Charles R. Domeck

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Chuck Domeck on September 10, 2010:

Ask Three Questions! Please An account of the life and times of Chuck Domeck By Chuck Domeck June 2002 Preface Some anonymous relatives and friends suggested that I try to create this document. The start date is January 5, 2001. I will try to keep it light and in manageable packages. For example, did you ever hear what rotten kids Ed Domeck and I were in Detroit, Michigan? With my engineer/military/nuclear power plant/volunteer mind still semi-active (especially from 6:13 am until 12:47 pm), it seems logical to do this chronologically. I will skip some parts (you be the psychiatrist as to why!) of my life from age five in Detroit through the very tough decision to leave the regular U.S. army at age 36 in June 1968. Before I forget, that was to try civilian life. It was mainly Chuck's choice to return to nuclear power plants. For example, June '61 to June '63 were spent in Army Reactors, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Germantown, Maryland. You will note at least the following about this epistle/memoirs/ramblings/biased reporting: 1. There will be only guesses about numerous dates. 2. I will use composite people in some cases. I will change actual names once in awhile. 3. Occasionally I will give some observations, opinions, and advice based upon my Domeck/Gillow/Simms/Erney heritage. I might even identify such paragraphs. However, if such writing was after 2:03 pm actual time, all bets are off. 4. I have no idea how long this will be in page count. 5. My thanks to these reviewers: Audrey and Doug Domeck, Dave Maurer (West Point roommate) and Toni Maurer (in their wedding in Germany)-very close friends, Doneta and Jim Miller (musicians and fine Christian friends living in Ottawa Lake, Michigan). 6. The mistakes are all mine, except some are caused by age, Gateway computer model G6-400C and its crummy 64 megabytes of memory, Gateway TV monitor EV 700, and Gateway's terrible "$129 per year technical service support by touch tone phone-19 minutes just to get an event number." Remember: Microsoft Windows '98 grammar and spell checks are not infallible! Chapter 1 Detroit, Michigan (until November 1941) Chuck Domeck is the spoiled brat, fourth son of Carl and Elsie Domeck. Because I am writing this primarily for my 11 nieces and nephews (and their spouses), here are the birthdays and you do the arithmetic. Carl Domeck, March 5, 1891; Elsie Gillow Domeck, June 10, 1901; Howard, July 21, 1916; Gordon, November 19, 1924; Ed, February 4, 1929; Chuck, February 18, 1932. Two first cousins-----Mildred Simms Livingston, April 16, 1913; Cliff Simms (about Howard's age). Uncle Claude and Aunt Louise Simms were older than Mildred, but they also spoiled me. Note: I hereby reserve the right to toss in "grabits." "Grabits" capture a thought I might want to discuss in some detail in subsequent pages. Otherwise, today's idea has almost no chance of surviving in Chuck's 70-year-old short-term memory. Grabit #1. Adults versus six kids at Cherry Beach (on St. Clair River, south of Marine City, Michigan). Summers and falls were a constant joy at Cherry Beach. The cottage held all 12 at once! Grandpa Camille Domeck was very French, from the Alsace Lorraine part of France. Grandma Domeck was born in Freudenstat (Black Forest), southern Germany. Because Grandpa was the field marshal/czar of the Domeck family, the cottage was named "Sans Souci." (Translation later.) It was a thoroughly delightful place, mainly because the 5 older kids protected me. In addition, Ed was a valuable fighter for me. I had a knack for getting into fights I could not finish! Ed always rescued his younger, but slower and fatter brother. I lost this protection in Elm Street Elementary School (Wauseon), because for a while Ed was in a different school building. Grabit #2. Five-boy antics, and things we never told my mother (Elsie), my father, and/or Aunt Louise Simms about stuff that happened away from "Sans Souci," or as a teenager in a terrific place to grow up-Wauseon (1941 population about 3,000). You have the major summer cast of characters, so on with the show! I now recognize that I was spoiled by grandparents, relatives, and family friends about 2.3 times more than my older brothers. Part of that became evident when I left the Griggs Avenue home in Detroit for Superior Street, Wauseon, Ohio, in November 1941. Grabit #3- learning manners, "doing the right thing," proper dress code for all occasions, and Domeck-Gillow family heritage from my parents and especially Grandpa and Grandma Gillow (and to a lesser extent from Grandpa Domeck). For example, Grandma Gillow often kept Ed and me in her home during Sunday evening Central Gospel Hall (CGH services. I am positive Ed and I were with Grandma Gillow when the radio broadcast announced the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Remember, Grandma Gillow (Nee Moore) was born in Scotland and had more folks "in harm's way" during the early years of World War II (WW2). I am absolutely convinced that WW2 profoundly affected Howard, Gordon, Ed and me far more than we would admit (or recognize) Remember-- pretty much by choice I was a professional soldier (in other words a legally hired killer) for 13 years. My greatest recollection about age 5 was a magical trip to Old Orchard, Maine. All six of us went! Howard had a new, dark green 1937 Ford 2-door Coupe. Naturally we all tried various schemes to ride alone with Howard. He always was a great driver! I am sure I drooled over his car. He was so patient with me-I was 5 and he was 21! I have no clue as to how my parents found out about the yellow, wooden co-op apartment right on the beach. Ask Gordon-he will know. The weather was wonderful and sunny. The wide, sandy beach was fantastic. The breaking waves were probably squeal time me. Everyone kept me from drowning and stepping on stinging jellyfish. Mom had a portion of the co-op kitchen, so we always ate very, very well. (I recall getting sick in the hotel in Montreal (?) on the way home.) Grabit #4---motion sickness about Delta, Ohio heading for Detroit; summers on Griggs Avenue in Detroit; Saturday nights in Wauseon (1941-1949). Homes in Detroit and Noble Elementary School In Detroit we mainly played softball in the street. A crabby neighbor would often call the police when we stepped on her precious lawn. We had a deal with the Detroit policemen responding in squad cars. I believe I enjoyed summers more on Griggs Avenue because we were St. Clair River rats most of the summer times. My recollection is that Grandpa Domeck only rented Sans Souci about 1 week per summer. The flat-bottom, about 14-foot, wood boat (painted with 6+ coats of grey paint) was the key to many of our "successes." The outboard motor was about five horsepower, with a horizontal flywheel---and the vertical handle was cranked clockwise. I do not remember a rope to pull. I believe this motor, plus five dollars, bought the mahogany wood manual music organ. I certainly was a so-so pupil at Noble School. I think it was something up with which to put. Although I was never nearly as athletic as Ed, I guess I learned that practice at any sport was better than practicing for piano lessons (Mom and Dad wasted at least 5300 on lessons with Mrs. Burr in Wauseon. I sometimes practiced 23 minutes total between the weekly lessons, No wonder 1 never mastered 'Waltz Brilliant in Octaves"-my worst recital disaster), Noble School was built at the end of an area about 2 city blocks wide by 3 city blocks deep. There were at least 4 ball diamonds, but the best was the 2 large skating rinks the fire department made for us each winter. Like a lot of things in la, it was exquisite in its simplicity. Before the ground froze, the city would hand dig a 6-inch trench, in the shape of a rectangle probably 60 feet by 120 feet. The trench was only about ten inches wide at the top. The dirt was obviously piled on the "inside" of the rectangle. Remember, this was the 1930's, and common sense prevailed much more than in the 1990's. After the ground was frozen, the fire department filled each pond with about four inches of water. The only thing we kids did was to shovel the snow off and occasionally repair a small hole in the ice (without an instruction book). I really do not remember any homework up through third grade in Detroit, Incidentally, I have observed some of the "purely rote and repetition and obscure-objective homework assigned to grades one through five. " (This at three years of after-school program volunteering at Dorr Elementary School) Some of it strikes me as contributing to the actual "dumbing-down of public education in the U.S.A.." Do you realize how much remedial high school math has to be taught to college freshmen? The homework for grades one through five strikes me as several persons writing their doctoral dissertation and coming up with new and improved arithmetic." Remember, thermometers are not the only things that are graduated and have degrees, yet do not have any brains. I think elementary school kids need more time to be kids at home. Twenty percent more discipline in public schools and thirty percent more discipline at home would work wonders on increasing learning. Unfortunately, some communities (like Springfield Township, far west side of Toledo)"accept" fourth grade test scores of 52% in reading and 54% in math! My grandparents and parents would have been horrified at such results. I consider the 52% and 54% to be failures by parents, teachers, and administrators! The Ohio state average for reading alone was 56% passing. Look what Catholic and Lutheran elementary schools have accomplished for decades! The obvious main differences are parents involved weeknights at home and discipline in the school. Other things I remember about 12672 Griggs. The best part of the house from a kid's standpoint was the front and back stairways, plus the cool basement for drinking our Kroger soda pop. As long as neither parent was home, we could play tag, hide and go seek, and whatever. How to be rotten to your brother Ed? We had a swing lamp in the living room. I believe because Ed knew I was never going to be coordinated or a terribly good athlete, we spent a large amount of time inside the house wrestling. One day we were wrestling on the living room davenport. I hit my head on the bottom of the swing arm of the lamp. It caused a minor cut on the back of my head. As soon as I showed Ed about three drops of blood, I could see him turn a shade whiter. Now I had the upper hand for a change. So I started talking about calling an ambulance and taking me to the hospital emergency room. For about 9.5 minutes I had Ed believing me. Then I admitted I was only faking it. As I recall, Ed did not punish me for the ruse. Brothers only three years apart in age learn to get along. Then, too, we could sometimes outwit our parents and grandparents. Summers We had numerous great times at Cherry Beach (on the St. Clair River just south of Port Huron, Michigan). Learning to swim was a piece of cake. Both Mom and Dad were good teachers, and Mom really liked swimming. However, the prime motivation for me was competition with older brothers, cousins, and beach friends. An indication of our idea of a big deal in the late 30's and early 40's was as follows: Most of the river traffic was huge rust-colored freighters taking iron ore from Lake Superior areas to Detroit, Cleveland, etc. They moved slowly, even with the one- to one-and-a-half-mph current going south. They produced almost no waves. However, about two or three times per day, large, white passenger liners (names like Northern States, Southern States) produced "huge" waves because of their design and speed. Every kid's duty was to spread the word-as soon as a white boat was spotted. The St. Clair River there is almost straight as an arrow. So we would hop into the most available boat and ride the "huge" waves. I suspect a Ski-Doo would have been considered too high tech and dangerous even for Howard and Cliff! I did not personally witness this event, but I believe it did happen about as follows. There was a two-lot vacant area between Sans Souci and Michigan State Route 29, then a two-lane highway. There was a huge, climbable old apple tree in the center of the lot. The apples were not any good to eat, but they were small enough for a 7-year-old to throw. I believe the following only involves Cliff and Howard. They probably were bored and started throwing apples at cars on Route 29. They apparently hit a man's windshield, hood, or something. The man came back to our street, and guessed that Sans Souci was the home of Cliff and Howard. At this point Cliff and Howard were already at the river and "out in the boat." Legend has it that Aunt Louise Simms answered the door. When the man explained the problem, Aunt Louise uttered these famous lines, "Our boys would not do a thing like that." I report, you decide! Similarly, I believe the following "legend" probably happened. As everyone knows, siblings can be a pain in the butt. The oldest and strongest make and enforce the rules. The story goes that Gordon was a particularly vexing pain the butt one day. Howard and Cliff apparently decided that more effective discipline was needed. So they took Gordon out for a "routine" boat ride. Only this time they went to a six-foot diameter, floating and lighted channel buoy. They supposedly made Gordon get out on the buoy for a short period of time. I really think it really happened. I am a reporter-you can ask Gordon for his recollections. One recollection about military airplanes. Remember, at the summer of 1941 the U.S. military airplanes were no longer part of the Signal Corps. They were part of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The U.S. "air farce" came much later. Selfridge Air Base was close enough that the fast, sleek, prop-driven fighters flew north and south about 300 feet above the river surface. I believe the coolest one was the double-fuselage P-38 fighter. Incidentally, Grandma Gillow was sitting with Ed and me when the news of the sneak Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 came over the radio. I am sure Grandma knew some of the horrors ahead. I really had no clue. Other Detriot and Family Stuff Howard's convertible (white Chevrolet with real leather interior). Howard had three extra doses of patience-my patience left me in 1962 and never completely returned (sidebar). In 1962 I was an Army captain and a project engineer in Army Reactors, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. I was in charge of advanced fuel research, done under contract by Martin-Marietta and Alco Products. My technical reviewers were at Oak Ridge, TN, and they also did the hot cell examinations. This was 95% plus fully enriched uranium. In other words, it was atomic bomb grade, fissionable uranium. It was retained in stainless steel fuel elements. We removed the heat in a conventional pressurized water system. But the plants were 2,000 kilowatts net electric, not 906 megawatts electric like Davis-Besse Unit 1. Incidentally, the Army plant in Thule, Greenland was the first U.S. reactor ever decommissioned and removed back to the U.S.A. Bottom line: we put six plants on line-we let Admiral Rickover win the battle with Congress by his personal public relations department. By 1962 I realized that I had to occasionally deal with a jerk named Lt. Col. Berlin. He did not understand "applied research"-too many letters to be in his vocabulary. More important, I had to try to learn to write budget justification paragraphs in "official U.S. Governmentese." That is, get money for next year even if it is obvious the research is going nowhere. Having sweat blood for two solid years at the University of Michigan Engineering College and gotten a minor in mathematics (Fourier Series, Boundary Value Problems, etc.) this exercise was a classic case of sometimes throwing good money after bad money. This is still chapter three in U.S. Government agency handbooks... By this time Howard is working full time as an accountant, studying some stuff at night. I could not resist opening his closed bedroom door after supper. Howard and Gordon had separate bedrooms off the dining room. Ed and I shared a bedroom upstairs. At this point I was already famous for speaking when silence would have been golden, or at least worth 17 cents (the cost of a real banana split at Truans Ice Cream Shop). While Howard was studying, I would open the door three inches. Then I could not keep quiet. The worst he ever did was throw a book toward the door-he always missed my head. Howard was so cool in so many ways. He loved to chase fire trucks and get there 32 seconds after the first fire trucks. A three-story paint warehouse was the best I ever saw. The flames would pop the glass windows out, one at a time. Then the roof collapsed down to the third floor. Then it collapsed, etc. He did double duty things like take us to Wayne State University football games on Thanksgiving Day, then on to the closest parade to watch. Or he would take us ice skating on the Rouge River. That was a special treat, because you could skate for about sixteen miles without stopping. Who could ask for a better big brother? And he never asked me to shine his shoes or do any of his assigned chores. He had the patience of Job. Maybe I am missing that chromosome. Gordon-the guy who took us to Tiger baseball games, but was never home when it was time for Ed and I to do the dishes and pots and pans. His "excuse" was that he commuted by bus to Cass Tech in downtown Detroit. How do we explain Saturday and Sunday dishes? Also, Ed and I were always called by name to shine Dad's shoes by supper, Saturday night. Maybe Gordon had ESP and was in advanced training to avoid totally rotten jobs in the U.S. Army infantry. But give him credit-he let Ed and me make all the money for washing and polishing the convertible before its trip to see Helen in Cleveland. I do remember Ed and I playing in Gordon's room when nobody else was home. I seem to remember that the house telephone was in his room. Telephone extensions had not yet been invented, maybe. Ed. Now we did it all together. Sometimes it was us against the folks. Sometimes it was us against Grandpa Domeck. We almost always behaved the best for Grandpa and Grandma Gillow. After all, they were the source of most of our spending money, ice cream, candy, Sander's almond tea rings, roast chicken, fried chicken, Sander's hot fudge sauce, shopping trips to Hudson's Department Store with Grandma for clothes and food and even portraits---and occasionally to learn from Grandpa how to dust off a car before putting the garage door down. Ed was especially valuable, because I was much better at starting fights than finishing them. He taught me, with much patience, how various sports activities were supposed to be done. My ice skating was the absolute worst-weak ankles, worn out leather on the insides of both skates, could not master how to stop, never looked coordinated...fortunately, no one ever took movies of my trying to play high school basketball as "round boy." The move to Griggs Avenue from facing the Noble School playground had some down sides. It probably cut down the ice skating by 30%. Baseball was drastically changed. We had to play in the street in front of our home. A couple of neighbors thought their grass would die abruptly if an 11-year-old kid ran on it occasionally. We had a mutual benefit agreement with the Detroit Police Department. When a neighborhood lady would call and complain, the police would park in a conspicuous space a half block away. That was our signal to pick up all bats and gloves and balls, then toss them under our back porch. We would go either way in the 10-foot-wide alley. The police would drive by the house at three mph so they could get credit for chasing us off the precious grass. We compensated for the reduced ice skating by setting up snowball forts on Fullerton (half a block away and a commuter route). We originally intended to throw the snowballs only at trucks and delivery trucks. Occasionally we would hit a passenger car on the windshield. One time the driver stopped and came back to chase us. Our escape route was the usual, block long alleys. Unfortunately our gang mate, Clarence, got caught by the car driver. Clarence had heart trouble and could not really run. I have on occasion told some of you that had we not moved to Wauseon, Ohio, in November 1941, I believe it is likely that Ed and I would eventually have spent a long night with the Detroit Police Department. We did a ton of gang stuff that Mom and Dad never heard anything about. The worst was pulling the front steps of "disliked neighbors" at least five feet away from their front porches. This was done around Halloween. We started "trick or treating" after dark always. Let's assume someone falls off a porch in the darkness and breaks a bone. The police would probably start their investigation at 12672 Griggs! Ed had the entrepreneur spirit from about age ten. Knowing how flaky I was, including valuable pennies, he would be sure to have me give him our pay for mowing Grandpa Gillow's lawn, or washing and polishing Howard's white convertible. Remember, in those days "Sweet 16" soda pop was 16 ounces in about twelve flavors for a nickel. Chapter 2 Life in Wauseon, Ohio (November 1941 through September 1949) The fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in Wauseon were not particularly noteworthy. What did change me a lot was our mixed-collie dog, Spot. When we moved down in November, Gordon and Ed stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Gillow to finish out the school year. I was really lonesome. I checked the want ads and found that a litter of part-collies was for sale in Delta. I settled on the most active pup. It led to a lot of good walks after supper with Dad. Spot was just a great dog for our whole family. After about six months I realized that about 300 pairs of eyes were part of my support group in Wauseon. First Christian Church was a large congregation, and Dad was certainly well known as a Vice President of Wauseon Manufacturing Company. The times were not very complicated in a county seat of an agricultural county. World War II only tended to increase the "family atmosphere" in Wauseon. Several families let you know that they never locked their homes. It was great knowing that so many people were there to help me if I needed it. You got the feeling that if you succeeded, the town support felt it had done its job. It is hard for me to overemphasize the extreme toll that World War II took on Mom and Dad. When Gordon got to Germany and in the war zone with the 84th Infantry Division, the times got tense. There was an important combat report, during which the location and general status of the U.S. Army Infantry divisions was given. Obviously there were no details that the German Army did not already know. I am sure part of the problem was that the folks felt so helpless. I think it is fortunate that the folks did not have any idea how dangerous Howard's sea duty was on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in the North Atlantic. Like a majority of American kids, there was a school teacher who turned me on to the importance of learning. Alice Money, an Albion College graduate, was teaching a fairly small sophomore class of us in Analytic Geometry. She finally convinced me that the only way to be able to answer questions in class was for me to make an investment in home study. Then too, Ed was still at home if I needed his help. Obviously, the athletic team opportunities were vastly more than we would have had in Detroit. Ed was an excellent athlete (quarterback in football, guard in basketball, running sprints on the track team). Chuck has never been able to run fast, so lineman in football and substitute in basketball. However, the intangibles of the sports experiences made them worthwhile. Someplace along the line I learned that science and math were my forte. In May 1949 I won a scholarship to Bowling Green State University. That was worth $45 per semester! Now Owens Community College is the lowest at $75 per credit hour! In summary, the Wauseon public school years and small town life were great. Staying in Detroit through the public school years would not have been nearly as much fun. Chapter 3 Early College Life, Bowling Green State University September 1949 through July 1951 I started Bowling Green State University taking math and science courses. If I needed academic help, it was always available at the Sigma Nu fraternity house. I do not remember being a slave to the textbooks. I did make the dean's list for at least the second year. Among other things that meant the freedom to cut classes on nasty, snowy days. The down side was that I cut so many Latin classes the Spring semester of 1951, I probably flunked the final exam on Cicero's Orations. In April 1951 I had passed all the admissions tests for West Point, so the BGSU courses did not seem as important as they once had. In the summer of 1950 Mother and I had gone to Ohio State to get the information on being admitted there to study optometry. Strangely enough, they had a foreign language requirement. The most efficient way for me to meet that requirement was to take a year of the same language I had taken in high school. That meant a year of Latin (Virgil's Aneid and Cicero's Orations). The down side was the classes were mainly for kids studying to be school teachers. We met in a conference room in the Speech building. As I recall, there were six students in the class. Therefore it was easy for Professor Drennan to determine who was not committed to working at the course. I thought the social life at BGSU was great. By early 1950 I had a steady girlfriend, and started staying on campus on weekends. This disturbed Mother, because Gordon and Ed habitually came home on weekends. Of course, the difference was that their girlfriends were closer to Wauseon. However, on a weekend at home I saw in the local paper that Congressman Clevenger of Bryan was giving competitive exams for the appointments to West Point and Annapolis. I remember my exact thought, "What is one more exam at this point?" Little did I realize that the decision to accept the appointment to West Point would essentially determine my career from 1955 to 1965. It is now apparent that my major reason for accepting the appointment was to escape the control of my parents. I also concluded that 3 more years at Ohio State would spend money they should be saving for their retirement years. Chapter 4 Four long years at the monastery! I recall asking a New York Central train porter to tell me when we passed West Point. The tracks are on the east shore of the Hudson River. The train travels quite slowly on this stretch. The porter pointed to West Point and added that it looked like a prison. Boy, was I glad to hear that. Thinking back, we survived Beast Barracks because it was us against them, and they controlled something we all wanted. I did get myself into some trouble because I thought it was funny how upset an upper classman could get over a small thread at a button on my shirt. Then too, I had just finished two years of college and fraternity life. I surprised myself by not having a particularly hard time with the physical training. Marching and drill were not a problem, mainly because I was in the BGSU Marching band in 1949 and 1950. I remember being glad to see academics start. In those days the only elective was foreign language. I chose Brazilian Portuguese, mainly because I thought it was closer to Latin than the other four options. There was no such thing as advanced placement courses, or other electives. I put part of the blame on the Academic Board, and the Board of Visitors. It should have been obvious by 1951 that the academics badly needed changing, and admitting young ladies as cadets was appropriate. Basically, cadets graduated with a degree in civil engineering. That hardly met the diverse needs of the U.S. Army in the 1950's. I think I adapted to the grade recitation every day system well. It took some of the pressure off midterm and final exams. More pressure was taken off by courses like calculus. I had taken calculus at BG. Much to my surprise, USMA used the same calculus text as BG, a classic by Granville, Smith and Longly. While doing homework I would recall some of the problems I had solved at BG. No wonder my roommates were jealous that I took more naps than they could afford! For some unknown reason I decided to try collegiate wrestling in the winter of 1952. I recall coming back from Christmas 1952 and weighing in at 205 lbs. In addition to wrestling the varsity team members, the junior varsity had two or three meets to keep the interest up. March 15th we had a meet with Fort Monmouth soldiers. There was some confusion about the weights we had to meet. It was an Olympic year. Anyway, instead of wrestling at 177 lbs. (collegiate weight class), they told me to get down to 172. You can imagine how little I ate for a month. I remember at least 30 minutes in the steam room every day. My own stupidity led to a large loss of strength. I had never had to lose weight like this before. The end result was that I lost my match by a pin. After the match I laid down on a locker room bench. When I tried to get up, I could not do it without help. At the hospital they discovered I had a dislocated 5th cervical vertebrae. I had a great orthopedic surgeon. He put me in a cast for 6 weeks. It looked like my head was sitting in a urinal. So for that period my nickname was changed to "Myer Sniffen." The wrestling match was on March 15th, a Saturday. I went back to class on Monday. Engineering Drawing was a bit of a challenge with the cast. Junior year included the heavy engineering courses like Thermodynamics and Electrical Engineering and Bridge Design Engineering. To get on the football training table (all the steak and roast beef you wanted to eat), I was on the junior varsity football teams (junior and senior years). The primary benefit was to see how Coach Earl Blake organized and directed the team. He and the other coaches would select about 12 plays they planned to run against this week's opponent. The three strings of backs would run those 12 plays about 100 times during the week. Vince Lombardi, Paul Deitzel, Doc Blanchard, and George Blackburn (all assistant football coaches) made sure that the ball carrier ran full speed for 20 yards. The strength of Army football was precision execution. The blocking was not to create huge holes in the line, but just enough to get the halfback into the secondary. During Spring 1954 practice, the focus was on the University of Michigan. The JV was identified by the U of M player's name. We ran the Michigan offense against the Army defense. It was all worth it. We beat Michigan 23 to 7 in Ann Arbor. Among other things, it proved that Army football was back. There was a hilarious side effect. About mid-season the junior varsity played Yale at West Point. After the first series on offense, the Yale players asked when we were going to run Army T-formation. We had to tell them that we were sorry, but we did not know the Army offense! After the visits to the Army branch posts in the Summer of 1954, it was time to think seriously about branch selection. I quickly narrowed it down to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force. I finally decided that I did not want to fly airplanes more than anything else in the world. Then too, the Corps of Engineers practically guaranteed two years at a university of my choice to get a masters degree. I have never regretted choosing the Corps of Engineers. My recollections of my senior year are all pleasant. I guess it was the realization that graduation was really coming, the time to be an Army officer was coming, weekends away from West Point were a reality, and I would have my own new Chevrolet in March. I really enjoyed the military history course, although they demanded a fair amount of study every night. There was a lot of emphasis on the great leaders in history, and what made them great. It was the first time I enjoyed a history course. The bottom line is that I finally had a college degree, had a way of making a living in Germany, and I could bid farewell to the monastery on the Hudson River. Chapter 5 Army Engineer Lieutenant in Germany (FEB '56-April '59) Nothing surprised us more than the absolute completeness of our quarters in Giessen (north of Frankfurt). I had told Phyl to expect a couple of household goods shipping containers nailed together. Instead we had a two bedroom apartment, with everything furnished from the furniture to china and crystal. All we had to take was our clothes and uniforms and sheets. I was among four new lieutenants to be assigned to the 18th Engineer Battalion (Combat) in early 1956. The 18th was a special mission battalion. Our job was to blow up railroad bridges to slow down the Russian tank battalions. After six months as the battalion supply off icer (good experience), I was assigned to a separate platoon of B company. B company was in Fulda. If you look at a map, you will find that the Fulda Gap would be a prime attack point for the Russians. It was openly recognized that we would only be able to slow down the Russian tanks. I had some friends in the U. S. Air Force. Their duties involved flying along the East Germany border. It was common for Russian jet fighters to fly the same border, quite close to our jet fighter. Preferring to remember more pleasant things, many Americans forget that those were dangerous times for our country. In typical German fashion, the masonry supports on these railroad bridges had steel chambers with steel doors. If you filled the support chamber with high explosives and blew, the bridge would be destroyed. Of course we did our own calculations on the amount of explosives needed. Fortunately, the old Army game of reorganization was applied to the 18th, and I was lucky enough to be assigned as a platoon leader in the 814th Float Bridge Company. The bridge was inflatable rubber pontoons and steel decking. It was capable of crossing 60-ton tanks. The transfer meant moving to Hanau, on the Main River East of Frankfurt. Turns out that was my best assignment in 13 years in the U. S. Army. The quarters were in formerly German Officer quarters, with walls about two feet thick. Jim Kelly, USMA class of 1950, was my company commander. We had more interesting times, because we often took part of the bridge to the combat engineer battalion for them to train on building it properly. At least three times a year, we took all 600 feet of bridge to the Rhine River for training. On the Sunday the battalion would erect the bridge across the Rhine. It was quite a sight to see it go up, ending up about 1080 feet in 15-foot sections. Our 299th Engineer Battalion one year did the entire bridge in 2 hours and 31 minutes. The constant change in tasks (field training, river training, Rhine crossing, maintenance of the pontoons, 7th Army command post exercises, and army training tests with 3 battalions) kept us from being bored. There was plenty of social life, and short trips to Holland, Belgium, or Paris were encouraged. We knew how good we had it in Germany, compared to Hawaii where there were no quarters for lieutenants. Although my pay was about $300 per month, the commissary and Post Exchange had most of what we needed. I remember that bread was 10 cents a loaf. A Chef Boyardee spaghetti dinner box was 37 cents. Because we were only paid once a month, spaghetti was common at end of month suppers. The exchange rate was 4.2 German marks per American dollar. When we went out to eat in a small German town, rump steak or wiener schnitzel dinners would cost about a dollar. Beck's and Loewenbrau beer was only $1.40 a case. Coke and Pepsi shipped in from the states was $2 a case. In the summer of 1958 I was lucky enough to get to be the company commander of the 814th. It was a superb opportunity, especially because that was our busy time of the year. There were three graded company activities per year. The next one was the Army training test. We did our test with a combat engineer battalion that also was being graded. We came up with a basic plan to improve our known weaknesses, so that we could get a superior rating. I explained the plans to the troops. I challenged them to take the test seriously and give our best efforts to obtain the superior rating. Give people an incentive and a challenge to succeed, and they will produce surprising results. We deserved the superior rating. As far as we could check, the 814th had never before received a superior rating on the Army training test. The test was on normal operations relative to bridging. It ended with the company being committed as an infantry unit in an assault. My responsibilities as a company commander were far beyond what my background and experience would merit. For starters, I had 92 trucks and 125 pieces of engineer equipment (20-ton cranes, power boats, and air compressors). I averaged about 165 troops, most of them specialist third class (Compares to a sergeant in pay). Our 40- each 20-ton--bridge trucks were old and a constant challenge to keep running. Then there was always the worry that one of my cowboy drivers would play chicken with a Volkswagen. I saw what happened when an armored personnel carrier ran over a Volkswagen beetle. It was not a pretty sight. There was danger especially at the river bridge constructions. One time the brakes failed, and the truck rolled backward into the Main River. It was the most satisfying six months I had during 13 years in the U. S. Army. It proved again that if you challenge soldiers to succeed and give them some positive tools, they will succeed even beyond your expectations. You might be surprised to know that dependents had specific evacuation plans and escape routes to the west. We were also required to drive our dependents along the evacuation route for practice. We doubted if the Rhine River bridges would be there when the dependent convoy arrived. A word about our friends, especially in Holland and Belgium. Ten years after the war the Dutch people were openly thankful that American military forces had rescued them. They were wonderful hosts, even to providing teenagers as unpaid guides for sightseeing. The hotel owners at Nordvik on the Sea made sure that we did not spend time at tourist traps. At the city closest to where the World War II Battle of the Bulge was fought, Bastogne, they daily put flowers on the battle memorial. The Battle of the Bulge was one of the major actions Gordon's 84th Infantry Division fought through. Chapter 6 Study, study, and manage some research and development (June '59-August '64) I was fortunate to get my choice of universities for graduate school in engineering. Having been born in Detroit and knowing that Cliff Simms got his masters degree there, choosing the University of Michigan was easy. Then too, all four of our parents were still alive, and Ypsilanti was only about an hour from Wauseon. After we got there, we were surprised to learn that the civil engineering degree was part of the studies and planning to construct a second Panama Canal with nuclear explosives. Honest! I imagine that they rightly concluded that the use of nuclear explosives to construct a peaceful structure would be a public relations nightmare. It did not take long to learn why the Michigan College of Engineering is considered to be in the top five in the U. S. The best professor I had in 8 years of college was Leo Legatski. He taught reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete. You turned in a design problem every class session. He was an active consultant in prestressed concrete, so he knew the practical side of the technology too. Several of my professors had written the course textbooks. They were recognized experts in fields like hydrology, soils engineering, and specification and contracts. Little did I realize that every year after 1961 I would use my knowledge of specifications and contracts. To get two degrees in two years we had to take a heavy load, including two courses each summer. We generally had two laboratory courses in the fall and spring. The requirements for laboratory reports were very demanding. I realized later that this would sharpen my communication skills. This later led to giving published speeches at national meetings, writing a chapter in a book for a friend, and making more money as a civilian based upon better communication skills. In 1959 the campus computer was the new toy of campus. You were required to type your own deck of cards. The Michigan Advisory Deck operating system was primitive. You dumped the cards into a bin and came back a week later to get the results. I was taking a computer basic course, and the first graded problem was to make Social Security deductions for a payroll system. When I checked my results I found I had omitted an asterisk from column 19! Honest! I dropped the course, and picked up an advanced math class on Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems. I have been lucky to have knowledgeable co-workers to help me learn all I now need to know about computer usage. Three Gateway courses have also helped a lot, especially because their textbooks are outstanding. The second year in Nuclear Engineering was a challenge. In 1960 the professors were still trying to determine what a nuclear reactor engineer should know. The Department was a collection of Nuclear Physicists. Electric Engineers, M Engineers, and Solid State Researchers. Unfortunately, because of sheer numbers and seniority, the course structure was tilted toward nuclear physics and nuclear transport theory. However, we three USMA Class of '55 Army guys did the work required and got the two degrees. As it turned out, the nuclear engineering background and two year stint with Army Reactors would become the basis for the last two-thirds of my career. The two years at the University of Michigan were demanding and stressful. But the basic knowledge was in place to go into technical project engineering and department management. I was fortunate to get an immediate utilization tour at Army Reactors, U S Atomic Energy Commission, Germantown, MD. This little known program put six small (2,000 kilowatts) plants around the world (Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska, Sundance in Wyoming, Fort Belvoir in Virginia, and a barge-mounted plant that ended up in the Panama Canal Zone). Two noteworthy items: the small Greenland plant was the first plant ever decommissioned and removed to burial sites; the Antarctica plant supported the research station for its entire life. My major responsibilities were two nuclear fuel assembly improvement programs. The flat plate, metal ceramist fuel assemblies were used in the Fort Belvoir training reactor, and the reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska. The hot cell examinations of irradiated subassemblies were done at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Those folks taught me a lot about the business. In 1961, Oak Ridge National Laboratory had already been in existence for 20 years. The Martin-Marietta designed plants used tubular fuel assemblies. It was also fully enriched uranium (weapons grade in U-235 enrichment). I was also in charge of some water chemistry programs at the Fort Belvoir reactor. Army policy was to leave officers at Army Reactors for only 2 years. We had U S Navy officers working on the Antarctica plant, which they then operated. Similarly, an Air Force captain was the headquarters project engineer. All these Navy and Air Force officers had resigned while at Germantown. The Army was often criticized for the 2-year limit, but the position is understandable. It really did not affect me. I was committed to stay in the Army until June 1965 because of the two years at the U of M. A true story to illustrate how times have changed. We purchased a replacement nuclear core for the Fort Greely, Alaska plant. Then came the problem of how to ship it up there. I was in charge of a nuclear safety evaluation for the fuel (1 assembly per each 55 gallon drum). We submitted it to the New York Operations Office, U S Atomic Energy Commission. It was approved for shipment by commercial airliner. We then shipped it in an American Airlines Passenger flight to Alaska. We sent an Army captain along as an escort. Honest! That was probably safer than trucking the fuel all that distance. The Summer of 1963 Phyl and I were sent to Fort Belvoir for the career course. That was a pretty relaxed nine months. But it gave us plenty of time to renew acquaintances with classmates and friends from earlier assignments. Then too, we all knew we were going to Vietnam at the end of the course. It also helped that we were back in government quarters, and could shop at the commissary and Post Exchange. When my orders came in for the tour in Vietnam, I was to be the II Corps Engineer Advisor at Plaice. That meant stops at Fort Brag, NC for five weeks for advisor training, then 12 weeks at Monterey, California to learn Vietnamese. The Vietnamese course was six hours per day, with only Vietnamese spoken in the classroom. You can get pretty proficient under those conditions. We did go fishing on the Monterey pier a lot. We did sightseeing at nearby Cannel, the 17 mile drive, and the areas where Elizabeth Taylor made the movie "Sandpiper." It was also long enough to convince us that we never wanted to live in California. Chapter 7 Vietnam-a tragic mistake and an enigma (August '64-July '65) As will always happen in the U S Army, when I arrived in Vietnam I found that another captain had somehow obtained my advisor's assignment So I was assigned to Military Assistance Command, Headquarters Commandant. My specific assignment was to provide housing for the subsector (County) advisor teams-five persons per team. These teams would be arriving soon, which would vastly increase the U S Army presence in the field. At this time there were only 16,000 Americans in the country, including Aid and U. S. Operational Mission personnel. So I logged a ton of days flying by helicopter from Quang Nhi in the north to Bac Lieu in the Mekong Delta. It was really interesting, because I had to come up with a preliminary design for the team barracks. Where possible we would renovate an existing masonry structure. In the Mekong Delta the design was often angled 1 x 4 siding to keep the rain out, but keep the side walls almost all screening. Local Vietnamese contractors could construct these buildings with no power tools. If all else failed we erected a 5 x 10 meter steel and marine plywood building. I turned the designs over to a U S Navy Seabee lieutenant. In general I was so busy that I did not get to inspect many completed buildings. The Headquarters Commandant was the supply agency for all the advisors' compounds in the country. So we often had advisors in the office, most with reasonable requests. My boss handled the Saigon area work order requests. One asked for reinforcing steel to be installed inside the office. The purpose was to keep the air conditioner from becoming a moving object if the Vietcong put explosives on the outside. At the time U S personnel consumed over 90% of the electricity in the greater Saigon area. Until January 1965 the Vietcong essentially avoided killing U. S. advisory personnel in the country. That all changed when they got into the II Corps compound in Pleiku and blew up some stuff. That made it clear that the rules had changed. If anyone doubted, the Tet offensives made clear that the war was changing. The Tet offensives were a surprise, because Tet is like their 4th of July. The search and destroy tactics were only partially successful. If the Vietnamese commander did not want a fire fight on a given day, they would just look where they knew they would not find the Vietcong. Incidentally, a lot of dependent families were still in South Vietnam during Christmas 1964. I sang in the chapel choir, and we were comparable to stateside service chapels until February. I have never understood how we ever thought a backward, agricultural and fabric-producing society could be made into a democratic society- in 2.7 years. The French controlled every decision-making position in Indo-China. When they were thrown out, there was a huge administration vacuum. Unfortunately the high government officials knew how to get money to Swiss bank accounts. Then they got deep into frequent coupe d'etat games. The Mekong Delta is one huge rice basket. It is fairly primitive, because you do not need motorized equipment to grow rice, Western style communications are non-existent. So government control is spotty, and communications are still very primitive. Probably the most disturbing part of the war is that high ranking U. S. officials knowingly lied to President Johnson month after month. Especially guilty were Secretary of Defense McNamara and General Westmoreland. I have friends who were involved in the infamous afternoon "body count" briefings at MACV. I highly recommend the book. "Dereliction of Duty" by H R McMaster (HarperCollins, 1997), I believe it is the definitive book on Vietnam. The author is an Army officer and historian, and he got access to a lot of recently declassified material. The book should be in your public library. For no apparent reason, Gen. Westmoreland ordered that all MACV personnel work 70 hours a week. We were all regular army professionals who worked as long as it took to do the job properly. What we did not know was that Westmoreland then went to Washington and said he needed more people, because everyone was working 70 hours. Some things were done well - The combination of heroic medical evacuation helicopters and well trained medical corpsmen saved thousands of lives. These choppers landed in the soccer field in front of my hotel. If a wounded soldier made it that far, they were going to live. I am sure those experiences formed the basis for our current EMS system. A system was used to import U. S. construction materials that worked very well. Vietnam did not produce simple mechanical items like stationary water pumps, or metal electric conduit and electric power cable. Rather than give these items to the Vietnamese government, the aid program sold the items at about wholesale. This generated Vietnamese piasters. This money was then used to pay for services supplied in support of our people. So it was a win-win. We had to learn an old lesson on kerosene refrigerators. In about February 1965 a Korean Combat Engineer Battalion was given the red carpet treatment. They were the first "Allied" combat troops to arrive in Vietnam. The word came down to give them everything they wanted. So we shipped them 40 kerosene refrigerators. A month later about half of the refrigerators had been torn up or were inoperable. I will never forget one day when I was in the advisors' compound in Quang Nhi. It is right on the South China Sea. After we finished our business, the counterparts asked if I wanted to go swimming. I said sure, so we went swimming. After a nice supper, I went out on the balcony looking north (the hotel was two or three floors). I watched A10 fighters drop bombs on suspected Vietcong positions. It was somewhat surreal, almost like watching war footage on television. We needed to be vigilant, lest neglect lead to bad habits. I did enjoy teaching local people English. Our supply operation was almost completely run by Vietnamese. I purchased a 1965 Pontiac from a Saigon dealer. My pay for teaching more than covered the dealer's commission. I picked up the car at the factory in Pontiac, Michigan. Chapter 8 Three years teaching calculus to college kids I could not turn down the opportunity to teach mathematics at West Point. More than a few people had occasionally suggested that I consider full time teaching. Even Miss Money in Wauseon thought I should go to Albion College and then teach high school mathematics. The degree work at U of M resulted in far more mathematics courses than I had anticipated. Teaching mathematics to freshmen at the U. S. Military Academy was anything but a relaxed schedule. The two classes were 90 minutes long, and we taught six days per week. Colonel Bixby, head of the freshman program, used to tell us that it would be the next life before we would only teach three or four days a week. Then each weekday afternoon we new instructors had new instructor training. The calculus text had been written by the department head. It took awhile to understand the theoretical approach. By choice I remained with the standard program for the three years. I normally taught in about section 30 out of a total of 35. In the grade a day system it is pretty effective to sort the sections by relative comprehension. It may surprise you to know that the hockey players had more trouble with calculus than the average football player. Often a hockey player would flunk out, only to show up the next year as a Boston University hockey player. In the mid-sixties there was no way for varsity athletes to avoid calculus and similar courses. If you watch college football today, you find that varsity athletes often are majoring in Communications, Criminal Justice, or even General Studies. Recall also that at most major universities about 50% of the athletes stay long enough to graduate. I learned that the validation of examination questions was a lot more complex than I once thought. We would try test question wording on instructors. When used in an exam, we carefully looked for confusion in the solution methods. Only after a particular problem was given twice did we feel that the problem was validated. It was a welcome change of pace when we got to the linear programming part of the course. The young people seemed to absorb the concepts quickly, perhaps because of high school courses. During the summer of 1966 I had some interviews with companies like Westinghouse Nuclear in Pittsburgh. When I submitted my resignation papers, the Army exerted its authority to keep me two more years because of the Vietnam War. I was pleased that they let me continue the assignment at West Point. I had a pleasant surprise close to Christmas of 1966. One of my classes gave me a cadet windbreaker. I checked with my supervisors. Although the gift was against policy, we decided it would he worse to return the jacket to the class. I still have the windbreaker. The teaching was very satisfying, especially since many of my students should not be taking a calculus course. Unfortunately, the cadet academics had changed little from the mid-`50s. There were advanced placement courses, but still the courses were structured like it was an engineering college. I guess I missed the teaching. I taught matrix algebra at Montgomery Community College at night after I got out of the Army. Chapter 9 Some closing thoughts on the Christian heritage in the Domeck-Gillow-Simms families I would be remiss if I did not recognize the reality of this Christian heritage. Rather than recite the unique contributions of my older relatives, I want simply to testify to the overarching importance of this Christian heritage, The teaching was always appropriate to my age. However, the living the Christian life by walking the walk was more important in my formative years. I do wish I could show you a video of Grandpa Gillow. He was the most genteel Christian gentleman I have ever known. I am not a purist on religious beliefs, nor do I think exclusive religious practices are biblically based. I do recall that Uncle Claude Simms was ahead of his peers. He expressed his belief that he expected to see a lot of his friends from work in heaven. That was certainly not the prevailing view in the Plymouth Brethren churches. What I believe parents and families need to do is ground children in the Good News of Jesus Christ. The message needs to be reinforced in a number of ways. But a common theme needs to be the acceptance of Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. I have often thought we do not emphasize enough that God is in control of this world, and he holds us secure in his hands. The newer translations and study Bibles are a major step forward. I personally now use the Touchpoint Bible, a study Bible using the New Living Translation and published by Tyndale House Publishers. The quick reference finder has about 440 topics. It lists an appropriate Bible verse. Such as, under "family" the verse is, "But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord," Joshua 24:15. The reference finder then refers you to more detailed helpfinders. For the topic of family there are 22 references on various topics or questions. And sprinkled through the text are paragraphs explaining a few verses. There are five of these on the topic of family. The bottom line is that the comprehension level is vastly increased compared to giving an eighth grader a King James translation. Self study is certainly encouraged by the user friendly translation and the up to date language. We have used this Bible successfully with elementary school kids in an after school program. I have heard some of my peers worry about church choices of their kids after they leave home or get a steady girlfriend. I believe it is akin to the task that high schools face. They expose the kid to the wonders of learning, but they cannot force consumption for future use. It also seems common that kids rebel somewhat against the denomination of their parents in their twenties. However, this seems to be a temporary attitude. The important thought is to keep our precious Christian heritage alive in any way we can. I personally think the under 30 generation of our families may well be involved in a serious war with the Islamic world. Needless to say the stakes in such a war would be very high. I am encouraged by the Christian lives of the family members. I simply pray that the family will continue to give priority attention to the various aspects of being a Christian. Chapter 10 "How to stand up and be counted" Because typical American "cellular" families have changed so much (my 1940's versus kids in the 1990's), I want to share some serious thoughts with you. I am emotional about this. This will be somewhat philosophical. I recognize that no peers will agree with this. The topic of this sermonette could well be: "How to Stand Up and Be Counted." While we lived in Detroit (and Dad's "C" gasoline rationing card permitted weekend trips back to Detroit after November '41), I think I saw my grandparents and Uncle Claude and Aunt Louise almost every weekend. The four Simms lived in the upstairs flat on Chope Place. Grandma and Grandpa Domeck lived in the downstairs flat. Ed and I probably spent five times as many "sitter/mentor" hours with Grandma and Grandpa Gillow than with the Domeck grandparents. All four grandparents used these cherished hours and days to teach us, take us places, listen to us, emphasize that each one of us was a unique kid, let us learn by making mistakes, etc. (Because my father had very serious health problems when I was a teenager, I believe Howard and Gordon and Ed stepped into this "vacuum." More on that in Chapter 2.) I believe in role models. If you do not have some-develop a few now, not next year. For example, my Grandpa Emile Gillow was the finest, most genteel, most compassionate Christian man I have ever known! Literally hundreds of times, I consciously asked, "What would Grandpa G (or Howard) do in this important-to-me situation?" I do my best thinking and praying in my 1989 Ford Probe. The answers are always better than Chuck's would have been. I often hate the loneliness of my recent years. But I made the choices...personality-wise Grandpa Gillow and I are not very much alike. I never heard him raise his voice or express anger or frustration. His compassionate ways were quiet and steady. He probably would not be too happy with the impetuous, impatient and judgmental Chuck you know. Moreover, Grandma Gillow also was a wonderful teacher. Ed and I sometimes had "Sunday church" times with her when everyone else was at Central Gospel Hall. The last couple of years I have been using the New Living Translation of the Hob Bible (copyright 1996, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois). Judy E. (outreach director at Augsburg Lutheran) and I used it at their "Kids' Klub" with neighborhood elementary school kids. Understanding is much better than with the typical "pew Bibles." Remember, mentoring someone else's child in reading might play an important part in their accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior in later life. Two-thirds of the Augsburg Kids' Klub have no connection with that church. The local ministry challenges are in every city. Thank goodness for para-church organizations (and ministries). They often do in four to six months what some "mainline" churches discuss once in awhile- then never do because of "burnout" and similar excuses. My experience at Augsburg says empty-nest parents, grandparents, and committed Christian teenagers run after-school programs anyway. Most contemporary American parents have two and half jobs anyway. I will never be confused with a serious Bible student. However, the New Living Translation! include s "application thoughts"-generally only one-eighth of a page long. Here is what it says about opportunities and compromises (direct quote): Compromise (reference 2 Kings 15:3-4) Azariah (Hebrew name for Uzziah)-ruler over Judah in 8th century B.C. Azariah was a good person, a good king, and he pleased the Lord in many ways. But he failed to take action against certain evil influences in his kingdom. Here is an example of a person who could have done incredibly good things for God. Azariah was like a soldier who had the training and weapons to win the battle, but refused on certain days to lift a hand against the enemy. You may be like Azariah...but there are some areas of evil you have chosen to overlook... The passages are about the string of good and bad kings of Israel. (Incidentally, the New Living Translation Study Bible is the largest selling currently in the USA. Largest selling is not synonymous with good or better-compare to handgun totals in the USA.) Grabit #5-long periods of time when Chuck D. forgot this basic truth: God is always in control. Nothing happens on this earth that is outside His control and His grace and His mercy. Grabit #6-Chuck's opinion: The most under-represented age group in many "mainline" and "brethren" churches are ages 3 through 21! Here is my anecdotal evidence...elders decide where memorial donations of money are spent... Back to role models. They are almost always good teachers. They are often actually composite people-relatives, people who were there for you when your life fell apart-again, people whose impact might not crystallize in your mind until eleven-plus years after you last talked with them, and they are always good listeners. Underlining was outlawed at GPUN (my employer from 1986 to 1989 and a great company overall) in the typed word. Nonsense! We have become so politically correct. I am positive that the Apostle Paul shouted often as he stood on the bemis (platform) in Ephesis or Corinth and preached the Good News of Jesus Christ. Sometimes you shout by touching a stranger's arm... Grabit #7-things my grandparents knew and told us about. Now they show up every three weeks or so on print and TV media. So-called "new research" results paid for by USA taxpayers or by USA consumers via unit prices that almost always increase. Have you purchased a sealed container of ground coffee weighing exactly one full pound lately? Why 13% ounces of Colonial Inn chicken broth (from Crabtree, PA-since 1992)? More research showing three hours per weekday of watching basic USA cable TV (about 750 unsupervised hours per year) is resulting in more violent American teenagers. If that were not true, why were stone tablets, sand, black or green or white boards, or overhead projectors used to increase learning by about thirty percent? My parents had us listen only to WJR, 760AM Detroit, CKLW, 800 AM Windsor, and WSPD, 1370 AM Toledo, as I remember it. We were not allowed to have radios in our bedrooms (even though we could afford them after the mid-1940's). Did our parents ever let us knowingly smoke "free" corn silk cigarettes? Did my parents ever tell me inhaled smoke was good for my lungs? "Possibly valid research" showing that making cell phone calls while smoking and driving alone in a car might make you as "distracted" a driver as one driving while intoxicated with alcohol or taking social drugs? I believe Grandpa Gillow knew that. Note: I firmly believe cell phones are a great security guard for females over ten years of age. However, by December 26, 2001, Ohio traffiic laws sho

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