Peeps...
Went down to New Haven this week and came back will a lesser amount of milestones and paypoints than this Mountain of a Man has grown to be accustomed to.
~
WTF!!!
~
Do you think I'm losing it?
~
Could I be Slowing down??? Showing my age????
~
I guess if you're a .400 hitter, walking away from a .250 road trip can be a real downer.
~
Last time I checked, I was still rough, tough, hard to bluff and Damn Good Looking.
~
So maybe this was just an aberation.
~
Then the week ended with Scott Brown pulling out of the Senate race.... another downer. When you think of it though, Brown would be in his third tough campaign, for a seat the Dems will pour money into again to manufacture a Warren like win in a highly Democratic state, so I don't blame him. Would like to see him take a run at the Governor's seat when Deval finally moves to Washington in two years.
But I kind of like this Steve Lynch guy from Southie. He's not willing to let the beautiful people anoint the slightly pretentious Markey for the vacated Senate seat.
~
I kind of lost it for Ed Markey when he tried to make political hay over the Gulf spill disaster.... claiming that the region would take years to recover. Course now, the PR is that the beaches and sea life are as pristine as they were before the unfortunate oil spill, while I distinctly remember Congressman Markey taking the low ground and saying that BP had ruined the resource forever. Got a lot of national coverage from the liberal leaning networks for that one. I hate it when the Dems try to scare us.... for their own political advancement.
~
Years ago, I met Markey with a bunch of telecom engineers as he toured emerging companies in his district, and he asked each one in the technical group what they did for the company. Got a lot of laughs when I told him I was a "Political Scientist".
~
But you kind of get the feeling that Markey thinks that he is entitled to step in behind Kerry. And of course Kerry should be able to name his successor, shouldn't he? Plus, it seems like a long time since Markey was a common sight in Malden. That's why I like Lynch... a straight talking former iron worker, and no stranger to his home South Boston neighborhood, who seems to have remembered that he represents and works for the people... and doesn't try to snooker them.
~
Maybe I'll plant a Lynch sign on the West Shore Drive front Lawn. That will shock the liberal labelers who like to characterize me as a card carrying Republican.
"Shifty" By Chuck Yeager
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 ..." at which point my heart
skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . do you know
where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.
I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into
Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero ...
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day.
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said
"Yes... And it 's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip."
My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it.
And mine are brimming up now as I write this.
Shifty died on Jan. l7 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center .
No wall-to-wall, back-to-back 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that's not right!
Let's give Shifty his own memorial service, on line, in our own quiet way.
Please repost to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, Maj. General [ret.]
P.S. I think that it is amazing how the "media" chooses our "heroes" these days...
Elvis, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston & the like.
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 ..." at which point my heart
skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . do you know
where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.
I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into
Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero ...
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day.
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said
"Yes... And it 's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip."
My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it.
And mine are brimming up now as I write this.
Shifty died on Jan. l7 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center .
No wall-to-wall, back-to-back 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that's not right!
Let's give Shifty his own memorial service, on line, in our own quiet way.
Please repost to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, Maj. General [ret.]
P.S. I think that it is amazing how the "media" chooses our "heroes" these days...
Elvis, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston & the like.