Please feel free to take part in our discussion– this forum serves as a guestbook for everyone, not just members. Offensive, spam, and inflammatory posts may be deleted.
If your comment does not show up right away, do not worry, it was probably temporarily marked as spam for some reason. However, your comment will be manually approved and later posted once an administrator has reviewed it.
Dan:
If I happen to see it, I’ll come back with a report for you. However, since we’ll be working all over Port au Prince building houses all day long in the 106-115 degree heat index weather, I doubt I’ll be in much of a mood to look around by the end of the day. LOL
This is going to be a struggle for me on a couple of levels. One, I’m 61 years old and may come to the conclusion that physically demanding mission work is something I ought to leave behind. I’ve done chain saw, mud out and debris cleanup and it gets harder every time. The recovery time gets longer and longer too.
Plus, I have to give up my cigs for the whole week. But, the Spirit told me just as plain as day that His strength would get me through that without any problems and I’ll stand on that. He’s already reduced my daily intake of cigarettes from about 60 to 3 in preparation for leaving. That alone is a miracle! LOL
Gary, we have been contributing money to The Friends of the Orphans for several years. One of the Orphanages we suupport is in Hati. Our church also collects old sheets and linnens and sew’s crosses on them to be used as burial cloths for the children in Hati. I hear that they average seven funerals a day and they don’t have coffins. You may get a chance to see the FOTO facility. Good luck, we’ll be praying for you.
Amen Brother!
Bill:
Thanks for the kudos.
Yes, it’s not really a mystery as I can see the hand of God working all through my life, even before I knew Him. Amazin’, ain’t it?
There will be Baptist’s in heaven, but I think those of us who occassionally sneak a beer and smoke will be put with someone besides other Baptist’s.
Gary,
Bless you and your group for your efforts. God does not work in mysterious ways. He has a plan if we will only listen. If God can use me, he can use anyone. Here I was trained to kill the body & now Jesus uses me as a Methodist pastor to save souls. Being a Methodist I am convinced there will be a Bapitist or two in Heaven despite what those other Methodist say.
Gary;
Godspeed. You have obviously wrapped your heart and mind arount this mission. You’ll wrap your arms around it when you get there.
These fine people have been dealt a devastating blow, from which they may never recover. People like you, are the only link to hope that they have.
My wife, Barbara and I will keep you in our prayers and thoughts, as we do those affected by this catastrophe.
Please use this medium to keep us up to date on your progress.
My brothers:
Please pray for me next week. I’ve been chosen to spend a week in Haiti building permanent shelters for the victims of January’s earthquake. Our team leaves Sunday.
I’ve been doing disaster relief with the Southern Baptist’s for about 5 years now, but this is the first time I’ve been offered the chance to do it overseas. I’m as excited as a kid before Christmas! This will be my 14th or 15th deployment in response to 10 or 11 disasters, so this isn’t anything new, but the chance to impact the lives of desperate people in the name of Jesus in Haiti is a blessing which I can’t quite wrap my arms around.
Who woulda thunk that someone like me, chief among sinners, could have such an opportunity? The last time I was in a third-world country, the mission was to kill and destroy. This time, it’s to build and love.
God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t he?
I just had to share this with my brothers and ask for your prayers.
Lt,
I was sent to Ft. Dix as I was going to be an officer. I had elected artillary & armor. However they said we all were going to be infantry or go as an enlisted. I chose to go as a PFC. Stayed two extra weeks & got out after my return with 19 months as an RA. Remember the marches well.
Hey Gary,
Training must have been OK. Still kicking today. Not sure about LT, but when I was there it was WWII training. Had two weeks of jungle training when I hit Nam. Not sure any training could prepare a guber like me for Vietnam.
LT:
Yeah, they probably were doing that as Ft. Polk graduated an entire battalion of Infantry every week I think, most of whom went directly to Vietnam. I was in A/4/3 (or A/5/3?), and the battalion had 5 companies. All but one got orders for Vietnam the day we graduated.
It was us. We all went to Germany, except for some who left for specialized training such as dog handlers school, jungle school, jump school etc.
Polk was a busy place in late ‘69 and early ‘70. There were 5 training brigades there (2 BCT, 2 AIT and 1 CST). Most of the brigades had 5 battalions and the battalions had 5 companies. Add that up and it comes to about 125 training companies. Since training companies were much larger than line companies, that’s a LOT of trainees!
Bill,
My Infantry AIT was at Ft. Dix, NJ also. I was in C/5/1 Pulliam’s Panthers. I do not have real fond memories of what was called Infantry Walk. 1st off I don’t remember walking on it and it was loose sand which made it harder than heck to run on!
Gary,
They were apparently hurrying to get you ready for your tour in Nam! I took an OCS and a short tour at Fort Hood before they sent me over the pond. When they were ready for me to go they decided to make a mistake on my orders for Jungle School so when I got to Charleston SC the SGM there said my class had already started so they cut new orders for me to go to Oakland and then Vietnam.
If you didn’t get your AIT at North Ft. Polk, you didn’t have AIT at all.
Ft Dix, NJ had AIT for me.
OTIS REDDING
Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay
yes russ that is where i had my induction to the military way of life both basic/ait the white stips and all
Larry….No not the animals.
But did anybody else take AIT at ORD..? They had a place called Stillwell Hall on base, as I remember. Just a big old bar where we’d go and drink 3.2 Coors and listen to “We gotta get out of this place”……..over..and over…and over. The DI’s would kick our buts the next morning at PT…or force marching in that sand. Repetitive torture and somehow we got in shape.
Russ:
The way you guys are talking was your favorite song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by Eric Burdon and the Animals?
Terry,
Well said.
Thanks
I NTERESTING COMMENTS TO THE MUSIC ‘ I GOTTA GET OUTA THIS PLACE IF IT’S THE LAST THING I EVER DO’ SEEMS TO STICK WITH ME. AS TO THE PTSD DEAL. DURING MY LONG LASTING [ 5 YEARS SO FAR] ORDEAL WITH THE VA, MY WIFE OF NOW 39 YRS. AND MY OLDER DAUGHTER BOTH WROTE LETTERS ABOUT ME WITH THEIR OBSERVATIONS OF ME OVER THE YEARS. THIER LETTERS COMBINED WITH ONE FROM BEN BUEHLER BLEW THE PSHYC’S MIND AWAY. MY RATING WENT FROM30% to 70%. IT STILL BOGGLES MY MIND. BUT IF YOU CAN ACCEPT WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY,AND THAT CAN BE HARD, YOU AT LEAST HAVE A CHANCE TO CONFRONT YOUR SITUATIN WITH THE LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU TRULY NEED. AS MY WISE GROUP COUNSELOR HAS OFTEN SAID TO UNDERSTAND WHERE YOU ARE COMING FROM WITH THE ANGER DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN EVER BE CURED OF PTSD, BUT AT THE VERY LEAST TO UNDERSTAND IT MAY HELP YOU TO MANAGE THOSE FEELINGS. I KNOW THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN A GODSEND FOR ME. THANK YOU MY BROTHERS FOR THE HONORABLE PEOPLE YOU ARE.
Gary,
I doubt they played Country Joe on AFVN and I’m pretty sure I never heard of him until I got back home and heard about Woodstock. But, “be the first family on your block, to have your boy come home in a box”, never struck me as grunt material.
Wasn’t CCR or Norman Greenbaum……but I’d a played them too. I don’t think Norman Greenbaum had much of a repertoire past Spirit in the Sky.
Short Round….That was “Fortunate Son”…. and it was one of the best, most appropriate song for a grunt that I ever heard.
how about “favorite son” –i ain`t no generals son–etc
Russ,
It wasn’t something by CCR was it? My favorite song of my time there was Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”.
Russ:
For those of us who arrived late in the war, Country Joe was an icon. Someone was playing “The I Feel Like I’m Goin’ To Die Rag” on a tape recorder at Chu Lai once and all the lower raking EM’s who heard it cheered. It totally pissed off the “lifers” and someone quickly ordered it shut off.
it’s not Country Joe and the Fish…for sure. For the Woodstock aficiondo’s.
I knew you’d ask… I know I don’t have the deck any more, but I might still have the tape…..and MP3, of course. My favorite song on the album is too appropriate to the topic and I’d probably give it away if I gave you a clue.
But ya know, maybe it’s good fodder to start a pool going for the reunion. Proceeds can go for the reunion refreshments…..or other such worthwhile causes..
Russ,
Pray tell what was that one tape you had? That might tell us if something was wrong with you or not!!