19 Sept. 2015

I laid off the blog writing while I was in Gettysburg.  Of course the main purpose for going to Gettysburg was a squadron reunion of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115 "The Silver Eagles" from Vietnam days.

The hotel gave us a conference room to use as our "Ready Room" and we met there after the days activities to have a libation or two, tell war stories and generally renew old friendships.  Squadrons had a mascot.  For instance, I was in 542 at one time and they were the Tigers.  The squadron had a Bengal Tiger skin complete with head and it was normally displayed in the squadron ready room and carried to the Officers Club on Friday afternoons for happy hour.  The junior Lieutenant in the squadron was responsible for the safety of the mascot and God forbid that another squadron should abscond with your mascot.  Well, there are no known Silver Eagles so that was a problem but when we were sent to Nam Phong Thailand from Danang in June of 72 our young troopers from the metal shop came up with what they thought was the answer.  They went out in town and bought some scraggily chickens and spray painted them with silver paint.  You had to be there to really appreciate it.
On Friday we had a two hour bus tour of the battlefield with a certified guide.  He really knew his stuff but there was just to much info in a short period of time to be able to retain it.  Sadly noted was the fact that in three days of fighting there was over 30,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed.
After the battlefield tour we went to a wine tasting and after that we were the guests of General and Mrs. Grant for lunch and it was an outstanding lunch.

I had a really nice ride today on some great back roads where speed limits were 30 mph because of the curves.
So that's about it for tonight.  It's after midnight and 0600 comes early.  I have a good ride today with some interesting sights.
Goodnight all.