Marine Corps Birthday Ball

In honor of the 233rd birthday of the United States Marine Corps, Leslie and I attended a local celebration along with other Marines from the area. The participants ranged in age from a 29 year old former Lance Corporal, to an 89 year old former fighter squadron mechanic who served on Guadalcanal in 1942. In keeping with tradition, we honored all Marines; past, present, and future. Semper Fi!

MEN AGAINST FIRE

These two fellas just returned from a wildland fire. We were called out to the fire at about noon on Saturday and didn't return home until about 2130. It was a several acre fire on top of a ridgeline, several miles from any paved roads. We hiked-in with our firefighting tools, and met up with Dept of Nat'l Resources Firefighters, and with the help of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft dropping water, we got the fire knocked down and controlled. Some fun!

Some Fun! You betcha!

Men, if you ever get bored on a sub-zero day, go and rent a 40 pound, gasoline-powered, diamond-bladed, concrete saw, and spend 3 hours on your knees, in an enclosed space, breathing carbon monoxide and concrete dust, listening to 120 decibel 2-stroke engine noise, whilst cutting slices into your patio! You can't beat it. The only way it could be more fun would be doing it underwater, or on fire! Now I didn't do this just to "have some fun". It was necessitated by the frost heave of the concrete floor which had caused our basement door threshold to lift up and impinge the operation of the door. Continued heaving may have possibly spread and cracked the house foundation, and we wouldn't want that to happen, dontcha know!

Report from Sudan

Report from Sudan: Dad spent about 10 days in the E. part of Sudan in the vicinity of Kurmuk, on the Ethiopian border. His job was to survey dirt airfields for possible emergency use by the medical team he accompanied to Sudan. The team, from Medical Teams Worldwide, was in Sudan to provide medical and dental care to the people in the villages. Sudan is a very desolate place, but the local people are friendly and hospitable.

When the alternator went out on our truck, the driver removed and repaired it on the side of the road.

His tool kit, in an old oil container.

A free lunch provided by the villagers in Deya Mansur. No tellin' what it was, but I ate it and thanked them...and I felt fine later!

One of the soldier hitchikers who climbed into our truck. "SPLA" is the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

A lady obtaining wash water from a dry riverbed. Life is "hard" here to say the least.

How we spent Saturday

On the 10th of November (the 232nd birthday of the US Marine Corps) our water heater sprung a leak and saturated the basement floor area where it was located. We sprang to repair it and soon learned that it had a fatal wound (a cracked tank top) and complete replacement was required. This was not how I (Dave) planned to spend the birthday of the Corps! While Joe and I were replacing the water heater (and I was griping about the aggravation, cost, etc...), the Lord brought to mind the fact that at that very moment, many Marines in Iraq were spending their Marine Corps birthday without any hot water (and perhaps they hadn't had any kind of running water in many weeks or months). So, I repented of my bad attitude and was immediately grateful for what I had. After the heater was installed, Joe and I dedicated it to the Corps. Semper Fi!