Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Today, being Veteran’s Day WITCO was closed and so I didn’t have Cody or Melissa. When I first say on my schedule that I didn’t have them, I was sure they were taking them away from me because I had done something wrong…Of course, had I thought it through I should have thought of Veterans’ day. They mentioned it in both Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society Sunday, and in the Choir Broadcast. Then we had a MT Next Home Evening Monday night and heard from all the Veterans in the ward. There were five, I think: Leon Bergquist, Dick Bergquist, Vern Beesley, Wight Thomas, and Bill Neddo; and of those five, only Brother Beesley every really fought. He talked about having to be out constantly in trenches for 13 days and it was cold. He said that the city kids didn’t understand the principle of moving to stay warm and Vern and others were encouraging them to get up and stamp their feet and move around to keep the circulation going but some of them just didn’t believe and they froze to death. Bill (Neddo) was in Viet Nam a year or so before Dee. It was pretty fun to hear from them all but it was a little long. Started at 7:00 & I didn’t get home til about 10:00. But, you know all those fun people and they are fun regardless! Know what I mean, Jelly Bean?! GRIN!!

Leon Bergquist said that he was fixing cars mostly the whole time in England. One of the fun things was getting to drive the ‘General’s’ jeep and getting all these salutes and undo respect when he did. GRIN! He said he really wanted to work on planes and was in the Army Air Corp. (I think that’s what it was before it became the ‘Air Force.’) but he only every worked on cars or just the PARTs for the planes. Dick was a Korean linguist … made possible by his mission in Korea. He talked about flying reconnaissance missions and being locked on by anti-aircraft weaponry…but he said the scariest thing was when there was engine, or some other equipment trouble/failure. (Both sounded scary to me!!) Dee worked with radios and communications and that’s what Bill did, too. Those who didn’t have to fight said how grateful they were for that. Did you know Lloyd Roberts was a medic in a paratrooper (they jumped out of planes…) squad. He said he had a couple of his superior officers that offered to send him through medical school. But he said he has done what he loved. They were talking about him pulling Lowell Stoddard out of a car in the Weiser river in November one time. I didn’t catch any details much but apparently Lowell was driving and slid off the road and was in a pretty bad way in the water and Lloyd got to him and pulled him out. DeeDie said he has resuscitated people with mouth-to-mouth a few times…I had no idea. Ya never know!!

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