I grew up in a time when my father was tormented by demons. Today they call it PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The cause of this was of course the Vietnam War, but it wasn't just being in Vietnam. It was because of the battle that my father survived. The Battle of Ia Drang was the 1st Cavalry's and the US Army's first battle with North Vietnamese Regular Army soldiers on November 14 - 16, 1965.
If that weren't enough, take 450+ men and put them in a valley clearing about the size of a football field and then have about 2, 000 enemy soldiers surround them for 3 days. There were many heroes that came out of that battle those three days. Rick Rescorla was one. Bruce Crandall was another.
But judging from the conversations I was privy to the last few days, there were more heroes that came of that day, that America will never hear about. In the conversations the theme was the same. The men were torn with so much fear, but they didn't know how to react so they did what they knew how to do...fight.
Another comment I heard often was that each man who survived that battle was glad to have experienced such terror.
My father has never really told me much of that day, but what I have heard, impressed me, terrified me, and just made me respect the men who lived and died on those three days in November.
What is the battle of Ia Drang you ask? Think of Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers. That movie was based on a book of that battle written by Joe Galloway and Hal Moore. Two survivors of that battle.
If you want more information you can visit http://www.lzxray.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ia_Drang.
So in true honor to all the men and women who served and serve our nation in the armed forces. Thank you this and every Veteran's Day. May you never feel the stigma that those who served in Vietnam felt when they returned home.
Well yesterday was a little hectic. Started off my car was acting a little weird. But seemed to be ok after that....I get to work and see that I have a meeting scheduled for 8:30 am. The weird thing about it was that only my team and a few other people were involved.
We all hed speculated that yesterday was going to be our last day of work, being that we were being laid off. A little info...I work(ed) for World Savings, which was, by far, the best company I had ever worked for. Recently they were bought out by Wachovia, which is not so good, but still offered a decent paycheck.
well for some time, there have been rumors that were were going to be displaced. While most people would have been worried about being out of a job, most of us were looking to the layoff with subtle anticipation.
World Savings prior owners, Herb and Marion Sandler, were very generous and truly cared about the company and their employees. When notice of the sale of World Savings to Wachovia, the Sandlers included a large sum of money to enhance the severence package for every world legacy employee that gets laid off. Meaning if I was there 1 week or 6 years, I received a 6 months severence package instead of the 1 1/2 month package offered by Wachovia.
It doesn't end there. Since my official end date is November 19, 2007, I am getting my benefits and pay until that day, yet I no longer have to report to work. This is giving me about 8 months to take care of some personal projects that I really want to take care of.
I have plenty of plans for my future life outside of Wachovia and now I have plenty of time to work on them. Thanks Wachovia.
Tonight, I wanted to do some night shooting so I went downtown tonight. It was sort of creepy though. I was at the Hemisfair Plaza and aside from some hoodlums and nightime visitors, I was pretty much alone with my camera.
I was pretty much worried that I was going to be accosted or mugged. When we went on Thursday night, we went with about 8-10 people. Tonight I was alone.
I really don't think I'm doing that again. But here are some of the images that I captured tonight.
This was one of quite a few photos I took at the First Friday Celebration at the Blue Star Art Complex in San Antonio. I don't recall the name of this band, but the show was great.
Some friends and I went out for a night shoot downtown on Thursday. Some of the guys got some spectacular shots. Here is one of mine. There are a few more in this set. Take a look and tell me what you think:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotcomet/sets/72157601895754348/
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