Alumni Sandstorm ~ 01/07/15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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) **************************************************************** **************************************************************** 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. **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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) **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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. **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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) **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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) **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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. **************************************************************** **************************************************************** >>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. **************************************************************** **************************************************************** Bomber Memorial >>Mary Ann NACKE Williams ~ Class of 1947 ~ 1930 - 2014 Bomber Memorials **************************************************************** **************************************************************** That's it for today. Please send more. ****************************************************************