Summer

School is out, and the kids have no idea what it IS to be glad to be out of school!! Now all I have to do is get that "honey-do" book worked down some....

Church Birthday

Today is the 34th anniversary of my baptism as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Along with asking Linda to marry me, this has to rank as one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have had a great many blessings as a result of joining the Church, and am serving as the Bishop of the Natchez, Mississippi ward.

More to follow, as it's late.

LTC McClure is Retired!!

Happy New Year to all!!

Today is the day I go on the Retired list for the Army. It feels strange to not be in the Army in some capacity. My friend Dave Amerson assures me that I will quickly get used to it:). Linda and I went to Ft. Polk yesterday and got our Retired ID cards (yes, I am a blue ID cardholder now!!). It was appropriate that I be at Ft. Polk on my final day in the Army because I was at Ft. Polk on my first day in the Army!!!

I enlisted in Shreveport on 26 January 1973 and we were bussed to Ft. Polk. I took Basic Combat Training there (3rd Platoon of Company D, Third Battalion, 1st Basic Combat Training Brigade). I was the Platoon Guide, sort of an acting sergeant who was semi in charge of keeping track of the platoon and helping the Drill Sergeants. After Basic I went to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma for AIT as a Field Radio Mechanic. That course went from March until early June 1973. I was assistant class leader, which was cool because the class leader and I got our own two-man room and everybody else was in an open bay on double bunks. RHIP:) My first regular duty station was with First Staff and Faculty Company at Ft. Eustis, VA where I worked in an electronics shop and took care of the radios and telephones in a classroom at the Transportation School. While I was stationed at Eustis I got a sweet TDY assignment for 6 months - I got to be a station-of-choice canvasser (recruiter's assistant) at home. That was great duty, and I put 31 people into the Army. My first recruit was my younger brother Mike:). After the recruiting I went back to Eustis for a few months, then got transferred to Germany, where I ended up in the 519th Transportation Company (Car) in Heidelberg.

More will follow about Heidelberg in another post.

Voted

I voted (and Brooklyn went into the booth with me, so she voted, too. Sort of.)

And, quite frankly, I am afraid for my country. Results are not final yet, but I am appalled that so many supposedly intelligent people (maybe I'm giving too much credit here) were snowed by the liberal media bull**** and a rock star with no credentials. They deserve what they get if Obama gets elected, but the rest of us don't. If you hate America, please go somewhere else and leave those of us who love our country alone.

Thoughts on retiring from the Army

I've been at Ft. Polk for a few days taking my retirement physical. That (and my impending retirement) has triggered a lot of reflection on the past. I won't go into a lot of that now, but rest assured, there have been lots of changes. When I enlisted in Shreveport on January 26, 1973, I had no idea I'd still be at it with the military 36 years later. I had a change of underwear, my shaving kit, and a quarter when we left the testing station and went to the bus station. We had a pretty good wait for the bus, so I thought I'd better call somebody and let them know I'd enlisted. I called Aunt Rosa May, since she lived in Shreveport, and asked her to call Mama and Daddy sometime and let them know I'd enlisted and was on my way to Ft. Polk and I'd call them when I got a chance.

It's funny, but I remember some ot the guys I enlisted with really well - Henry Bordelon and Lane J. Gauthier from Marksville, Curley Iles, and a red-headed guy that we all called Red. He had shoulder-length red hair and a long bushy red beard. That lasted until the first day in the reception station, when we went to the barber shop. The barbers charged $1.35 and the haircut was pretty simple - they cut it all off. The drills sent Red back through to get his beard cut off (and they charged him another $1.35). We didn't recognize him. His own mother wouldn't have recognized him!

I'll scan some pictures and get them on here some time.

Gustav was a bad, bad, boy

Gustav came through the Miss-Lou Monday and left a vast black void. In other words, power was knocked out everywhere. Our lights went out about noon on Monday but I had just bought a generator so we were able to keep the freezer and fridge in Linda's shop going, along with some fans and the satellite and TV. The fans helped a good bit, because it is still cloudy and pretty cool. Our power came back on tonight (Tuesday) about 8pm. Unfortunately, much of the area is still dark and hot. I highly recommend picking up a 5kw or so generator and having someone help you learn how to set it up to keep essential items going. Safely storing some fuel is key as well, because when gas stations lose power no gas comes out of the pumps. Interesting how that works, isn't it? The Church teaches that we need to be prepared - food storage, water, etc. As usual, the Prophet is right.

Brooklyn, Jeni, and Trent came up the 29th for a birthday party and the McClure reunion. Good thing they brought up extra clothes as well, just in case, because the just in case happened. Trent went home today to check on their house (no damage) and his parents. They still don't have electricity, and won't for several days. Much of Baton Rouge will be out for the next couple of weeks. So, Gustav wasn't a Katrina (at least, not in the New Orleans area), but he still spread a pretty good swath of damage across areas of Louisiana that don't often get hit very hard.

Waiting for Gustav

The air is almost eerily still, as if nature is pausing, catching its breath before a massive exhale. It's been still all day, and hot as blazes with humidity so high you feel as if you can't breathe. Gustav is coming. Actually, projections right now have the main part of the storm coming ashore east of Morgan City and moving through the state to the northwest, right through central Louisiana.

When I was little and a hurricane was coming we'd get together at the neighbors and the adults would play Rook all night as we kids watched and played until we got too tired to keep our eyes open. Fun stuff. We had coal oil lamps (kerosene lamps, for younger people) and candles for light if the power went off. Since we didn't have air conditioning, it didn't make any difference as far as staying cool. Naturally, there were no 24-hour news channels giving us breathless up-to-the minute updates that don't change from hour-to-hour, let alone minute-to-minute. I sometimes think we get way too much information now, because most of it is useless fluff that makes people too nervous. I guess that's the price of progress.

More to follow as Gustav permits.