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October 31, 1969 Tay Ninh Province This is when and where my brother died. He was just a kid of 19. His nickname was "Spider" because he was so lanky growing up. I was five. B/229 AHB #66-16650 SPADE 650 A/C was on a C&C mission for a battalion-sized operation. The A/C returned to base at about 0830 for refueling. When it departed, it carried the 1/12 CAV, command group and 2 arty FO's as PAX. At about 0930, other A/C in the AO heard a "MAYDAY" call from Spade 650 and watched helplessly as it went into a steep...

A post was made concerning Kuwaiti attitudes toward the USA and the imminent 2nd stage of The September 11th War. I responded with the following, and was asked to post it in a vanity. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I have to respond to this with a personal anecdote. Back in '98 when Saving Private Ryan debuted, I was in the theatre behind three Kuwaitis (I discovered later). You've all seen the film. Except for the movie itself, it was completely silent in the theatre... until the scene in the end at the cemetary. At that point, I heard a small, awed whispering from...

Tuesday there were many elections taking place all over the United States. Most of them were small, municipal and county elections. Votes were made on subjects ranging from who would be able to claim the candidacy of a particular party for a particular forthcoming election, to the winning of such seats a councilperson or mayor. But there was one vote taken that was not scheduled. No seat on any city council was up for grabs. No amount of campaign support was at stake. No determination on curfew, noise limits for parties, or whether or not a stop sign was being ...