war monger

This is an early Lew. A group picture of my squadron of the Air Force ROTC which stands for Reserve Office Training Corps. I was attending the University of Miami at the time. I wanted to be a navigator on a B-52. Can you spot me in the group picture? Back row, number 6 counting from the right. Such a serious expression. It must have been my war face as they call

it.

They were a great bunch of guys but I wonder how many of them came back from Vietnam. Oh, to be young again. Our uniforms had to be just so. The shirt had to be tucked together at the sides and not in the back. Since at that time in my life my shoulders were wider than my waist there was quite a bit of shirt to tuck together at the sides. One of my squadron buddies told me of a tailor near the university that knew just how to trim the shirt in so that there would be very little if any at all tucked in at the sides. He did the shirts for everyone. After he finished with my shirt it looked very neat. If you enlarge the group picture you can see the battle ribbons above my left shirt pocket. I don’t have the battle ribbons anymore and I think that I have one of my two chevrons left, I gave one to my daughter but I don’t know if she still has it. I got to fly a large airplane whiled in the Air Force ROTC. It was a large twin engine transport plane and we were flying all around over the city of Miami at night. It was neat to look out the left canopy window and see the left engine and then turn my head and look out the right canopy window and see the right engine. Yep, both engines were still there and not on fire like you see in the movies. It was a good time and we all have a high point in our lives and my time at the University of Miami was the high point of my life. Everything was going great and nothing was going wrong. I was working weekends as an x-ray technician, getting and education and having fun at Suntan U as they called the university then. By the way, this picture was from my University of Miami yearbook. Today Mary and I are going to the Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe which is a Catholic shrine and church. I have never been there but the pictures that I have seen of it are quite impressive. Everyone have a great day. Lew