Memo To: All The Arm Chair Quarter Backs

NOTES FROM MEMBERS

Received a weather report from Jim Garls.  I had sent him an e mail after hearing a weather report that part of Illinois was taking a beating from a snow storm which also knocked out electric power in several areas.

Jim reported that they had received a heavy snow in his home town of Pekin which created a lot of problems with cars moving.  The town was still working on the side streets when he was writing, but the main roads were passable.

He had over one and one half feet of heavy snow between his house and garage but was only able to open up a few feet of space with his shovel.  He received help from his niece and then a neighbor came to his rescue with a husky snow blower and cleared more space.  This was followed by more help from another niece who also had a snow blower and made it possible for him to open his garage door to get his car out if he had an emergency.

The snow was heavy enough to damage some of his plastic covered shelters in the back yard but he said that he will have to wait for the snow to melt before he can determine how if any damage was done to the shelter frames.

He was going to stay inside the house to get warm. Since he did have some walking space around the property and hope that the snow doesn’t return to refill any cleared spaces he could now relax until the next snow fall.

Jack Schwertfager says hello and regards to all.  He reported that all was well with them and no storm problems.

George McDearmon sends his best to all.  They are continuing in their efforts to get reorganized in the new home.  The unpacking and decorating tasks take priority over everything at the present time.

Chico Duarte sends his regards to all.  He said that he still isn’t fully recovered from the problems with his spine/back but the pain has let up some-what.  This has allowed him to return to his early A.M. job but he now starts at 6:00 A.M. rather than 4 A.M. 

With these new hours he doesn’t do any heavy lifting but just sits in a special swivel chair to the rear of the counter which allows him to greet customers and handle sales transactions with limited effort.

He also gave a weather report which indicated that winter is in the area with cold temperatures and dry atmosphere.  Hopefully the snow won’t arrive for a while and if it does arrive it won’t be hit with too many inches.

Carmine Nasta says hello and regards to all.  He hasn’t been doing too much of anything just trying to go outside when the weather is almost warm.  Winter is trying to creep in on Staten Island and he doesn’t want to get caught outside if at all possible.

Carmine has been having some medical checks made just to make sure that nothing will pop up to stop him from shoveling snow this winter.

They have to keep their eyes open for possible hand bag thieves.  All of a sudden these thieves have started to penetrate neighbor hoods where in the past they stayed away from.  Carmine said that they have been fortunate with only minor confrontations but still they had to do some G2 to locate a few items that disappeared during a couple of problem periods on the street.

John Peterson sends his regards to all.  He reported that the area did receive a lot of rain, strong wind, and high tide periods.  Along with this most of his area lost electrical power for hours to days.

Foster Cummings sends greetings to all.  So far the only problem area with him is the weather.  Severe cold weather with threat of snow from the weather forecasters.

He has been in touch with Doc Protheroe who has made it back to Florida for a few months and all remains well with he and Jane.

Foster also heard from Joe McDonald and Rita who are once again home resting after attending Foster’s Marine Corps Birthday Celebration.  They both enjoyed the event.

Jim “Red” Nelson says hello to all and Merry Xmas.  He has been busy performing required maintenance around the property and hopes that the weather doesn’t get out of hand while he he so engrossed.

RL Marx says hello to all.  He is still fighting his attack of Carpal Tunnel syndrome which is still sore.  He has been using two different pain killers, one is a plain pain killer and the other is a nerve pain killer, both of which should be giving some assistance.  So far the assistance has been limited.

Alice received a surprise call from their Hostess/Sponsor  of the Kwajalein Reunion of 1994.  When Alice told them that they had just returned from a Reunion at Chattanooga she was surprised and said she would have gone their to meet with them had she known of the event.  She knows the area quite well.

RL has spoken to Buzz Packard who reported that all is well with them.  They did have an attack of the flu but overcame it.  All else continues well with them.

Dianne Hindy sent along a newspaper article regarding the picture of the Iwo Jima Flag Raising that was found on an interior window of an old El Toro ground equipment maintenance building.  This picture and an article describing how it  was located and saved is included with this newsletter.

Dianne also included a newspaper picture of the  Veterans Day weekend display of 350 American flags paralleling the road on the Sand Diego Freeway just outside of Camp Pendleton.  This will also be included with this newsletter.

An e mail was received from Daniel Maglaras the son of Charles Maglaras our Squadron Barber who recently heard of our WEB page.  He said that he has a copy of the picture that appears on the WEB page.  Charles passed away in 1996.  Several of our members endeavored to locate him up in the New England area years ago but didn’t have any success. 

Daniel mentioned that his father was a tail gunner but Barbering appeared to be his main occupation both at Kwaj and before that, Cherry Point.

He said that he had some pictures of his Dad taken with Fred Hargraves and a cook by the name of Kovack.  His son asked what crew he was with so this will be researched, but if anyone can remember let me know.  Also I am going to research the cook by the name of Kovack.  It maybe a mispelling but again if anyone remembers let me know.