Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our best wishes for you and your family.

Bruce and Pam

Christmas 2011

All the decorations are done.  I added a snowman and a Mrs Santa to our yard ornaments this year.  Had thought about more but between my knee problems and a cold that just wouldn't go away that is all I got done.

Here is the snowman.

Mr. and Mrs. Santa

Pam does the tree.

Luckily we have had a pretty wet December and we needed it with the drought we have had the last year.  We are scheduled for more on Monday the 19th.  We still need about 18 inches to catch up to normal levels in the lakes.

If you want to check in my my carvings go to www.bruceandpamsspot.blogspot.com

Here is the link to my ETSY shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/brucecurran.  Shop name is Laughing Cat Woodcarving.

The shop is named after my cat Blaze that likes to supervise my work.  Here is  checking on me taking a picture of one of my carvings.  Blaze appears to have a smile stuck on his face and likes to walk around the house meowing for no particular reason.  So Pam and I have decided he is laughing.  Therefore Laughing Cat (weren't you just dying to know?).

Here are a few of the Santas I carved this year getting their finishing touches.

Pam and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great New Year.

Bruce and Pam

Happy Thanksgiving

Hard to believe it is already Holiday Time again.  Seems like it was just Thanksgiving a few weeks ago.  We are hosting at our house this year.  Our son Charles and his wife Heather will be here as will some longtime friends from San Antonio Tina and Mario.

We are planning a fairly tradional meal less the turkey.  We are having ham instead.  Not a big fan of roasted Turkey (my daughter in law shares my views)  I like turkey a lot of ways just not baked in the oven.  I made my trademark mac and cheese (7 different kinds of cheese), mashed potatoes and cooked the ham.  Pam made deviled eggs, a cheese tray and relish tray, Parker house rolls and green beans.  Heather made a peanutbutter pie.

Now for that nap

Hope your day is great.

Bruce an Pam

Remodeling On Kitchen Is Now Done

We finished the remodeling in the Kitchen (less the new Range Hood as we have not yet found what we wanted).  Pam and I both agree the Kitchen is now far more functional and it is a lot easier to load the dishwasher.  Unloading is still a pain but not because of the kitchen's layout  just because neither of us really wants to do it.

Here the new back splash is being installed.  I used the same pattern on the back splash as I did on the floor around this cabinet area.  Hopefully it pulls it all together.  We think it goes well with the new granite counter tops.

Other end of the cabinet.  I replaced all of the outlets as well.

Much more usable space.  The kitchen sink was also replaced.  You can see the back splash and the floor in this picture.

Pam is enjoying the enlarged island.  It is hard to believe how much difference two feet of counter space makes.

The new cook top is a hit as well.  You can see the black range hood we are looking to replace.  The builder of course used a cheap model and surprisingly it is not vented outside even though it is on an exterior wall.  That will change when we put in the new one.  Our problem is finding a Goldilocks vent.  All the we have found are either too complex,artsy and ridiculously expensive or too simple and cheap looking.  Doesn't seem to be a lot in that mid range (aka just right).

Any more signifcant remodeling is on hold for the moment.  Have to get my knee back in shape and that is turning out to be a bit more complicated than expected.  Rehab seems to somehow make it worse before it gets better.  At least that is what my therapist seems to think.  I am ready for the better (Pam probably even more so than me).

More later

Bruce and Pam

Remodeling Continued and an Unexpected Road Block

The remodeling continues as we have moved to the kitchen.  There we are removing a bad design choice by the builder.  The put wings angled into the kitchen.  Makes it hard to move around.  We didn't think much of it when we bought the house as we were not cooking much then.  As we have moved to be healthier in our eating choices we have started to cook at home most of the time.  We found a number of things about the arrangement of this kitchen that were less than optimal.  To this point the only thing we had done was replace the dishwasher and the refrigerator and the garbage disposal.  This round was a little more drastic.  The plan is to remove the wings straightening out the counter top.  To install new granite counter tops, extend the island and to install a new gas cook top.  This will also entail some work to the ceramic floor tile.

As usual I am not great at taking before pictures but here are few that will give you and idea while we were in progress with this change.

Here is what it looked like before.  Each side had these wings.

Here the wing has been removed.  And the dishwasher repositioned.

Another view post wings.

Then the big job was patching the tiles.  I did not realize it was going to be a big job.  The reason I thought I had enough matching tile.  Only to find out when removing from the attic that I did not have what I thought.  Apparently there was a box of tile in our attic from another house in the subdivision.  So then the fun started. We knew who made the tile Interceramic so we went to them.  There we found out they had not only suspended the tile but no longer made that size.  We were able to locate an Interceramic that had some of the discontinued tile in a similar color still in stock.  So we trotted over there and bought all they had which was 75 square feet.  The reason being is that I could buy all of it for fifty dollars or just what I needed for 75.  Pam was still looking at me like I was crazy as I happily bought all they had.  So now all I had to do was chisel up some additional perfectly good tiles so I could make a pattern that looked like we had planned it this way all along.

Before Chiseling

After Chiseling

Now I tried removing these tiles several ways but ended up using and air hammer.  A very noisy proposition and it just took me two days.  It turns out one of the things the builder had done very well was put these tiles down.

So then I needed to put the tile back.  What I finally set on was installing the tile and adding a diamond detail to it so it would blend with the old tile.

Here the tile is installed but not yet completely grouted.

So here is where the unexpected road block comes in.  I know you thought it was the tile but surprise it was me.  We decided we were doing OK for time on the remodel and we would take Tuesday Oct 18th and go to the State Fair of Texas (more on the fair later).  We hadn't been in about 15 years and could now take the Dart Train from Plano near our house to Fair Park.  One of the things about the fair is that it is a slightly seedy part of old downtown Dallas.  As it was built in the twenties that is not a surprise to us but it is not the greatest place to park your car.  So we hopped on the train patted ourselves on the back for being so progressive and riding down to the fair.  We got out right in front of the fair gate and proceeded to have a pleasant day with plenty of walking.  My knee was a bit sore but that was not unusual and we kept going.  As we walked out of the fairgrounds and were about to get on the train my right knee went out (as in I can't walk on it).  So I limped on the train with Pam's help and much to the chagrin of those around us.  I am not sure what they had thought had happened but its public transit so who knows.   We make it back to the station and Pam's goes for the car.  A quick trip to my doctor the next day sends me to an orthopedist who does an MRI on my kneed and turns out it needs surgery.  The kitchen is still not ready for the counter tops that are coming in on the 26th and my surgery is scheduled for the 28th.

Now in our 35 years together Pam and I have done our fair share of remodeling including building on house from scratch.  So you would think she is OK with it right.  Wrong.  She hates remodeling just likes the results.  And to this point I had managed to keep her involvement in this project to a minimum.  But that would change.  Since I know have limited mobility she has to help me get the rest of the counters out and to enlarge the island before the new counter tops come in.  Luckily the builder had not been as conscientious install the counter tops as he had the flooring and they were held on with just a few screws.



Old Island

Modified Island

Island with new counter top

Old Cook top and counter top

New Cook top and counter top

The tile got grouted (Pam's handiwork)

The new sink.  Back splash and trim still need to be done but that may have to wait a week or so.

Ta Da the largely finished kitchen.  We have the new vent found but the trim back splash and vent hood will have to wait until I am back in sparing condition.  You can now tell this is actually a pretty big kitchen  Before Pam and I had a hard time working in it at the same time.

I will be putting the same diamond design in the back splash by the sink to help tie in the new floor tiles.

And the surgery on my knee went by the books so hopefully in the next few weeks I can put the finishing touches on this project then no more remodeling until after the first of the year.

More later

Bruce and Pam

Remodeling

When Pam and I bought the house we currently live in we never dreamed we would still be there 9 years later.  Much to Pam's chagrin we have moved quite a bit in our married life.  Mostly due to my advancement.  Even with my retirement in 2005 from education and 2010 from real estate we expected to move.  The problem is we haven't found any place we want to go.  In the past the choice was always clear as there was a job driving to move.

We had given some thought to the Texas Hill Country but with this years drought and the downturn in the economy it didn't seem like the right time.  Pam has now retired which should make things easier, right.  Not the case.  She has a specific set of requirements (that probably can never be met) for a new location and home.

Realizing that we are here for a number more years at the least we have begun another round of remodeling.  The last before this was Oct 2010 when I remodeled the craft room and we converted the second guest bedroom into an office.

In this round we are working on bathrooms, carpet and the master shower. The first of remodeling the master shower was undertaken last week and involved taking in some space from the Master closet and reconfiguring the master closet.  That closet had been weirdly shaped poorly configured.  Pam however was never willing to let me correct it until now.  And of course the reconfiguring of a closet entailed cleaning out a lot of what was in there.

We also put new counter tops in our bathrooms.  The old counter tops had an integrated shell sink and were cultured marble.  They have been replaced with new granite counter tops with drop in sinks and new faucets.

Guest Bathroom

Pam's New Vanity

My New Vanity

And of course all work must be supervised.  Here is our resident project manager at work.  Notice the intensity with which does his work.

Next comes new carpet for the guest bedroom and office.  I will try to be better about taking before pictures.  For some reason I am always to busy starting the project to remember to take pictures.

Hope all is well in your world.

Bruce and Pam

It Has Been A Long Hot Summer

We are just a few days away from taking the record from 1980 as the hottest summer on record for the Dallas area.  This has been a miserable one with 65 days over a hundred degrees and a feels like temperature of 110 for most of those days.  We went from a windy spring to a still stifling summer.
We also are now the driest year on record. 

Pam retired on May and we have worked through the summer rearranging our lives to deal with the two of us being retired.  Nothing drastic but there are a surprising number of thinks that need to be taken care of.  We have a pretty good financial advisor and insurance people so we have been working through many things.  We also have the advantage of several friends and family who have recently retired to build on.

Pam has taken a part time job with our church teaching preschoolers how to read (or more correctly pre reading skills). It will keep her busy several days a week from mid morning to mid afternoon.  I still have not committed to anything and have been carving a lot due to the heat.  I have a lot of projects around the house but it is just to hot to do them.

Hopefully this weather pattern will break soon and I can get to some of them before winter sets in.  So in parting here are Smokey and Blaze engaged in their favorite pastime sitting in our laps.

Hope all is well.

Bruce and Pam

The Heat Goes On

Dallas continues to be in the grips of a record setting summer.  By Friday 8/12/2011 we will have tied the record for the longest consecutive number of days over 100 and there is no end in sight.  The bad thing is it is not really cooling down at night.  10 pm and it is still at or near 100.  Lows are staying in the high 80s.  To add to the problem after a spring where we thought we would blow away no there is no wind at all. 

In the midst of all this Charles and Heather have moved back to Dallas.  Charles has taken a position with a new firm and they found an apartment in the Northpark area.  Pam and I are glad to have them back but moving in the heat was less than fun.  Heather is currently finishing up with her job and will join Charles here at the end of the month.  She is looking forward to starting a new career as of yet undetermined.  After four years of litigating for the State of Kansas on child support cases she is looking for something more up beat.

Pam has decided on her retirement career.  She will be working with our Church and its Pre-K programs teaching reading skills three days a week.  I am still undecided.  I have been spending a lot of time carving and am being told by those who have seen the product to sell them.  I may play with that a while before committing to anything else.  I have surprised my self so far having taken no lessons and only reading a few books (Reading my be a bit overstated as most carving books are mostly pictures.

I am currently grand dog sitting and it is funny to watch our two spoiled cats share their castle with Sophie.  Sophie is a LapsaPoo and wants to be friends with the cats in the worst way.  Sophie is the only dog our cat Smokey has ever seen and since we got him as a kitten from a friend who fosters for the ASPCA he hasn't been around that many cats.  Blaze who we got from the Plano animal shelter was the cat used by the shelter to test dogs to see if they would tolerate a cat.  That is how I found him at the shelter he was in the room with a couple and a dog.  I wanted a gray and white cat that was calm.  He seemed to be undaunted by the dog and the couple.  When I asked the attendant if they were adopting the cat he said oh no Blaze was their test cat. He got along well with dogs so they would bring him in when someone wanted to know if the dog would get along with a cat.  Oddly enough in our house Blaze is the shy one.  He also has a different outlook on dogs these days.  It seems he knew how to get adopted.  Oh yeah the calm thing didn't turn out to be true either.  He tears around the house like a banshee doing acrobatics and then looking to see if I was impressed.

Off to take the dog for a walk.

Hope you have a great day.

Bruce

Just An Old Cedar Box

This is the story of an old cedar box.  For some this will bring back memories for others it read like ancient history.  None the less this is the story of a 70 year old cedar box and its transformation.

Lane is a name most people today would recognize for it's furniture but there was a time they were best known for a specific piece of furniture - cedar chests. Cedar Chests were a part of everyday life and many if not most families had one. The reason, they repelled bugs specifically moths. So most would use them for storage of sweaters and other woolens that would become food for moths in the summer months. Many women also used them as a hope chest. A hope chest was where she would start gathering special things for the day when she had a family and home of her own. My mother came from a farm family in a very rural area of South Texas often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. My grandparents did not get electricity until the 1950s and indoor plumbing about 1958. Oddly enough the only cedar chest my mother ever owned was this small one. Oddly enough my wife Pam is also from a farm family in South Texas though not as far south. Her mother (Alva) did have a cedar chest as did her aunts. While Alva's was redone and is in Pam's sisters house we have one of her aunts that we had redone by a very talented restorer in San Antonio.  Even after 70 years the inside of that chest still has the cedar aroma.

The Lane company would make small cedar chests and give them to graduating senior (girls). I believe the practice stopped in the mid 1970s though Pam did get one when she graduated in 1970. The practice was most common in rural areas with the local furniture store distributing the boxes. Pam's was destroyed or lost in one of our moves. My mother's that she got in 1940 however survived. My sister brought it to me out of storage recently. Though it was not in the best of shape I manged to put it back together. I converted the box from hinges to slip in top. The old cedar had simply become to dry to hold the hinges. After some sanding being careful to retain the lane stamp and the furniture store tag I decided to carve the box. Sanding the box proved interesting as once the finish was removed the box still had a strong Cedar smell. It is amazing how many of our memories are triggered by smell however, that is another story.

Now the decision to carve the box was a risky decision as the wood was dry and brittle and I had to limit my designs due to the wood condition. I decided to put some of my mothers favorite things on the box. On one end we have a shell. My mother loved to collect shells. She and my father went to the beach in Corpus Christi often, he would use his metal detector and she would look for shells.

She also enjoyed feeding the seagulls. If you have never been to the beach in Corpus the seagulls are quite entertaining and will mob you if they think you have food.

For the top I chose a carved rose. My mothers name was Rose and she always enjoyed them as well.

The front has two angels and a heart. My mother was committed to her church and enjoyed it most when her children were together and attended with her and my father.

For the back I went with on of her favorite bible verses (which seemed appropriate) and her name and year of birth and year of death.

Inside the top lid you will see the manufacturer's mark

On the bottom the store that gave it out and most of the label that lane put on the bottom. I have also painted in the information on when my mother got the box and signed the carvings. I did little to the boxes bottom except add new pads. Small box turned into a family keepsake.

If you are thinking of doing something similar here are a few things to consider.

• Is the item worth more to you than a collector.
• Is the item sound enough to survive the process.
• Does the item contain is it finished in a toxic finish (Many old items can be finished with paints that are toxic or contain lead).
• Do you have a clear plan and have you tried the designs on scrap to insure they will turn out as you wish.

In my case the box was so damaged it had no worth other than to my family. I was able to say with certainty the old finish was not toxic and by working the simplest design first I knew I should have success in carving on it. The box as it appears now has just over 25 hours of work considering repair, carving, sanding, painting and finish.

Perhaps this story will give you some ideas for an old battered keepsake hiding in your attic or storeroom.  Pam and I have done a number of these projects turning damaged old quilts into stuffed toys for nieces and nephews as well as framed mementos.  While we are not big on keeping clutter we like turning something with history into something a family member can keep an display replete with all the memories that go with it.  If you have an old deteriorating treasure go and make it something new with those special memories attached.

More to come


Bruce and Pam

It Has Been Hot!

Sorry for the lack of post but we have been hiding from the heat.  So there is not a lot to post at the moment.  We are used to getting about 10 or twelve 100 plus days in a summer.  Usually in late July and August.  However it is usually broken up by more normal (for the area mid 90s).  Now I know five or six degrees doesn't seem like a lot but coupled with this summers very high humidity (really I don't live on the coast for a reason and that is humidity) it has been unbearable.  We are how poised to take second place as the hottest summer on record since 1980 and that was the hotest ever recorded in this area.  It has not been cooling off that much after dark either as it is usually still in the mid 90s by midnight.  Lows have been in the mid eighties.

Look for a slew of new posts on my woodcarving blog in the next few days as I have been hold up in the craft room carving.

Hope it is cooler where you are.

Bruce and Pam

Father's Day 2011 - Credit Where Credit Is Due

Peter H. Curran Sr.

July 1921 - Jan 2004

(Now those Hawaiian Shirts I favor make sense)

Kenneth Royal Wheeler

Sept 1913 - Nov 1962

(Also pictured are Pam and Pam's Mother Alva)

One of the unintended or perhaps unrealized effects of age is that holidays become less a cause for celebration and more an occasion for remembrance.  Perhaps, for Pam and I none more bittersweet than Mother's and Father's Day as both sets of our parents have passed on, leaving us to carry on in a manner we hope they would be proud of.

With Father's day rapidly approaching my thoughts have turned to my father and Pam's to hers.  We lost my father in 2004.  I was lucky enough to have him around for a big part of my adult life.  Pam did not share my luck as she lost her father when she was 11.  He died of cancer in 1962.

With that brief introduction the title probably is self apparent but none the less this post is giving credit to our fathers and the role they played in both our childhood and the role those lessons played in our adult lives.

I never had a chance to meet or get to know Pam's father but I feel I know him well from my now almost 36 year relationship with my wife and her family.  I understand the values that were important to him because I see it in her daily.  A value set with a very close congruence to my fathers. 

These days I find myself channeling my father more and more, or perhaps I just have come to realize it more as my vision is less clouded with where I am going and how to get there and more focused on how to enjoy what that journey has afforded us, and some consideration of how all of our journeys end and what that means for those around us.

With the luxury of hindsight and the perspective of age I am constantly amazed by my parents (not to mention Pam's) and what they were able to accomplish.  Not in the monetary sense but in the bigger picture of family.  I find myself looking to my father's impact on my thinking and world view to understand this phase of my life.  I now understand the changes he weathered as he transitioned from father to grandfather, from the world of work to the uncertainty of retirement.

My father was in my younger years a bit of a puzzle to me.  Raised by his mother with no real interaction with his father (a far more complex story that I would attempt to tell here) how did he learn to be a father.  I have obliquely inferred I learned from him, so let me be clear I realize as a parent I was my father with the edges softened by my mother's impact.  Just as Pam was her mother with shadings of her father.  I get we are formed in large part by our parents.  Perhaps that is why I am so dismayed as I look at many family's today (Again a topic far to complex to insert in this discussion).

My father was an interesting individual and that was not just my opinion.  My father could hold his own in any discussion and could walk up to a complete stranger and in a matter of minutes they would be laughing and carrying on as if they had know each other for years.  I never saw my father be intimidated by anyone yet he himself was not intimidating.  He was more inclined to teach with humor that with volume.  Here was a man who shunned the corporate world for the life of an educator.  Who as an educator obviously had an effect on his students.  It was rare for us to go anywhere in Corpus and not see at least one of his old students most in their fifties who still vividly remembered him.  I have tried to come up with a list of my old teachers and you know I can only remember a very few.  There is obviously more to say on the subject than I have the ability to articulate.  To that end here is my attempt:

Things I Learned From My Father

(Without Realizing He Was Teaching Them To Me)

There is only one way to do anything, The Right Way!

Family is the most important thing.

There is never a reason to be cruel (to a person or any living thing).

If you are going to do something commit to it or don't do it at all.

Your name is all you have, never compromise it.

Faith is not a crutch you lean on, it is the foundation you build on.

Don't be afraid to take ownership of your actions.

Don't do anything you have to apologize for but if an apology is needed make it sincere.

Never tell a lie then you don't have to try to remember them.  (More correctly "The truth is best in any situation")

Action is louder than words.  Having done it accept responsibility for the outcome.

You can never go wrong when you do the right thing.  (Perhaps we need to teach our politicians this one).

Everyone and everything has value or God wouldn't have put them here.  (This one is so hard)

It's Family, God, Country, then Self  and the order never changes. ( I know, realize to my father Family and God were the same thing as he accepted God as the head of his family).

A top ten list it is not.  There are no zingers here, just the absolute truth as my Father saw it.  ( besides there are more than ten)  Is the list definitive, by no means.  I could make it much longer but I think I have made my point and so I will follow perhaps one of his most important lessons:

Say what you have to say then shut up ( Won't say I have mastered this one).

Happy Fathers Day

Bruce and Pam



Memorial Day 2011 - Service Remembered

The minister of our church has a tradition of asking the families of service men who died in battle to stand to be recognized by the congregation.  He then asks all the veterans to stand with them.  It is a moving moment and amazing how many there are.  Though most are as old or older than me.  It got Pam and I to thinking about the family members who have served.

My Grandfather

Charles Howard Curran Ph.D. - WWI - Canadian Expeditionary Force - Second Lieutenant - Battlefield Commission from Sergeant.

He served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and was wounded by machine gun fire in 1917.  He would be an important asset to the United States Military during WWII as one of the foremost experts on Insects in the Pacific (and consequently disease born by these insects).  He served as consulting entomologist to the U.S. Civil Defense Voluntary Service from the beginning of the war to the end. 

I always thought he looked a bit like Errol Flynn in this photo.

Professional portrait for his first book

The cane in the picture is due to his injuries.  This was taken in Belfast Northern Ireland in 1919 shortly after the armistice

My Grandmother

Beatrice Wylie Curran - WWI and WWII - U.S. Army - Nurse -  Captain

A nurse during WWI and WWII she was with the first group of nurses on the Philippines and Okinawa.  I believe she was a captain at the time this picture was taken.

The only picture I have of her in the field.  My understanding from her friends was she disliked her picture being taken and had destroyed most of the pictures that she had from the war.  My father somehow had this one.

She would never say much about her time in the South Pacific.  However, we were able to piece together from some of her friends who served with her that she was the one who took the soldiers with the worst wounds and the least hope and many survived due to her strong will and stubbornness.  In her later years she moved to Uvalde where we lived and it was my job to take her to the VA when needed.  She and the other vets there always had a lot to talk about and it seemed she always found someone with which she shared a common knowledge of people and events.

My Father

Peter H. Curran Sr. - U.S. Army Engineers - Corporal - Heavy Equipment Operator

Served in the US Army in an engineer battalion.  Was stationed at Harlingen Texas.  His group was training for the invasion of Japan.  To say my brother and sister and I exist due to Harry Truman's historic decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima is probably an understatement.  Engineer battalions in the South Pacific took very heavy casualties.  Additionally he would meet my mother while stationed there.

On Guard Duty

I should note that my mother worked on base for the army as a secretary. Dad was a corporal.

My Aunt

Gay Curran - Women's Canadian Air Force - WWII - Rank unkown

Gay served in the Canadian equivalent of the WACS which as I understand it functioned as part of the RAF.  I have few pictures of Gay and very limited information about her service.  My father and consequently his family saw my aunt very infrequently.  He had decided to stay in Texas and she lived in Canada.

My Uncle

Howard Curran - Post Korean War 1950s and 60s - Lieutenant - Retired

Uncle Howard was my father's half brother.  He served as a Navy fighter pilot in the late fifties and early sixties.

My father pinning on Howard's Wings.  Corpus Christi Naval Base 1957  He was an Ensign when this picture was taken.

My Uncle

Joe Genovese - U. S. Army - Infantry -  Private - late 1930s.

This is the only picture that I have of my Uncle Joe, he shared his father's tendency to avoid cameras.  One the interesting notes about my Uncle Joe is that he loved music and wrote a number of songs during his life.  Several were recorded with modest success during the late forties and fifties.  He spent most of his life in construction.

Then there was me

Bruce E Curran Ed.D.  - United States Navy - Petty Officer Third Class - Sonar Technician - early 1970s - USS Brooke

Yes I really was that thin.  This picture was taken just before I made Petty Officer.  I served as a Sonar Technician.  The story of my enlistment and how I ended up in Sonar is a long one and best left to another day.

USS Brooke - DEG-1 (Later changed to FFG-1) This picture will give you some idea of how big this ship wasn't.  The sonar crews living quarters were two decks down foward of the gun you see on deck.  Our stations were just behind the command deck (The windows behind the rocket launchers).  This picture is from the time just before the ship was decomissioned and sold to Pakistan in the mid 1980s.  It was returned and scrapped in 1994.
I have no photos but, from my family I had several cousins that I know of who served as well.

Sammy Genovese - Vietnam - U.S. Marines - Rank Unkown
William (Willie) Genovese - USN - 1980s  - Rank Unkown
Don Evans - U.S. Army (I think) 1960s - Rank Unkown

Pam's Father

Kenneth Royal Wheeler - Pre WWII - U.S. Navy - USS San Franciso - Seaman First Class

Pam's Mother Alva and her father 1930s

USS San Francisco (CA-38), 1934-1959

The San Francisco as it would have looked when Kenneth served aboard.  Discharged in 1940 he served aboard ship when it patroled the Atlantic on "Neutrality Patrols" after the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939.

Pam's Brother

Kenneth Alonzo Wheeler - U. S. Air force - 1960s - Rank Unkown

Pam's Brother

Joe Roy Wheeler - U.S. Army - Vietnam - Combat Medic 1960's - Rank Unknow

Pam's Brother in Law

James Bennett - US Army - Vietnam -  Retired  - Colonel

Pam's Uncle

Earl Stephenson - U.S. Air Force- Retired

Pam's Cousin

Larry Dean Wheeler - U.S. Army - Vietnam 1960s


Pam's Cousin

James Wheeler - U.S. Navy - 1960's

Pam's Cousin

David Van Strien - U.S. Air Force

Pam's Niece

Hillary Wheeler (Jones) - U.S. Army - Trauma Nurse - Mid 1990s

I am sure that I missed someone in this list.  I found may pictures but will have to look for more before Veterans Day and hopefully update and flesh out this list further.  While there are many stories to tell I wish I had paid more attention to them when I was younger.  With so many gone the opportunity to understand their service and what drove and motivated them to serve is also gone.  To those that are still here I will make a point to rectify that as soon as possible.

There is a lot that can be said about service and the cost of freedom but I want to close with the words from a recent and a particularly relevant song.

Til the Last Shot is Fired

Trace Adkins

I was there in the winter of '64
When we camped in the ice
at Nashville's doors
Three hundred miles our trail had led
We barely had time to bury our dead
When the Yankees charged and the colors fell
Overton hill was a living hell
When we called retreat it was almost dark
I died with a grapeshot in my heart

Say a prayer for peace
For every fallen son
Set my spirit free
Let me lay down my gun
Sweet mother Mary I'm so tired
But I can't come home 'til
the last shot's fired

In June of 1944
I waited in the blood of Omaha's shores
Twenty-one and scared to death
My heart poundin' in my chest
I almost made the first seawall
When my friends turned and saw me fall
I still smell the smoke, I can taste the mud
As I lay there dying from a loss of blood

Say a prayer for peace
For every fallen son
Set my spirit free
Let me lay down my gun
Sweet mother Mary I'm so tired
But I can't come home 'til
the last shot's fired

I'm in the fields of Vietnam,
The mountains of Afghanistan
And I'm still hopin', waitin', prayin'
I did not die in vain

Say a prayer for peace
For every fallen son
Set our spirits free
Let us lay down our guns
Sweet mother Mary we're so tired
But we can't come home 'til
the last shot's fired
'Til the last shot's fired

Say a prayer for peace
For our daughters and our sons
Set our spirits free
Let us lay down our guns
But we can't come home 'til
the last shot's fired
'Til the last shot's fired

Here is a link to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs9RB7aPKe4&feature=player_detailpage

Here is to hoping that we live to see the last shot fired.

Memorial Day is set asside to remember. Remember the lives, the service, the sacrifice and in some cases the loss of so many.  Something we too often take for granted and too seldom acknowlege.  My family was lucky all of our service members came home.  Many not the same but they did come home. Far too many families were not that lucky.  Only recently did we begin to understand the true cost of service and the permanent changes that those who serve in battle undergo.

Memorial Day 2011

God Bless
Bruce and Pam.