Happy Memorial Day!

I figured this is as good a time as any to show you some old shots of my dad. Mom gave me a box of old pictures a while back, some of which I'd never seen before. Included were several official shots from the Air Force.



This one is my favorite. It shows dad the way I remember him as a kid. He was a Lt. Colonel in this one, taken in the mid 1960s.



Here he is, tryin' to look HARD, as a Captain in the summer of 1956. I think my folks were stationed in Austin then, having just moved back to the states from England. The future Priscilla Presley was babysitting my sister then, who was about two years old. Priscilla was in junior high and just about to move to Germany with her mother and step father, where she'd meet you-know-who. Cool eh?

Dad told me once that her stepfather was an asshole, and that he'd taken a LOT of money from the guy in poker parties. I tell ya, growin' up like he did, dad didn't take prisoners. Of course, I wasn't even a glint in his eye then. Won't be born for four more years or so.



This one cracks me up. It's like he's thinking "Are they gonna take the fuckin' picture or what?" By the time this was taken dad had been promoted to Lt. Col. and I was almost four years old. You can see he's aged a bit. Was it me, or the job in Bermuda?

There were also several hilarious shots of what may well have been a Memorial Day pick nick in Bermuda, where I was born.



Check out these outfits. Can you find dad there, in the golf hat and shades? They must have set up a party and shrimp boil for the enlisted guys. Dad would have jumped in and played hard. No one was more competitive than he was.



Here he is hittin' the ball. Apparently the fellas decided to have a volleyball game on the beech. I'm thinkin, that's not gay at all. Nope, not at all. Naaa, it's like that scene in Top Gun, right?



Thing is, what the hell were these guys thinkin'? Check out the one dude with his shorts all hiked up like a speedo. And all the dark socks and leather shoes... ON THE BEACH? White people, sheeesh!



Here's dad in his element. He loved golf almost more than anything else in his life. He's probably playin' with his commanding officers here, and probably taking money from them. He was a shark on a golf course. I think it was one of the great disappointments of his life that I didn't enjoy the game the way he did. But that's a long story.

Finally, I surfed through a lot of patriotic sounding stuff on YouTube before I found this video to post for the holiday. I always loved this tune.

Lets think about what our soldiers have been through over the last seven or eight years, and the generations who served before them. Let's reflect on their achievements, and lets enjoy some awesome AC~DC. Crank those speakers people. For those about to rock...



Happy Memorial Day folks, and thanks for serving. Cheers. You know who you are. I love ya.