WhiskeyBravo

Winter weather in eastern Pennsylvania has been all over the map. It started early, eased up when it was supposed to be the worst, and smacked us down late. It isn’t over yet, but we’re on the “right” side of the trend!

So much doing on that I just never got around to writing. Friends on Facebook have seen most of the happenings, but this is a brief summary. Also, check the Family gallery, the basketball gallery and the scout gallery for updates.

Early snow on the ground, and snow for Christmas, which was nice. We had a great time as usual with family and were happy that the season found everyone in good health and good spirits.

At the end of January William and I and the rest of his Scout troop went to the Klondike Derby at Camp Minsi. This is a fun event where the boys take a sled around to multiple stations where they need to demonstrate scouting skills from first aid to hatchet throwing (yeah, I don’t know how that is a scout skill either!). At the end of the day, our boys won the competition! They were thrilled as our troop has not placed well in this competition for many years.

Indoor soccer season came and went, not very eventful and not very fruitful, but the kids had fun. Basketball season is upon us now and the season is in the final weeks. William’s team has been on a real tear lately and won 5 of their last 6 games. Looks like they are headed to the playoffs!

This past weekend Salisbury High School presented the classic musical State Fair. The students did a fantastic job and everyone enjoyed the show. Meagan played two parts in the show, she was “Eleanor” as well as one of Emily Arden’s “Fairtones”. It was the first time she participated in one of the school plays and she had a blast. We first time theatre parents even ended up hosting the cast party on Saturday!

I took a few pictures on Saturday and went back Sunday to film the show for the cast party. It’s a lot of fun to watch the kids watch themselves for the first time! The video is huge so it probably won’t be up on line forever.

Yep, summer is over (and mother nature is putting an exclamation point on that).

The kids are back to school and sports are in full swing. The SMS soccer team has had four contests so far but today was the first opportunity for me to get any pictures. SMS beat up pretty badly on Notre Dame 7-2. Several players had multiple goals. William was goalie for the entire first half and I think he touched the ball once! Pictures in the gallery.

Summer has been busy in a very good way. We just returned from our family vacation at Long Beach Island. As always heartfelt thanks to Bob and Kathy Miller for their extraordinary hospitality in letting us stay in their beach home. We had a great time and the weather was fantastic. Water temps in the mid 70’s and beautiful sunny days!

Two weeks before LBI William and I spent a week at Boy Scout camp in what has become something of a tradition. I really enjoy this week since it gives me an opportunity to really decompress and disconnect. It is also good for my knot tying and wood carving skills

More pictures in the gallery

Baseball is over, School is over, Time to relax…

OK, Maybe not! Last weekend we were supposed to go to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, but bad weather put that plan on the shelf. No point in going to watch WWI Aircraft fly (or more correctly NOT fly) in thunderstorms. Instead we packed up and headed to The University of Delaware for a visit for Meagan. She liked the campus a lot and they have a strong international business program with study abroad. It is definitely a contender.

There still seems to be something to do every evening. Meagan is playing volleyball over the summer and this weekend we are going to a graduation party for

my nephew. We snuck in a little relaxation last night with an Iron Pigs game after the thunderstorms blew through. Seats right behind home plate!

Pictures from the All-Star game Saturday and the Caty game today in the gallery. Our team won the All-Star, not such good news against Catasauqua.

UPDATE:

Not sure what is wrong with the UStream videos, there is no sound. In any event, my machine finally chewed through the video and finished encoding it, so here you go!

Integrated Project is an 8 month journey. Beginning before the start of the school year, the teams must work on a 45 minute mixed media presentation on a topic fitting a predetermined broad concept. This year, the concept was “What if there was no news?” and the idea was for the teams to present factual and counterfactual  visions of the world as it was, and how it could have been.

Meagan was on a team that focused on the 1920’s. In “An Era On Air”, they focus on how news shaped the events of the period, and paint a compelling picture of how very different it might have been in a world without radio and newspapers. Watching them weave the story was magical, and I could no have been more proud.

So, enjoy the video, and don’t miss the pictures in the gallery.

UPDATE: Well…for some reason, the embeded video from Ustream doesn’t have any sound (at least on my end). I’m encoding my own video while I’m at work and will have it up this evening.

It’s late, so I’ll post more about this tomorrow, but it was a fantastic day topped off by a wonderful celebration.

Here are links to the streaming videos. I’ll put my own up soon along with some pictures in the “family” gallery.

(Links removed since they were broken anyway – Go to ustream.com and search if they eventually get fixed)

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on these projects!

For memorial day, I thought it would be appropriate to post some biographical information written by my dad. My deepest gratitude to all who have served our country.

Walsh, William J., Lt. Col, USAF
AF-CAP Liaison Officer – Illinois Wing

Born 12 October 1912, Frackville, Pennsylvania. Attended public schools there and graduated from Frackville High School in 1930.

Died 25 March 1990 – Buried at Arlington National Cemetery (info added by Son, Francis)

Early interest in aviation continued and became an active licensed pilot long before World War II. After beginning of hostilities, became a Civil Service pilot, assigned to Training Command. Graduated from the Central Instructors School, Mather AFB, and was assigned to Luke Field Advanced Flying School, Arizona, Was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant 19 May 1943 at Luke field, and given aeronautical rating as a Service Pilot. Continued as an Advanced Flying Instructor until October 1942.

Went to the European Theatre of Operations and assigned to the 326th Ferrying Squadron. About D-Day went into C-47’s with the 302nd Air Transport Wing and continued under this Wing until end of hostilities in Europe. Was assigned as Provost Marshal, Bremen Air Base, Germany in the Army of Occupation.

Returned to Continental United States – 1946 assigned to TAC, with Provost Marshal’s Office, Became Field Supervisor, CID, under TAC and remained in that position at Greenville AFB, South Carolina until the Office Of Special Investigations was formed; then assigned as one of the original officers in that organization, with 6th District OSI, at Warner Robins AFB, Georgia.

December 1951 was selected for assignment to Tehran, Iran with MAAG, and was reassigned later to the United States Military Mission to Iran as Air Transport Advisor, and served in Iran until July 1954. Received the Iranian Legion of Merit Decoration for this tour.

Subsequent assignments were all under Military Air Transport Services at Charleston, South Carolina, where final assignment was Operations Officer, 22nd ATS. Air Rescue Service, Assistant Operations Officer, alternating between Puerto Rico and Buenos Aires, Argentina supporting USAF U-2 Operation. While on this assignment flew the Air Rescue escort airplane for Vice President Nixon’s South American Tour.

Last assignment before AF-CAP was at McChord AFB, Washington. Was acting Commnander of the 33rd ATSqdn at the time of inactivation, June 1960.

Flying experience from OX-5 through World War II – fighter aircraft transports including C-118’s. 7300 military flying hours, plus civilian light plane time.

I completed the 45th year of my journey through life yesterday. With a little luck and planning I’ll have AT LEAST that much farther to go in good health. I suppose with all the Heinlein I read as a youngster I’ve got a small hope I might just live long enough to live “forever”. Just call me Lazarus.

I celebrated my “achievement” of survival by going camping last weekend with William and his scout troop at Tobyhanna. It was a good trip and certainly left the boys with exciting stories to tell. We took a 10 mile hike on Saturday on one of the most challenging trails I have ever seen. Lots of rock hopping and climbing over trees brought down by this winter’s ice storms. Growth so thick that several times we had to send scouts out to find the next red trail marker on a tree. It was grueling, exhausting, and wonderful!

Saturday night brought vicious thunderstorms, and something else that could have been vicious, but thankfully wasn’t. A bear visited our camp in the night and made a heck of a mess of things. Tore into one of our food boxes and dragged our garbage (which should have been put in the dumpster) into the woods. A few boys said they heard the intruder, but none quite had the courage (or recklessness) to try and steel a glimpse> They smartly snugged down in their tents and waited until morning to see what had happened.

Weekends like this one make my years vanish. and that is good. Sadly every day I go to work lately ages me immeasurably. The joys I have had in the past several years of leading talented people to do meaningful things are gone, replaced with feelings of despair and hopelessness. I met with our president last week and it was no help. I’ve concluded the company has given up on a strategy to win, and settled on a strategy to simply not lose “too much”. These are difficult conditions for people who believe they have a vision. I’ve spent years “leading upwards” but it is just so much more difficult now, and frankly no one seems to be interested. They know they can survive, and they are resigned to do no more.

But it is only work, it is not life. The company will either come back to me or it will not. I will do what is asked but I will not stop doing what is important. I will not seek out failure but I will not hide it if it is thrust on me. I will do it quickly, and move forward. Someday there will again be meaningful work to be done. If not here, then somewhere else. I have another lifetime ahead of me…

Something else I did in celebration of my own life so far, a few eeks ago I received the last of the slides from Dad from Scan Cafe. Once again they did a phenomenal job preserving these old memories. This batch leads up to my early childhood. I’ve replaced the original gallery with a new one including some of my favorite images from this wonderful collection. I hope someone enjoys them as much as I do. I’ll be sending copies of the entire set to my sisters Cheryl and Marian, and to my half brother Geoffery in Wales.

After a long, grueling season, the Lady Falcons experienced something of a rebirth in the last four contests. Coach Covely threw the players in the mixer and dropped them in a completely new lineup that finally found something resembling a rhythm. Defense was much better over the last four games and other than a disjointed rainout/continuation game with Southern Lehigh, the girls held their own and played full 7 inning games.

In the final contest of the season the ingredients came together including some offensive performance and the ladies defeated the Bangor Slaters 11-10. This in spite of apparent efforts on the part of the umpires to thrust defeat on them. They didn’t give up, and a single by Senior Jen Singly drove in the winning run in the form of Freshman Markella Wickel.

Congratulations girls on a well deserved victory and on ending the season on a upswing. Good luck Senoirs!

Pictures from Palisades and Bangor in the gallery.

Meagan makes the stretch