The Internet is Watching...

...and it's sometimes amusing at how wrong the profiling is.

My household buys diabetic supplies.  Once a month we buy a bottle of ReliOn Humulin N from Walmart, along with 100 syringes for injecting insulin.  We also buy Bayer Keto-Diastix and litmus strips.  We have been doing that for five years now.  If you were keeping track of our purchases you would believe that there is a diabetic in the house, and you would be right.

But who is nosy enough to track our purchases of diabetic supplies?  Well, we have bought insulin from several sources before we discovered the generic ReliOn brand at Walmart so several different pharmacies in the area have sold us insulin.  Likewise the insulin syringes and the other test equipment.  We even have a blood glucose test meter, which manufacturers will be happy to provide free.  It turns out that the meter is the cheap part of being diabetic,  It is the test strips that cost a lot, and you end up using a lot of test strips -- if you are a human diabetic.  Other than the pharmacies where we buy our supplies, there is the credit card issuer who knows where we make our purchases and, generally, what the purchases are.  There is also the syringe manufacturer.  Even though modern one-use insulin syringes are made to a pretty high standard, there are still manufacturing flaws that aren't caught until it comes time to actually use the syringe.  We have had instances of bent needles; needles that pierced the protective cap; needles with manufacturing residue on them; and needles without a point at the end.  Whenever we find something like that we contact the manufacturer and supply the lot number on the box.  In short order we get  special container to return the defective syringe and a coupon for another free box of syringes.

Aside from the pharmacies, our credit card issuer, the glucose meter manufacturer, and the syringe manufacturer, I am not aware of anyone else who would know about our purchases of diabetic supplies.  But someone does.  I have received unsolicited calls asking me if I check my blood glucose levels regularly.  There have been a few instances of adds for diabetic supplies appearing on the web pages I visit.  This morning I got an e-mail from PJ Media with a blaring advertisement for some cockamamie "new" diabetic spice treatment that is supposed to be superior to conventional treatment.

Ginger the diabetic dog

So.  Someone is watching and trying to attract my attention.  They think I am the diabetic in this household -- and they are spectacularly wrong. 

We have been buying diabetic supplies for the past five years in order to keep our Australian terrier alive.  Now, you don't treat a case of canine diabetes like you do a human case.  In humans you try to regulate the diabetic condition; with a dog you simply try control in a general way the blood glucose level to keep it from going too high or too low.  Getting a blood glucose reading from a dog is not for amateurs; we usually let the veterinarian do that, when necessary.  In fact, I have gotten only one successful blood glucose test from Ginger before I decided that the process was too stressful for the both of us.  Now I collect a urine sample twice a day and check that for glucose; I also check the urine pH value as part of Ginger's daily routine.  We try to keep good care of our diabetic doggie.

I have been aware for a while now that in spite of my efforts to be invisible on the world-wide web, that is not possible.  I do seem to have given the web watchers erroneous indications, however, and the watchers arrive at some amusing conclusions as a result.  I suppose that this post will cause them to update my profile again.

Rummy

I met Donald Rumsfeld today.  That is Donald H. Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush.  I shook his hand, introduced myself and asked him a question that has been on my mind for about 40 years.

I met Rummy at the Offutt Air Force Base Exchange; he was there for a two-hour book signing gig promoting his book Known and Unknown:  A Memoir.  The book signing was originally scheduled for last summer, but the death of Betty Ford caused him to postpone his visit to Offutt until today.  The signing was scheduled to last from 1100 to 1300, and I got there at 1100.  There was already a line that stretched out the main exchange door, and down the mall.  Surprisingly there where a substantial number of younger adults there and even a few teenagers.  Some older men were dressed in suits, but maybe that was because they had gone to church earlier in the day.  Some people came prepared with family members or friends holding cameras to record the historic moment.  Some had multiple copies of the Rumsfeld book, probably for themselves as well as the folks back home.  I thought of none of that and was there by myself , book in hand.

It took an hour of standing in a very slow-moving line before I finally got up to the desk where Donald Rumsfeld was signing copies of his book.  He had an assistant standing at the edge of his table; the assistant opened each book to the title page and slid the book in front of Rumsfeld at the appropriate moment.  The base exchange had thoughtfully provided an upholstered office chair so that Rumsfeld could sit comfortably.  Each person shook Rumsfeld's hand and got to exchange a few words with him.  I was standing behind a youngish family of six:  Mom and Dad, plus four kids, two of whom were riding in a double stroller.  The kids were amazingly quiet.  Dad was carrying a bag with three copies of the book in it.

My turn with The Man came next.  Donald Rumsfeld is not a physically large man by any means, but he gives every impression of a high level of mental sharpness and a zest for life.  He leaned forward in his chair and extended his hand.  I shook his hand and told him my name and that I had 25 years of active duty service.  He congratulated me on that.  I told him I had a question for him, if he had a moment; of course, he did.  My question was this:  I recall Linebacker II and the bombing of Hanoi with B-52s in December 1972, and less that a year later we went to DEFCON 3 during the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War.  It has always seemed to me that Henry Kissinger's finger prints are all over those two events.  Am I wrong?  His answer was a finesse.  He reminded me that at that time he was US ambassador to NATO and living in Brussels, Belgium.  He said he didn't know the details of what was going on back in Washington and that going to DEFCON 3 had surprised him too.

So now my copy of Known and Unknown:  A Memoir has been signed by the author himself.  From his book I have learned that he and I share similar opinions about NATO.  I am going to finish reading it, and then I am going to give it to my daughter so that she and her daughters can learn a bit of what really happened in the Cold War and its aftermath.  Who knows.  Maybe someday book collectors will value a signed copy of a memoir by Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Energy Policy -- Or What Passes For It

Last night, all the people in the USA whose lives are governed by a clock set all their clocks to read one hour later than it actually is (by the Sun, at least) and then went to bed.  This morning they pretended they forgot they had done that last night and got up an hour earlier than they ordinarily would have.  That is what passes for federal energy policy these days.

We are now in the Daylight Saving Time mode and will be until next November 4th.  This is part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was signed into law by George W. Bush.  Now, there are many provisions to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but mandating the switch to Daylight Saving Time at the times now called for in the law, and calling it an energy conservation measure, is willful ignorance.  It seems to assume that the citizenry of the USA is stupid.

I hear people say every summer that they are glad to have an extra hour of daylight.  Clearly, they are not thinking -- or they are not thinking clearly.  I used to volunteer as a docent at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.  During the summer months we volunteers gave tours of the zoo grounds.  There is a large sundial there and it is on the tour route.  When we passed the sundial I would ask everyone on the tour to look at their watches and check what the sundial indicated.  It is a pretty accurate sundial, so it invariably showed the time to be an hour earlier than what everybody's watches indicated.  I would ask the tour group why there was an hour difference between their watches and the sundial.  Most could not even hazard a guess.

Daylight Saving Time is an illusion; it only works in the part of the year when there are more hours of daylight over the course of a day than there are hours of darkness.  That part of the year begins, more or less, at the Vernal Equinox and ends at the Autumnal Equinox.  From the first day of Autumn to the first day of Spring, there are more hours of darkness over the course of a day than there are hours of daylight, so Daylight Saving Time is pointless.  Daylight Saving Time appears to work because people -- at least those who live by the clock, and that is most people -- get up an hour earlier than they did the morning before DST went into effect.  It does not even appear to work now because we are still in Winter and there are more hours of darkness that daylight over the course of a day.  People who live by the clock should have noticed that their bedrooms were darker this morning when they got up than they were yesterday morning, but I doubt that anyone did.

The traditional rules for implementing Daylight Saving Time were to start on the first Sunday in April and end on the first Sunday in October.  There is a good reason why that was so:  there are more hours of daylight than darkness in that part of the year.

I would like to ask the true believers in Daylight Saving Time where that extra hour of daylight is right now and next Halloween.  The fact is, it isn't there.  I will also ask the members of the US Congress why they believe that implementing Daylight Saving Time at all saves energy.  I don't expect any rational answers there either.

TESTING, TESTING

During the Cold War, both NATO and Warsaw Pact forces conducted a lot of intelligence gathering against the other.  Some of the efforts were spy missions in the traditional sense, in other words, what is called Human Intelligence (HUMINT), or more commonly, espionage.  Other efforts were intended to gather as much information as possible about the adversary's military capabilities.  Those efforts were called Communications Intelligence (COMINT), or more generally, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT).  Electronics Intelligence (ELINT) is a subset of SIGINT, as is COMINT.

I was involved in supporting US ELINT efforts in the early 1960s.  In those days a primary ELINT collector used by Strategic Air Command was the RB-47. 

Air Refueling

The crews that flew the RB-47 mainly flew along the periphery of Communist Bloc countries looking for signals that indicated the types of radars being employed, where the radars were located, improvements to existing equipment, and the introduction of new equipment.  The tanker crew I was on supported a reconnaissance project operating out of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, in the summer of 1964.  We flew every few days; that is, whenever the RB-47 crew had something they needed to check up on. 

Some sorties were easy.  We'd refuel the RB-47 over Alaska and set up a holding orbit in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska, and wait for radio calls from the RB-47.  If necessary, we would echo whatever the transmissions the RB-47 crew made.  Other sorties were much longer and ranged out in several directions.  There was a sortie that took us out over the Aleutian Chain, clear out to Shemya and beyond.  Several took us out past Point Barrow and over the Arctic Ocean.  The farthest ranging sortie had us refueling the RB-47 somewhere north of  the Severnaya Zemlya island group.  Another took us over to an air refueling point north of the New Siberia Islands.

View from a KC-135 cockpit

The RB-47 came loaded for Bear, so to speak.  There was a crew of six:  pilot, copilot, navigator, and three electronic warfare officers (EWOs).  For takeoff and landing the EWOs sat in slings in a walkway below the pilots.  After the bird was safely airborne and climbing, the EWOs crawled back through a tunnel to what had been the bomb bay in a more conventional B-47.  It was cramped quarters back there -- and noisy too, from what I've been told.  They sat under the center wing fuel tanks, and their ejection seats went downward through a Fiberglas and honeycomb steel panel that covered the bottom of the belly bulge that was the EWO main office.  Hanging from the right side of the fuselage, at least in the RB-47H, was a pod the crew called "the finder."  It apparently had some kind of electronic sensors that detected and recorded signals without the need for EWO intervention.  In the tail was a pair of 20 mm cannon mounted in a radar directed turret.  The copilot operated the turret if it became necessary to defend the aircraft.  There were several episodes over the years where it became necessary to defend the aircraft.

Standard tactics for departure and enroute cruise had the RB-47 taking off first, followed by the supporting KC-135.  That made sense.  If the RB-47 aborted the takeoff there was no reason for the KC-135 being airborne.  The KC-135 would follow the RB-47 out the departure route and, usually, overtake the recon bird shortly after level off.  Once the flight was about ten miles off the Alaskan coast, the RB-47 crew would conduct a test fire of the tail guns.  That process was done in radio silence; nearly all the mission was done in radio silence except for some course corrections and whatever position checks the RB-47 reported after it entered the "sensitive area."  In any case, test firing the guns required the KC-135 to leave the trail position and fly off the right wing of the RB-47.  Once the guns were seen to have fired, the KC-135 would drop back to trail position and follow the RB-47 on its outbound route.  Being in trail was kind of spooky because those radar directed guns were always pointed right at us.  When it came time to do air refueling, the guns would follow us as the RB-47 dropped back to get behind the tanker.  They would stop tracking us only after the RB-47 had passed our wingtip.  There might be just one air refueling or two, based on how far out we flew to the point where we parted company with the RB-47.

After we parted company with the RB-47 we usually just made a bee-line for Eielson AFB.  Enroute back we listened for the RB-47 making reports via HF radio to ground stations in Alaska and elsewhere.  If we did not hear the ground stations acknowledge the transmissions we would echo the recon crew report and wait for a ground station reply.  Other times, when the path out to drop off point was rather close in to Alaska we would be required to establish an orbit and hold between two points for some time until the RB-47 had made the required reports.  Shuttling between Nome and Kotzebue on the western coast of Alaska was fairly common. 

Just as an aside, Sarah Palin is right:  You can see Russia from your backdoor.  Oh, wait.   That was Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live.

Of course, we were not entirely alone out there over the Arctic pack ice.  The DEW Line radars were watching our progress for as far out as they could.  I recall checking in with Point Barrow one day when we were still about 300 nautical miles from the coastline.  Point Barrow called radar contact even before I turned on the IFF.  Of course, they knew our flight plan -- and we were cruising at 39,000 feet. 

Soviet Yak-25

The recon crew told us that the Soviets were watching too.  In fact, they would run intercepts on the RB-47s regularly.  As a matter of practice, the RB-47s always flew in international airspace, but the Soviets wanted to keep an eye on who and what was trolling their border regions.  The copilot on the RB-47 crew kept a black ring binder that was labeled "The Bad Guys."  It contained a sheaf of 8x10 glossy black and white images of the Soviet interceptors that had come up to eyeball the RB-47.  The one image that sticks in my mind is that of a Yak-25 flying on the right wing of the RB-47; the Yak-25 GIB (Guy in Back) was holding up a large camera, taking a picture of the RB-47 just at the copilot was taking a picture of the Yak-25.  We were told that intelligence analysts on both sides studied those images for changes in configuration and equipment so as to keep track of whatever changes were being fielded.

Since both sides always brought guns to a potential gunfight, there was a certain etiquette that was observed when an intercept took place.  If the Soviet interceptor did not switch his intercept radar to the attack mode, the RB-47 copilot kept the tail guns pointed away from the Soviet interceptor.  The better to avoid misunderstandings in what had to be a rather tense situation.  Yet attacks did occur, not only against the RB-47s, but also other reconnaissance aircraft.  The last known attack against an RB-47 came from North Korean MiG-17s in April 1965.  The RB-47 took hits from the MiGs but survived and landed at Yokota Air Base, Japan.  You can read a summary of attacks against RB-47s here.

The RB-47 program was slowly phased out with the introduction of the RC-135 series of aircraft.  The last time I recall seeing an RB-47 was the summer of 1966.  We deployed to Southeast Asia, mainly supporting the B-52 Arclight mission  and the various fighter missions against North Vietnam.  I saw an RB-47 parked on the ramp at Clark Air Base, Philippines on one of our stops there.  Later, we were holding in an air refueling orbit near Danang, when Panama Control, the GCI (Ground Control Intercept) site at Danang started calling an aircraft on UHF Guard channel.  They obviously deemed the aircraft as an unknown because with every radio challenge they included its TACAN range and bearing from Danang.  I started plotting the ranges and bearings; the positions were a nice neat line tracking westward, about 10 nautical miles off the southern coast of China's Hainan Island.  After several radio challenges by Panama Control, the RB-47 broke radio silence and told Panama to shut up and that they were supposed to be where they were.

By 1966 most of the RB-47s were retired as the RC-135s took over more and more of the SAC reconnaissance load.  The 82nd SRS was located at Kadena Air Base, Japan; another squadron flew out of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.  There were RC-135s at Shemya Air Force Base, Alaska too.  There were RC-135s flying out of the United Kingdom, Greece, and probably places I never heard of.  I recall seeing a couple of RC-135s landing at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, the same day a group of French Mirage-4 bombers and their supporting KC-135FRs departed Hickam on their way to French nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

The RC-135 continues to fly today in always newer configurations and out of more places I probably never heard of.  In fact, the RAF is now in the process of acquiring and operating RC-135s.

The testing continues unabated.  For their part, after a twenty year pause the Russians are again flying their Bear reconnaissance aircraft along US borders, at least.

Air Defense

EB-66E

A large fraction of EB-66 mission activities in the 1971-72 time frame involved ECM support for B-52 strikes in Laos and the key passes from North Vietnam into Laos.  When the strikes were close enough to Vinh and Than Hoa a fighter escort was tasked, in addition to the usual support package of two EB-66s and two F-105G Wild Weasels.  Most of the time the fighter escort came from the 432^nd Tactical Fighter Wing at Udorn, since they were air-to-air specialists.  However, some of their F-4 crews apparently weren’t that good at aircraft identification. 

IL-28 "Beagle"

On at least two occasions the fighter escorts could be heard talking among themselves wondering what those two twin-engine jets were out there following along with the formation.  Some even suggested that they might be IL-28 Beagles, since the North Vietnamese were known to have some of those.  Somehow, it didn’t seem occur to the escorts that the twin-engine jets were supposed to be out there.  Someone with a sense of humor even painted an orange pipper around the picture of an EB-66 that was hanging in the Korat Officers Club bar.  After landing from one such sortie, a message was sent to the 432^nd explaining the differences between the IL-28 and the EB-66. 

It must have worked because no one heard that kind of talk again from the fighter escorts.  In fact, on at least one mission where the EB-66s were providing ECM support in the “Gorilla’s Head” region of Laos, one EB-66 crew saw what appeared to be their F-4 MIGCAP shooting at them.  Post-mission reports clarified what really happened:  the F-4s were shooting at a MiG that was closing in at the EB-66’s six o’clock. 

But the fighter jocks had some other interesting and unusual experiences as well.
_______________________________________________

This one happened to a couple of F-4E crews out of the 388th TFW on MIGCAP over the Plaines des Jarres (PDJ) in northern Laos.  Brigham Control (the GCI radar at Udorn) had detected a medium speed non-squawker (no IFF) coming southwest out of Hanoi.  Since the bogie couldn't be identified electronically, Brigham vectored the MIGCAP to go check it out.  They were cleared in for an ID pass.  The first F-4E went smoking past the bogie at a high rate of speed. 

"Didja see it?" the pilot asked the GIB (Guy in Back). 
GIB:  "Yeah, it looked like a DC-7 to me." 
Flight lead:  "Two, your cleared in." 

The second F-4E went smoking past the bogie at a high rate of speed. 

"Didja see it?" the pilot asked his GIB. 
"Yeah," replied the GIB. 
 "Well, what was it," asked the pilot. 
GIB:  "I don't know, but it has CCCP painted on the side." 

Editor's Note:  For those too young to recall the Cold War, the Cyrillic acronym for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is CCCP.  It is pronounced as ESS ESS ESS ERR.

IL-18 "Coot"

There was a long pause while that news was digested.  It turned out in the aftermath that it was a Soviet embassy Il-18 (NATO code Coot), and it was taking a circuitous routing over the PDJ (probably for intelligence purposes) enroute to its destination, which was somewhere in Burma.

In any case, a message from 7th Air Force went out to all flying units and GCI squadrons pointing out the fact that the schedule of all Soviet embassy flights in the theater was provided on a weekly basis and everyone had better start paying attention to it.

_______________________________________________

Same wing, different crews, different day.  This time Brigham had a very high speed non-squawker coming southwest out of Hanoi.  This one couldn't be identified electronically either, but since its parameters implied an attack profile, the MIGCAP was vectored on it and cleared to fire. 

Excitement ran very high.  Now, the F-4E crews are humping along at over 35,000 feet and at as good a mach number as the bird will do, but they are barely closing on the bogie.  Finally, 75 miles inside Thailand, the flight lead thinks to himself that this is not an attack profile; he told Brigham Control  that this would be an ID pass – when he finally caught up to the bogie. 

SR-71A

A few minutes later, the MIGCAP finally got close enough to see that it was an SR-71.  It seems that the SR-71 crew had a few hydraulics problems over their "area of interest" and aborted the mission.  They had neglected to turn on the IFF.  It's probably fortunate that the flight lead was not some eager beaver looking to paint a red star on the side of his airplane.  The SR-71 landed at Korat, home of the guys who had been cleared to shoot it down. 

KC-135Q with SR-71A

Shortly, a KC-135Q arrived at Korat with a maintenance team and enough JP-7 to get the SR-71 to its intended destination, which was U-Tapao Air Base, Thailand.  A day or so later the SR-71 continued on its way.  There was a short work stoppage while everyone on the flight line watched the bird depart.  The SR-71 pilots never missed a chance to put on a good show.

SAMs In the DMZ



ZSU-57-2

It was a few weeks after the Spring 1972 North Vietnamese offensive into the South.  It was still unclear whether any of the SA-2s that the cunning NVA had dragged into Quang Tri province were still operational.  Our mission for a night sortie was to drill around Quang Tri province and generally provide ECM for whoever was working in the area just after dark.  We had been warned that there was a ZSU-57-2 (a tracked, twin-barrel 57mm AAA weapon lurking in the A Shau Valley).  Sure enough, it was there.  I happened to be looking down into the growing darkness below just as the thing fired.  I watched as a huge flock of red cannon balls floated upward toward an unseen AC-130 “Spectre” that was out there hunting the gun.  I know it was a Spectre because I saw it return fire at the gun down there in the A Shau.

An hour or so passed and we were generally hanging out in the Hue vicinity.  Below we could see lots of flares and fires burning as the ARVN fought back against the NVA.  The pilot, a relatively new guy, was puffing on his pipe and watching the show below.  Then something caught his attention.  We were generally heading north-northeast, and out in the distance he could see two or three bright yellow-white lights.  The lights were getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.  He was about to ask me what the lights were out in front of us, as if I could actually see them, closed off as the EWO and I were from the rest of the cockpit, when it suddenly dawned on him what he was seeing.  “I’ve got SAMs,” he said; almost simultaneously, the EWO called, “I’ve got uplink.”  The pilot executed a SAM break to the right.  The pilot directed me to make a SAM call on UHF Guard, but not knowing where the SAMs were coming from, I hesitated.  First I was unsure of where the SAMs were coming from, and second, I didn’t want to get into a discussion with the pilot about where they were coming from while he was in the middle of executing a SAM break – in the dark.  Finally I went out over Guard with a SAM call:  “SAM, SAM, vicinity of  Hue.”  Immediately a Wild Weasel who was been patrolling closer to the DMZ – and was at that moment in a duel with the SAM site – called, “SAM, SAM, DMZ.”  That cleared things up.

 The pilot was recovering from the first SAM break when two more SAMs came off the launcher.  “They’re shooting again,” the pilot reported, and we entered another SAM break to the right.  As we recovered from the second SAM break I saw that we were now about 20 miles off shore – and considerably lower than when all the excitement started.  I called the pilot and told him we were clearly out of range of any SAMs and to stay wings level if they fired again.  Very soon thereafter we saw another SAM come off the launcher, but this time jamming was effective and the SAM went ballistic.  That pretty much ended a few adrenalin-filled minutes.  We headed for home with Bingo fuel.

In reading the OPREPs the next day, it turned out that the SAM site had been shooting at a flight of F-4s that had been patrolling the DMZ, and one had been downed.  In addition, my Frag Shop boss (an F-4 jock) came back from an afternoon strike on North Vietnam extolling the courage of a KC-135 crew that had crossed the DMZ – with boss and his flight in tow – to go rescue another F-4 that had been shot up on the strike mission.  He pointed out where the tanker had taken him.  It was right across the area where the SAMs had fired the night before.

Armistice Day

It used to be called Armistice Day when I was a kid.  It had been called Armistice Day for a long time,  but in 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into a law a change that renamed that day Veterans Day.  It was a good thing.  Every war has its veterans, and they need to be recognized.

This afternoon I went next door to the neighbor's house on an errand.  Their granddaughter was there.  The first thing she said to me was, "Happy Veterans Day."  Her grandmother, our neighbor, told me that they had learned about Veterans Day in school today.  They had only learned about the US Army because when I told her I had been in the Air Force she was completely puzzled.  She asked me what I did.  I told her that if flew airplanes, just like her grandfather had done.  I'm not sure what she made of that; maybe no one had ever told her that Grandpa flew airplanes once.

When I was growing up, the veterans were mainly from World War II.  My uncle was a sailor on a fleet oiler; he was based at Ulithi Atoll and survived the submarine attack that happened there by virtue of being someplace else when the attack occurred.  As it was, the oiler that was tied up at his normal berthing point was hit and sunk.  There were WWII veterans living on both sides of us.  One was a fireman and had been in the Battle of the Bulge, among other things.  The other was a mechanic and had been a Marine at the invasion of Okinawa.  In retrospect, the former Marine had seen some hard times, and his behavior said as much.  His wife said that every year around Indepence Day he literally trembled from the sound of the fireworks going off.  A number of my high school teachers were veterans of WWII.  One wore a hearing aid; another had been of an aircraft carrier that was sunk; one had been a B-25 pilot.  Most never commented much about their experiences.

Since I am a veteran myself, I see things in a different light than when I was a kid.  I go to some of the reunions that occur fairly regularly.  I pick and choose.  Some reunions are of little or no interest while others are a chance to meet people I haven't seen in a long, long time.  The last reunion I went to was in September 2010 in Savannah, Georgia; the next one on my list will be in Tuscon, Arizona, next October.

Sometimes it's someone else's reunion that catches my attention.  I has to have been over twenty years ago now.  The survivors of the 306th Bomb Group were having a reunion at Offutt Air Force Base.  My wife and I happened to be having dinner in the Officers Club the same night that the 306th veterans were having their farewell banquet.  The entertainment included a part of the Strategic Air Command Band called Nightwing.  On this special occasion they were doing songs from time of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in England.  One of their female vocalists sounded so much like Dame Vera Lynn that it was uncanny.  My wife and I knew about Vera Lynn because we had spent three years living in England on my next-to-last assignment in the Air Force.  The Brits were fond of reliving their finest hour; Vera Lynn and her songs were a part of that.  In any case, the Vera Lynn sound-alike must have created a time machine for all those old guys.  It was pretty emotional, we could tell that.  More than one of those old veterans got up and left the banquet hall; some would return, only to get up and leave again.  I can understand why.

On that assignment in England, we lived at RAF Lakenheath.  In WWII it had been occupied by RAF units, as had my base of assignment, RAF Mildenhall.  The US Air Force presence at those bases came much later.  Both bases were near Cambridge, and quite a few bases that hosted American fliers had been in the area.  We learned about one pub in Cambridge, The Eagle, that had been a hangout for American air crews during the war.  We learned that there was one room at The Eagle that had the names of countless American airmen written on the ceiling as graffiti.  On one of the many visit to Cambridge, I happened to meet an old English gentleman and told him that I wanted to see The Eagle because I had heard of the room with the graffiti.  "Ah," he said, "I used to hoist those lads up on my shoulders so they could write their names."  He had been in the RAF during the war.  He told me how to find The Eagle.

Another landmark for many surviving veterans of WWII is the Madingley American Cemetery.  The Madingley American Cemetery is on the road west of Cambridge.  It holds the remains of 3812 American military dead.  There is a wall that records the names of 5127 airmen and sailors who were missing in action.  The bases of RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall used to take turns doing a Memorial Day ceremony at Madingley.  I suppose they still do.

So many veterans.  So many experiences.