the monument.
If you know nothing of Ernie Pyle, you can still read his books, composed from the daily columns he wrote. They are "Here Is Your War," "Brave Men," and "The Last Chapter." I think the last title is correct or at least close.  If you read the books, you will not only learn about the men  who fought that war, but you will get a different sense of it because of the level at which it is written. One haunting bit Ernie wrote that I sometimes think of is how he stood in a medical tent where a lot of wounded were being treated. This one particular GI was dying, and a chaplain stopped briefly to say a prayer over him, but there were so many others he rushed away to try to comfort as many of the rest of them as he could. That left this man to die alone. Ernie said he wished he'd gone over and held the man's hand as he died. On reading it, I wish he had, too.
Oh, by the way, I also got a chance to go to Hawaii, and while there visited his grave. It is in the Cemetery of the Pacific in a beautiful spot known as the Punch Bowl just above Honolulu. I remember when I went up there to find his grave, I thought I must be in the wrong place because look as I might, I couldn't see the traditional white crosses that mark military graves anywhere. All I saw was this vast expanse of green grass. As I walked around, however, I realized that all the grave stones were flat. So, that's why I couldn't see them.
I did ask an attendant where to find Ernie's grave, and he pointed to a spot not far from a sort of house where information on the cemetery is held. I walked up to it, and would you believe, there was a garland of pink flowers around it? How nice. How beautiful. I know Ernie appreciated it, and I did, too.
On returning to my home in Columbus, Ohio, I did make calls pledged to do what I could to save the Ernie Pyle Museum. I called and talked to Bently Hamm, dean of the journalism school at Indiana University, that is located in Ernie Pyle Hall. He referred me a fellow with the Hoosier State Press Association. All of them are working with Scripps-Howard, the newspaper company Ernie worked for, to save his museum. I learned that the town of Dana is working toward the same goal. I have volunteered any help I could personally give to any of those groups or organizations. But, with all that is going on, I know the Ernie Pyle Museum stands to be saved, and maybe in a way that will become relevant to citizens of today, especially students. It must become relevant to stay open.
You can help, too, by visiting the museum this summer. It is not far off I-70 that cuts right across the center of Indiana.

Photos are of his home, the replica of the monument to him and then the last few sentences from his book, "This Is Your War." It is good. Blow it up so you can read it.

Marietta 1788 & Today! Wow

Every year since the first 48 settlers arrived at the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers to found Marietta, Ohio, on April 7, 1788, the citizens of that wonderful town have celebrated that date: April 7. I was not there for the dinner this year, but I did go down to show my respect and appreciation for the people who made Marietta possible including George Washington, Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the big names. Rev. Cutler is especially interested.
All these people who settled Marietta, incidentally, were from New England, mostly Massachusetts. Many had been generals in the Continental Army. So, it was an illustrious group of men and some strong women who made Marietta work.
The efforts these men made that finally led to the creation of the Northwest Territories from which six states came, is intriguing and incredible to read about. You can find a lot about all of their efforts and them on the web. But also the names not so well known include John Mathews, who became a surveyor and then a businessman, and William Duer, who has been much maligned but who I do not believe was deserving of his bad reputation. He helped put Marietta together by including another large section of land on which Gallipolis, Ohio now stands.
I must say, too, my drive down from April 7, 2012, from Columbus, Ohio to Marietta was breath-taking. I drove along the Muskingum River all the way from Zanesville south, and, oh wow! How beautiful the Ohio country side is this time of year. Truly breathtaking. scenery. Oh, and Marietta is a wonder with all the markers denoting the efforts of the significance of those first settlers. I post here just a few of the photos I took.
I also stopped and saw "Big Bottom," the place where Indians massacred about a dozen settlers on Jan. 2, 1791 to start an Indian war that lasted until 1794--the war which, sadly, the Indians finally lost. They were to continue to lose theirs wars to save their lands all the way across the country. But, no one, not the US government, the US Army, anyone could stop it. The drive and push of settlers for new lands were just too, too strong.
The pictures above begin with a diagram of the first settlement that showed the fortified town at the tip of the east bank of the Muskingum River, behind it Campus Martius or "field of war" the fort built to protect settlers during the Indian Wars, two rows of clay walls 15 feet tall and about the width of a modern highway that stretched from the Muskingum River to a high mound, maybe a quarter of mile away. Other illustrations are of other Indian mounds the new settlers found there. They, the two walls and the mounds, all built by pre-historic Indians intrigued the settlers then as they do people today.
The next photo features three figures, Rufus Putnam, the real strength behind the founding of Marietta, and Arthur St. Clair, the first and only governor of the Northwest Territories. Not sure who the third person is. This sculpture was made by the same fellow who chiseled out the heads of the president son Mt. Rushmore. One of those presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, saw this statue in Marietta as did another Roosevelt who became president, Franklin D. Below that is a photo of the famous two horned church in Marietta, the first Congregational Church west of the mountains. The original church burned. This is a replica of it. Striking to see.
Below that is Big Bottom, the site of where settlers built a block house, but because of their not finishing it and not having lookouts posted, were subsequently killed by Indians. It is on the Muskingum River between Zanesville and Marietta. I'd always wanted to see this spot. It is very peaceful today. But, oh, the bloody day the Indians killed all those people! Those killed included a woman and her two children.