HiFlyer added these comments in the current discussion du jour ...

This our (combined) 44th home, five together. She's a service brat
and a military officer. I served 29 years.


My congrats to both of you for serving this great country for twin
careers! If you'd like to say, what branches are you in? As for me, my
military "career" was 20 months as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army.
Basic at Ft. Dix, AIT at Ft. Sill, and duty with the 1st of the 81st
Field Artillery in Neu Ulm Germany. The "1st of the 80-worst" was a
Pershing tactical nuclear missile battalion, presumeably with the
intent of nuking Warsaw Pact armored divisions should they try to
overrun NATO. Damn glad we never had to launch!

Now, My Gawd! 44 homes?! I have only had 4, counting my parents house,
an apartment before my wife and I married, a house we built in Madison
Heights, then the house we're in now in Troy. I suppose I could add 3
more for the Army.

Again, it makes me so proud to be an American when I hear of people
like you and your wife dedicating their lives to the defense of our
freedom. Have either/both of you been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan?
I'm not expert, please, but I'd SWAG that maybe 2/3 of the troop
strength there is National Guard, but I'm sure that if either/both of
you are Army, Marines, or Navy, your boots may well have been on the
ground there, maybe 2 or 3 times now. I just heard last week that some
state Guard units are now on their FOURTH tour!

I won't comment at all about the war, except to say that I think that
burning up our National Guard like that is foolhardy. I don't know what
political heat President Bush would've taken if he'd reinstituted the
draft as LBJ did for Viet Nam, but if he had, we at least would have
been able to maintain a combat-ready force at home and would be far
better able to cope with what the Guard is for, e.g., Katrina and the
recent hurricanes.

Of all the places, I like Miami best and it is my third time. I can
deal with an occasional hurricane, with days of warning, but not
earthquakes, tornados, and months of winter. I grew up in upstate
NY

I used to travel with my parent every summer across NY on the way to
Worcester, MA to visit with my mother's family there and in Chepachet,
RI with my father's family. In my early youth in the early 1950s, we
went across the mountains over 2-lane roads, then the NY Thruway. I
have been to Upstate NY once, and found it fascinating, but the
touristy stuff is pretty far apart.

If you're interested in things military at all, I can relate the
"exploits" of my father who was a WWII Marine, and fought at Saipan,
Tinian, and Iwo Jima and is even pictured in Joe Rosenthal's "gung ho"
group shot after the raising of the 2nd flag on Mt. Suribachi. I posted
a series to honor him on his birthday on April 4, but only (I think) to
a.b.p.wallpaper and wallpaper-duplicates. If you ARE interested and
you'd like me to repost here, please give me a "Ping" here.

On Sun, 18 May 2008 13:50:33 -0500, "HEMI - Powered"
wrote:

HiFlyer added these comments in the current discussion du jour ...

HP, where are you located?

Here's a better picture day in Miami.

HF (Jerry)

Troy, Michigan. That's in SE Michigan about 19 miles NNW of the
Detroit River. If you are familar with the area, we are at Livernois
and Square Lake Roads. The boundary of Detroit E-W is 8 Mile Road so
I am 11 miles north of that but at a slant when looking as the crow
flies all the way to the river, which runs roughly E-W in Downtown
Detroit.

When I first started at Chrysler Engineering in 1969, I was at their
headquarters and engineering complex in Highland Park, Michigan and
I move to the new Chrysler Technology Center in Auburn Hills, MI in
1992. So, I am very close to much of the neat stuff in SW MI but not
at all close to anything scenic like you are, Kingfisher is, etc.
But, we all have to choose wrt weather and the risk of weather,
right?

Have a great day, HF?




--
HP, aka Jerry

"If it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck"