Correspondence with and pictures of classmates

Subject:	A CHRISTMAS POEM
Date:	Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:17:44 EST
From:	Joehchfc@aol.com

'Twas The Night of the Capture (A poetic Christmas tribute to the 4th I.D.)

'Twas 13th December, when deep in Iraq,
the 4th I.D. had a big enemy to track.
Saddam's stockings were smelly from months on the lam,
In hopes that Dean or Kerry would soon take command.

Our soldiers were nestled in their desert humvees,
they'd been told they were hunting Iraqi V.I.Ps;
And Saddam with head lice infesting his cap,
Had just settled down for an Iraqi-type nap,

When out on the farm there arose such a clatter,
He sprang from his shack to see what was the matter.
Away to his hideout he flew in a snit,
Tore open his pants leaping into the pit.

The searchlight on the dictator now caught in our snare,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to his nasty wild hair.
When, what to our soldiers' wide eyes should appear,
But a bedraggled old dictator cowering in fear!

Beneath the dirty old beard and the lice in his mane,
They were amazed to discover that it was Saddam Hussein.
More rapid than eagles they called up old Rummy,
And he whistled, and shouted, and said, "This is yummy!"

"Now, Condi! now, Sanchez! now, Cheney and Bush!
On, TV! on Radio! and Free Republic! Let's Rush!
To the top of the news! Get this video on!
Call FNC first! Then Dan Rather and Tom!

As a gloved doctor examined the smelly old goat,
he shoved a big wooden stick down Saddam's nasty throat,
Around the world in a flash the footage it flew,
As the French and Russians gulped, wondering what we now knew.

And then, in a twinkling, we heard from our leader
as he confirmed the capture of the despotic bottom feeder.
As he concluded his announcement, they replayed the scene,
(We heard nothing from Clark and nothing from Dean).

Saddam was covered in filth, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all greasy, with ashes and soot;
A bundle of money he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler who'd sold out to Chirac.

His eyes -- how they sagged! his dimples now pits!
His forehead was covered with curious zits!
His head was examined for vermin and lice,
shaved his face of the beard that was his disguise;

A large piece of wood was probed in his mouth,
(And we don't even know if the gloved hand went South);
He still had a fat face but had lost his round belly,
His clothes were a shambles and his feet downright smelly.

He was skinny and drawn, the lying old coward,
And I laughed when I thought of the speech made by Howard;
But the spin of the media and a liberal talking head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

Dean spoke not a word; Kerry went straight to work,
And tried to get airtime (sounds just like the jerk),
Bush kept it short, not given to prose,
And giving a nod, up the polls he rose;

He sprang back to work, to his team gave a whistle,
And to D.C. they flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, as he went on his way,
"Happy Christmas to all -- God Bless the USA!"

Subject:	REMEMBERING
Date:	Fri, 26 Sep 2003 12:13:31 EDT
From:	Joehchfc@aol.com
To:	Joehchfc@aol.com

Subject:     RE: THANKS!
Date:         Thu, 24 Jul 2003 01:12:00 -0500
From:        Charles, R, Jones
To:           Joehchfc@aol.com

Joe,

Not all CD burners are effective, I guess. I just got a new one. If you can look at it (the shiny side) and there are two different reflective regions, then the burner tried best it could and you might not be able to read it for several reasons. I think I checked this already. It is not an audio CD. You need to treat it like a floppy as it just contains the online files. Let me know if this info does not resolve the matter.

As for donations, about a dozen people out of the 90 or so folks that received the tape and CD asked about that and have donated about $250 towards the cost. The total cost was about $500.

Best,
Charlie Jones

From: Joehchfc@aol.com [mailto:Joehchfc@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 7:03 PM
To: cjones@technidigm.org
Subject: THANKS!

CHARLIE...I GOT THE TAPE...WHAT A NOSTALGIA FEAST!

I AM CHAGRINED TO SAY THAT I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE MANY FOLKS THO THE NAMES WERE QUITE FAMILIAR!

THE CD WAS BLANK, HOWEVER...COULD YOU SEND ANOTHER? ARE YOU TAKING DONATIONS TO COVER COSTS?

WARM REGARDS,

JOE HARDY

From: Joehchfc@aol.com [mailto:Joehchfc@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 7:49 PM
To: cjones@technidigm.org
Subject: Nancy Adair

Hi C!

I saw Nancy for the 1st time in 40 + years at her Mom's funeral last Friday...she introduced me to her husband, Phil whom I recognized from ROTC days at the UA tho we had never spoken. Phil and I chatted about our assignments in Vietnam and (somewhere between irony and coincidence) found out we got in country about the same time and were both assigned to the same job with the 41st Civil Affairs Company (with a TO&E personnel of about 100 men) attached to MACV and yet never crossed paths...I was in Phan Thiet on the So. China Sea and Phil was in the Central Highlands...I will ALWAYS take the seacoast over virtually anything "Central!"...Phil was injured in an accident and sent to Japan in Dec '69, the Unit deactivated in Feb of '70 and I was sent down to the Mekong Delta to be a platoon leader in a construction company...unlike many, I had a very good experience (I "grew up" a lot) and still have friends from there that I see on an occasional basis and we carry on a regular email correspondence.

Where do you live now? We travel quite a bit (business and pleasure) and if we are near you it would be fun to get together.

For some reason I never got the tape from the reunion...if I could get one I would appreciate it very much.

Our address is : 7591 N Camino Sin Vacas Tucson 85718.

Warm Regards,

Joe Hardy

PS

A personal message is attached....it was in response to an article by a reporter embedded in a combat unit in Iraq who interviewed young guys who had killed people and were suffering the inevitable grief ...he asked for responses from Vets of other wars...we properly put a lot of emphasis on getting our feelings out today, so very hard for us "guys"....

C...please feel free to share this with others whom you feel might be helped.

J

As a Vietnam vet who was responsible for an unnumbered but,probably many deaths in combat I can sure relate to the stories told in your story.

I went to Vietnam as a professed agnostic and upon my ETS (Effective Termination of Service) immediately following my tour at age 26 I returned to college, met my wife and got married. We graduated, established a careers, started a family (we have 2 adult sons), and got a lot of what our society considers success but something seemed missing in my life. Pascal, a great French thinker, said "there is a God-shaped vacuum at the heart of every person which can not be satisfied by an created thing but only by God Himself.". My vacuum was manifesting and, true to Pascal the "stuff" we were accumulating was of little satisfaction. A gradual progression occurred as I was drawn to the Christ I had denied and even mocked on many occasions and I became a Christian at age 32...that was when it started to "bug" me as came to realize that I needed to take a heartfelt look at my Vietnam experience. I found relief in exploring the meaning of the command "Thou shalt not kill" and found that "kill"" is better translated "murder" so the command is actually "Thou shalt not murder."

I would recommend to every soldier and marine suffering from the natural grief and guilt experienced by any normal human being in their position that they read in the Bible Romans chapter 13 which says that governments are authorized by God to have jurisdiction over people which includes declaring war or assessing taxes...Every one of our military personnel in this war is there by direct order of their government which is ultimately responsible to God for its conduct … the same applies to Saddam as the (former) leader of Iraq.

I found final freedom in reading and embracing Romans 8:1: "There is therefore NO CONDEMNATION for those

From: Charles R Jones [mailto:cjones@technidigm.org]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 2:23 PM
To: Joehchfc@aol.com
Subject: RE: AMPHI Classmates Info and Web Page

No, I have not read about the West Point '66 class, but I am sure it would be interesting! Just ordered it from Barnes and Noble.

From: Joehchfc@aol.com [mailto:Joehchfc@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 11:18 AM
To: cjones@technidigm.org
Subject: Re: AMPHI Classmates Info and Web Page

Have you read "The American Journey of the West Point Class of 1966?"...sure looks like a good choice going to the Navy!!!!

I will comment further on your email soon... many thanks for getting back so soon.

From: Charles R Jones [mailto:cjones@technidigm.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 5:19 PM
To: Joe Hardy
Cc: AMPHI1962

Thanks for getting in touch. Again, I need your mailing address so that I can send you a copy of the website (data file) CD and a copy of the reunion video tape. I guess I was the only one who took any video pictures, so I thought I would send a copy to the 75 or so people for whom we have valid addresses. Jan Vecchio and Ted Wilson are helping to make copies of the video.

Also, since I am also the ad hoc webmaster for the class reunion web pages, I am sending out a "souvenir" copy of what is on the web site as of now. There is a lot of class and reunion info at http://technidigm.org/amphi62.htm. I will continue to update the site as long as I am able to.

Note that I can cleanup and upload whatever pictures and info you would like to put on your page. There are links to each person's individual page, and some are far more extensive than others. The Reunion 2002 pictures are extensive, and there is also a bit of music for those who can download and play the audio files.

As for Vietnam, my hat is off to anyone who was in the Army, especially junior officer targets. I had decided in 1962 to take an appointment to the Naval Academy rather than West Point just to avoid being in your shoes!

I was afloat in Tonkin Gulf for two deployments to Vietnam, aboard the nuclear carrier USS ENTERPRISE, operating the reactor plants but also "driving" that 90k ton ship as Officer of the Deck. Would you believe the Big E drives like a sports car? We had lots of flight ops and even encountered Russian Bear bombers doing recon of our carrier battle group on different occasions. We also managed to blow up the flight deck during training off Pearl as we deployed in 1969, killing 27 guys. It took us three months to repair the damage, cutting our second deployment down to about 4 months rather than 7.

The Navy experience set me up for nuclear power plant consulting, which I continue to do even today.

How close did you get to the war? I assume your CE stands for Combat Engineers, but don't know for sure.

From:    Joseph Hardy
Sent:    March 06, 2003 09:03:37
To:    Charles Jones
Subject:    RE: AMPHI Class of 1962 Reunion CD and Tape

I would enjoy visiting with you re: your naval career...I "retired" after 2 years as a 1Lt in the Army CE after 2 very interesting assigments in my RVN tour...please correspond with me at joehchfc@aol.com