My Dad, Henry Roelof Schenck was a bugler and drummer in the US Marine Corp band, stationed in Washington DC
PERSPECTIVE We have reached an apex of history which will never be understood by future generations. The disintegration of the Communist block of nations may continue until they are forgotten, a concept this generation finds unimaginable, but which is true, non-the-less. Communism may become forgotten. Incredible. The...
On the road… again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek Great Books and Film Documentaries They say that if a book is worth reading, it is worth reading again. Good books attract numerous readers, as measured by readership survey data. Great books are measured not so much as the...
A Bastogne Tribute (Author Unknown) There was snow on the ground in South Jersey when, for the second year, I made my way out to the range to fire a Bastogne Tribute clip. As with the year before I left my SUV near the front gate, shouldered my M1, and made my...
{source} I recieved a hand made card the other day and it moved me to write this story. A good friend, Kathy Larsen, lost her brother in the Afganistan war. He meant almost everything to her and I remember the time when she could hardly speak trying to come to grips...
This picture of my father, Harold Joseph Bennett was taken on an unknown island in the South Pacific while he was serving in World War II. It dates from about 1944. He enlisted into the SeaBees right after graduation from High School in June 1943.Daddy used to tell us about some...
Bill has just returned from a visit to El Alamein to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle that changed the war in the Western Desert. Bill, along with fellow veterans from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and South Africa, revisited the scene of the battle and this story is a...
On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek Street Corner in Montmartre* Le Consulat Restaurant, as it looked in 1963 If it is generally true, as it seems to be, that the older we get, the more we reminisce about the past; then those of us...
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek F is for France If you watch closely, you can see the French countryside taking shape in stark contrast to the Swiss countryside along its common border, as you clear the customs station at Pontarlier....
The 4th- The celebration of our Country's Independence from England. Let's focus on the pieces of the whole for a moment and celebrate the common every-day citizens who, over the centuries, have voluntarily (and let's not forget not so voluntarily-drafted) stepped into harms way to protect the initial Declaration of Independence...
We were all subject to re-call for 20 years. So when I got out in 1949, the Korean war started. So they re-called me and gave me three days to report to active duty to Fort Knox, Kentucky. And I didn't do it. What I did, I went and joined the...
Because they had so many off-post and other musical duties most Army Bandsmen in the 1950’s were exempted from “extra duties” such as K.P., Guard Mount, and “work details” - Most being the key word in that sentence. But the “Command Band” of the entire Fifth Army, the...
On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek In the Army As a draftee, the Army experience of the Footloose Forester was different from what many civilians might perceive as a typical military tour of duty. He was called to duty when he was living...
On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek Uniform or Not, Civilian or Not Uniform or not, civilian or not, many of us who spent more than a year in Viet Nam saw lots of action of one form or another. There were mortar attacks,...
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Return to Tuy Hoa (in Google Earth) Thoughts of Viet Nam keep returning in his dreams. Some memories are clear but others are confused, especially about why the Footloose Forester was there, in the...
On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek Italy Joe Pellek was the first one to note that the bathroom in our hotel room in Genoa was all marble tile; the walls, the floor, and the quaint bathtub. Even the floor in the bedroom was marble tile. ...
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek C is for Cambodia Cambodia was on the list of places to see before the Footloose Forester had to decide whether his sojourn out of Pakistan would turn south toward Australia, or continue east into...
On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek Ambush At An Khe Pass Most of the sagas about the Viet Nam War are about military operations and men in uniform, but civilian contractors in Viet Nam were not always safe. This short chronicle is a...
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Golfing Where and When You Can Living and working overseas does not mean that you have to give up the pleasures that you enjoyed back home. Playing golf was a pleasure that was not available everywhere,...
I rarely donate to organizations outside of my church donations that go to tithing, fast offerings, humanity projects, assisted temple patron, and perpetual education fund. However, for the past few years (at least while we have been in Afghanistan in war) I have made an annual donation to the Disabled American...
