1st Cav pics

[Dinny]

Hello everyone,
  I'm back from my latest training adventure and have attached a few pics I took while I was out.

~Dinny

[Skunk]

Thanks for sharing the pics Dinny, and thank you Sir for your service. The poster of the 1st Cav would make a great mural.

[Dinny]

Skunk,
  No problem, it's an honor to serve.


Thanks, Dinny

[Hodr]

I am retired from the US Postal Service and there are a lot of vets that worked there.  I always got to work at least an hour early and generally had breakfast on the way in.  One day I skipped breakfast and wound up way early in the break room.  One of our best carriers was sitting in a back corner by himself with a couple of big books and weeping.  Turned out they were yearbooks from Hamburger hill and covered the 14 months when he was assigned there as Airborne.  I talked to him for awhile then found floor supervisor in charge.  The two of us called a VA outreach rep I knew from the college at 5 am.  The VA guy showed up in under 20 minutes and he got Joe out and home.  I have had some success as a writer of military tales and poetry.  I waited 8 years, 2 years after I retired before Joe could really talk.  My wife went along and I recorded over a 7 hour period including lunch what he rememberd when he brought out his  yearbooks.  We drove over 700 miles one way to get that interview and if Joe has anything to add would do it again tomorrow.  All the notes are sealed and in my bank deposit box.  Until at least a year after Joe is dead, his request.  I have three finished items in there and scanned copies of the yearbooks, as well as Joe's copies of photos and writings. (got him to start writing as therapy)  If I die first it all goes to my publisher with intructions to hold and contact Joe.  It is my fervent hope that "The Ballad of Cherry Joe"  will make it into print while I can still see it.  All profits and roayalties to the Screaming Eagle slush fund Joe named.  My publisher is an old, old friend who has agreed in advance as he was 82nd Airborne.

blindhari

Sgt. Ranger
Names On the Wall

[Dinny]

Blindhari,
   I too have some combat experience with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st.  I was with the 502nd Inf Reg in 2003 when we invaded Iraq.  I can in no way assimilate with Joe as his experiences were far more unforgiving than mine.  I can, although, relate to him in the camaraderie and faithful loyalty that soldiers have for each other in combat. We are a Band of Brothers.  The 101st has a long-standing history of faithful perseverance.  I pray that Joe is living a prosperous life and that he has many fond memories of family and other experiences to help replace some of the horrid memories of war.  Replacement is my relief. As I sit here typing this, I can't help but feel the pain of our losses.  It doesn't make things any more or less difficult being a Medic, but I have felt that some of the losses could have been avoided just if I could have done this or that.  I have since learned and accepted that those men were in God's hands well before they were in mine.

Thanks for the great story. I will buy the book, maybe even two of them, whenever it is published. We all owe Joe some appreciation for what he has experienced, as we do many others.

Thanks, Dinny

[Hodr]

Joe is alive, well and now retired.  He is surounded by wife, children and grandchildren.  He has left the suburbs and moved back to the barrio (hispanic) where he was born.  He is a strikingly handsome man.  He is also perhaps the most respected man in his neighborhood, not because he got out but because he came back to rebuild, teach, and show others a way out.  He lives in one of the toughest areas in California by mutual consent with his wife even though they can live just about anywhere they please.  Every year his wife sends pictures of Joe in uniform on veterans day to add to the stash I keep.  I do not write books but if you PM me an address I will send along a couple of things I can.  My father was a Ranger medic and earned his credentials with Darby.  He helped treat combat shock at the end of WWII and my godfathers were patients from that ward.  You never outlive your doubts and your dead, but I have discovered that writing helps. 

blindhari
My father's toast:                Cisterna
My toast:                           Names on the Wall
For all who made it back:     Absent Companions