Alumni Sandstorm ~ 01/07/15
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6 Bombers sent stuff and 1 Bomber Memorial today:
Margaret EHRIG ('61), Helen CROSS ('62)
Pete BEAULIEU ('62), Frank WHITESIDE ('63)
Dennis HAMMER ('64), Linda REINING ('64)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Carol DuBOIS ('66)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Gary SCHAUER ('84)

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Margaret EHRIG Dunn ('61)

Re: All Bomber Lunch ~ aka Patti's All Bomber Lunch

To: All Richland/Col-Hi Bombers

Come One, Come All to the First lunch of 2015

We've survived Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Now we have
five weeks until Valentine's Day. Come and sign up for a free
drawing for a gift certificate from Dave of JD's Diner. (We had a
small group in December so it was postponed until January.)

WHEN: Saturday, January 10, 2015 (always 2nd Saturday)
TIME: We gather about noon or 12:30
WHERE: JD DINER, 3790 West Van Giesen, West Richland
       (Second building on the right after crossing the 
        Yakima River Bridge.)

-Margaret EHRIG Dunn ('61)
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>>From: Helen CROSS Kirk ('62)

If I ever get to spend any amount of time in The Tri-Cities
again, is there any interest in a "Spalding Elementary School"
get together for lunch?

I've spent tons of time back in the Richland since 1962 visiting
my parents, but spend less time there since my parents no longer
live there.

But before the Sandstorm I wasn't aware of any class get
togethers, except for our class reunions, and Club 40!!

We are bracing for our 24 hours of sub-zero weather, I'm not sure
I'd be up to days and days of this.

-Helen CROSS Kirk ('62) ~ from cold Hope, IN   where at least we 
      missed all but a sprinkle of the snow... this time anyway.
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>>From: Pete BEAULIEU ('62)

Re: Geneology and Family stuff large and small

Note to Helen CROSS Kirk ('62) and Bill SCOTT ('63)

Late in my urban planning career in the Puget Sound area I hired
a transportation planning consultant from Ohio by the name of Tom
Harvey. He was a proud and direct descendent of the organizer of
the railroad "Harvey Girls." I also once met a person who had
retained the name Pepin in her own hyphenated name, and this
hyphenation tradition stretched back twelve centuries all the way
to Charlemagne's father (Pepin). So, Curt DONAHUE ('53) also can
actually trace back to this guy Pepin (yes?), and even to Pepin's
father (Charlemagne's grandfather) Charles Martel who in 722 A.D.
at the Battle of Tours (or Poitier) is famous in European history
for repulsing the Moors (Spanish Muslims) from further advance
into what is now France. By the way, Charlemagne had five wives,
in succession, as well as five concubines. Charlemagne’s youthful
and favorite wife (Hildegard) gave him nine of his eighteen
children (the other nine were illegitimate) and his most happy
family life. She died at age twenty-six (they married when she
was twelve).

Speaking of family histories, my family on my father's side
traces back to the Dordogne Valley in southern France, like
Poitier, and the idyllic storybook village of Beaulieu sur
Dordogne, which my own family was able to visit in 1999. My wife
Kristi was in remission (passed away in 2001) and, even having
lived earlier in the incomparable Paris for two years as a
student, confided to me "if we can ever come back, I would 
rather here than Paris." 

At another poignant family moment, back in 1967 following my
university graduation, I walked with my father on a deserted
Oregon beach under the stars. I finally dropped the big question
of him, one who came to Hanford during the height of the War in
July 1944 (I was born three weeks later at the Hanford hospital):
"Do you think it was right . . . to drop the bomb?" This is a
family question, not a trivializing political question. After a
long pause Dad confided: "that's a hard question to answer, after
working on something all of your life." 

Now THAT is an honest answer, and thought provoking, from someone
who despite our normal rough patches I have come to honor as the
most honest man I have ever known (RIP 1988). As part of a
related--and also edifying--Bomber website exchange in 2011, the
second of my entries appeared (uncensored!) on March 20, 2011,
and follows below. In summary, as a response to Hitler's own bomb
program and in its later critical role as a deterent during the
Cold War years of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), the Hanford
thing need not be confused with the much debated Nagasaki
decision made somewhere else by someone else. 

My thought, therefore, in response to the mushroom mounting
update from Duane LEE ('63), is that the real symbol of Hanford
is NOT the 1944 mushroom cloud in the Building 1000 courtyard,
but rather the ABSENCE of those (deterred) 1945-1991 mushroom
clouds we otherwise might see memorialized on any of those other
more visible campus walls. 

        [WHAT????  -Maren]

From March 20, 2011
      
      "I fully agree with you (a Sandstorm respondent from
      the class of '69) on the abuses so easily posed by
      revisionist historians who would "rewrite, second
      guess, or deconstruct" historical decisions.
      "But, based on his evidence, the point of Alperovitz's
      book is that a good dose of historical revisionism
      actually began in 1945. So, is the shoe on the other
      foot? Documents released after the mandatory 50-year
      waiting period (1995) contribute to his view. In my
      earlier entry I declined to ramble on that his book is
      divided into two parts. The first deals with the
      decision to use the bomb, and the second part covers
      what today we would call a bit of useful public
      disinformation immediately following the war.

      "Further, there is a difference between the Hanford
      story, about which we are all so defensive, and the
      separate and controversial decision to actually use the
      bomb at a certain time and on certain targets. Even
      Roosevelt and Churchill, for example, saw clearly this
      distinction between making the bomb (the Manhattan
      Project), originally to outrun Hitler's nuclear
      program, and then actually using it in the particular
      and rapidly changing circumstances in the Pacific.

      "In the Hyde Park Agreement of Sept. 18, 1944 (over two
      years into the bomb effort, and a almost a full year
      before its use), they wrote, 'When a 'bomb' is finally
      available, it might perhaps, after mature
      consideration, be used against the Japanese, who should
      be warned that this bombardment will be repeated until
      they surrender.' In the end, was this 'consideration'
      as mature under Truman as it might have been under
      Roosevelt? Specialists differ, but newly declassified
      information should have a place at the table, even with
      us Bomber fans. As early as 1946, but arguably in
      retrospect, the Strategic Bombing Survey Report laid
      out its case and then concluded: 'Based on a detailed
      investigation of all the facts and supported by the
      testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved,
      it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to
      31December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1
      November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the
      atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had
      not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been
      planned or contemplated.'

      "In summary, and as a Veteran, I simply cannot accept
      your view that General Eisenhower was unaware of the
      costs of the Pacific War. Not all generals are idiots.
      Also, nothing in my earlier comment (or in the book)
      addresses or discredits the historic Hanford wartime
      effort to build the weapon prior to a separate decision
      on its use. And there is nothing that later discredits
      the ongoing Hanford (and Oak Ridge) programs to ensure
      for fifty years a deterrent during the Cold War.

      And, as you suggest, Elvis is toast; but, his wife's
      maiden name was Beaulieu."

-Pete BEAULIEU ('62)
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>>From: Frank WHITESIDE ('63)

Re: El Capitan climb

Just happened to notice on the news that my former neighbor that
lived across from our little cabin in Estes Park, CO, Tommy
Caldwell, is one of the two free-climbers who is climbing the
Dawn Wall of el capitan, the towering 3,000 foot granite cliff in
Yosemite National Park in California. I first met him shortly
after we moved into our little cabin/condo in 2009. He was with
two other people who I assume were his wife at that time and 
a fellow climber. I '’t know who he was, so I asked the
neighbors about him and they told me he was a world-famous free
climber who was born in Estes Park and was married to a famous
woman climber, Beth Rodden, who was also a world-famous free-
climber. In climbing circles, they were like the "Angelina Jolie
and Brad Pitt" of climbing. I kind of followed his climbing
escapades which I traced back to the '90s. He apparently started
climbing around Estes Park at Long’s Peak and other peaks in the
region. This guy has climbed towering peaks all over the world
and is apparently sponsored by Patagonia, an outdoor clothing
company. In 2000, he and his wife and two fellow climbers were
doing a climb in Kyrgyzstan, one of the former Russian republics
that is now independent, when they were captured by rebels. They
finally escaped when Tommy pushed the guy who was watching them
off a cliff and were rescued by government soldiers.

Anyway, free-climbing is climbing using only your fingers and
toes using ropes and hooks only in case of falls. They use their
bare fingers, which wear off the skin constantly. He lost part of
one finger in an accident with a saw, but he kept climbing. He
has scaled el capitan a number of times but on other parts of it.
It is amazing to watch his videos online. When they slip and
fall, they bounce against the cliff. That’s got to take a toll!
They have some videos and blogs online regarding this climb,
which has never been free-climbed before. I think one was "tommy
and becca blogspot". His new wife is keeping up the news and new
pictures/videos. Since 1900, around 30 climbers have fallen to
their deaths on el capitan. Other famous climbers call this climb
"nearly impossible." The granite cliffs are nearly straight up
and have almost no place to put your fingers. If they make it, it
is likely to be on Sunday.

Anyway, I’m having fun watching the videos and reading the
blogspot. Hope they make it against all the odds.

-Frank WHITESIDE ('63)
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>>From: Dennis HAMMER ('64)

To: Duane LEE ('63)

Re: "I LIKE IKE"

Years ago I ran across this "I LIKE IKE" early TV commercial
produced by Roy Disney. Really catchy tune. I found it on the
Internet Archive while looking for something totally different,
possibly something on military to help with genealogy. Look to
the left of the page and you can click on what format you want 
to watch; I used MPEG4.

  https://archive.org/details/Eisenhow1952

I remember when the election was over, my parents had given me an
old checkbook from an account they had closed to write on. The
day after the election I wrote a check to Dwight Eisenhower for
one million dollars, or maybe it was only one hundred dollars.
When you are that young you don't really know the difference.

Re: Genealogy

I had wondered for many years if I had a Civil War brother-
against-brother in my family. When I retired they gave me a 
pre-loaded card for $100 and I thought would have more time to
research, so I signed up for ancestry.com, then went to bed.
After a few minutes I had a thought out of the blue. They were
from Kentucky and I had seen my Union ancestor's pension records
photo and headstone, but since Kentucky had not suceeded from the
Union, would the state still have paid a pension to Confederate
veterans? I found out in short order they did! These two brothers
were not only brothers, they were also brothers-in-law because
they had married sisters. I had previously found an article in 
a 1900 newspaper saying that when my ancestor, now living in
Missouri, was told his brother, still in Kentucky, had died, he
said he was the only one left, felt very bad, took to his bed and
died after a few days. The Confederate veteran had not applied
for a pension, his second wife did. I have not found death date
for first wife, sister to the Union vet's wife, or even his death
date although it has to be early in 1900. Talk about "robbing the
cradle" at age 78 he married someone 39 years younger than
himself then he died in what has to be about 11 months later.

Guess that might be a lesson for those of us guys getting up
there in age. Don't marry someone way younger than ourselves--we
may not be able to handle it.

Re: TV Guide

When the TV movie "The Blue and the Gray" come out in the '80s
there was a TV Guide article which was the most interesting short
article about the Civil War I ever read... I wish I had kept it.
It was about brothers who had been on opposite sides. One set of
brothers were both killed and their father buried them side 
by side. Others put the war behind them and became business
partners, and others never talked to each other again. If anyone
knows how I might find a copy of the article, let me know.

-Dennis HAMMER ('64) ~ Kennewick  I would give you the weather,
    but by the time you read this it may very well have changed.
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>>From: Linda REINING ('64)

Re: I LIKE IKE

If I remember, that slogan was popular when I was in 6th grade
and Eisenhower was running against Adlai Stevenson... I remember
both their pictures being on my copy of the "Weekly Reader"
(remember that paper? Think we got it every Friday, when we were
in grade school).

Speaking of things from grade school... does anyone remember when
we could order books, once a month, I think? we had an order form
and a booklet that gave a small description of each book and we
could order a certain amount, each time... don't remember any of
them being more than $10. I can "see" the order form... it was
long and narrow and I think it was printed on both sides... it
had to have a parent's signature and the money had to be in the
envelope, before the books could be ordered, and they were
delivered to the school.

-Linda REINING ('64) ~ 28° in Kuna, ID   and we still have some
       snow on the ground... am loving it.  
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Bomber Memorial

>>Mary Ann NACKE Williams ~ Class of 1947 ~ 1930 - 2014 

 Bomber Memorials
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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