Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning All!

I recently returned from a “once in a lifetime” trip to Europe with my friend, Harold Voltz.  We took a guided tour of France & Belgium, following the path of Harold’s father when he served in the 4th Armored Division, 25th Calvary Recon Squadron in World War II and then participated in a “Beyond Band Of Brothers” Tour of World War II-related sites in France, Belgium & Germany, following the path taken by Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division, the Company made famous in the “Band Of Brothers” mini-series originally on HBO.  This trip wasn’t on my bucket list by any stretch of the imagination, but my friend Harold, with whom I had shared the experience of attending the 150th anniversary of Appomattox and the end of the Civil War, asked if I’d join him on this adventure.  Having read Harold’s fascinating book about his father’s World War II experiences entitled “World War II Calvary Reconnaisance Scout:  Selected Letters of Harold J. Voltz, Fourth Armored Division” I was compelled to say “Yes” and based on the time we had together in Europe, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.  There were a couple of other reasons why this trip intrigued me…my aunt’s brother, Martin Dahl, a young farm boy from North Dakota was buried at the American Cemetery at Normandy (a place we would visit on the tour) and Bob Brewer, with whom Judy & I became friends when we moved to Reno to take my first job out of graduate school, was a member of Easy Company (Band Of Brothers) after he completed ROTC training and was commissioned a second lieutenant and then volunteered for duty with the newly forming airborne divisions.  He was the assistant platoon leader assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Second Battalion 81mm mortar platoon when he parachuted into Normandy on D-Day.  Bob, whose mentioned in both the Band Of Brothers book and the mini-series, was seriously wounded in Operation Market Garden in Holland and would return to Easy Company at the end of the war.  He later joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  Following training with the OSS, Bob and his family moved to Tokyo, where he ran intelligence missions in Korea.  After his stint in the Far East, he was reassigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky, and subsequently to Camp Peary, Virginia, where he trained soldiers in covert action techniques.  In 1957, he was assigned to a two-year position at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and subsequently to Pakistan and the Philippines.  In 1966 he was appointed Senior Province Advisor in Quang Tri Province, in the Republic of Vietnam, the only CIA officer to hold such a post, where he served until the summer of 1968.  In January, 1969, during the Communist TET offensive, Brewer was instrumental in the allied effort to defeat a large scale assault on Quang Tri City and nearby South Vietnamese military installations by the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN).  The assault was intended to capture and hold the city and to gain control of the province,  and along with the attempt to capture and hold the city of Hue, one province south of Quang Tri Province, it was one of the North’s primary goals in mounting its offensive.  After his military/CIA service ended, Bob, his wife Ruth and their family relocated to California and then to Reno, where Judy & I had the pleasure of knowing them through our church.  Bob was a good athlete and played with us on a church volleyball team. I have fond memories of he and Ruth welcoming us into their home and of spending some time at their cabin at Lake Tahoe.  They made us feel welcome to our first home in Reno as newlyweds.  So, as you can see, there were plenty of good reasons to take this adventure with my friend Harold.

We departed Spokane on Tuesday, May 14th, a sunny and pleasant day in Spokane.  I remember taking some photos of our spectacular pink rhododendron in our front yard that was just getting to its peak blooming stage and a photo of beautiful white & yellow blossoms of an azalea that I had recently planted just before I left for the airport.  The only thing bad about leaving at this time of the year is that I would miss some of the peak blossoming of plants, something I really love about Spring.  The check-in process at the airport went smoothly.  One thing I love about Spokane (among many) is the ease in which you can get in and out of our airport.  It’s just big enough to have lots of connecting flights, but small enough still where you can easily access it.  I stopped into a little bar & grill to buy a sandwhich and told my waitress, Denise, about the trip and she said she hoped to make a similar trip sometime to find her roots in Portugal or Spain, I think she said.  We met up with Harold at the bar & grill and we left for Seattle, where we would make a connection to a flight on Iceland Air to Reykjavik, Iceland and then on to Brussels, Belgium where we would meet our personal tour guide, Roland Lebon, for a three day personally guided tour of the route that Harold’s father took with the 4th Armored Division from Arlon, Belgium to Bastogne, Belgium during The Battle Of The Bulge.  The flight with Iceland Air was long (8 hours or so) but a smooth one.  I really liked the flight attendants uniforms.  The women attendants wore cute round little hats and all the uniforms they wore were dark colored and extremely sharp looking.  We were given all of the sparkling water, “still” water (that’s regular water), soda and coffee we wanted, but food was an additional cost.  If you ever fly Iceland Air, I’d bring along plenty of food items (i.e. meat, cheese, snacks, etc.).  That would be a better way to go, for sure!  We flew north and east from Seattle across the vast expanse of northern Canada, across Hudson’s Bay (now that’s one big bay!) and then east over Greenland and then to Iceland.  Once we arrived in Reykjavik, we got off the plane on the tarmac (they don’t have a way for the planes to dock at a terminal….every plane deposits its passengers on the tarmac and then you are bused to a terminal and then taken by bus again to your connecting flight that awaits on the tarmac.  Now, this arrangement would work well if you were flying into Long Beach or Palm Springs, but it doesn’t work so well when the weather takes a bad turn like it did the day we arrived!  High, cold (and I mean cold) winds, driving rain…some pretty nasty weather and no one had a coat or any protective gear on while we waited to get on the bus to the terminal and then to get back on the bus and climb the steps to the plane when we departed after about a one hour layover.  So, the moral of this story is be sure you have a coat handy when you get off and on the planes at Reykjavik.  That’s one busy airport!  Partly due to it being a major hub for folks traveling to and from Europe to North America or vice versa and partly due to the fact that Iceland is getting discovered as a destination vacation spot because of it’s unusual landscapes, waterfalls, and topography (and lots of geothermal exploration possibilities, not to mention their amazing geothermal pools—large natural hot tubs).  And lets not forget that it’s the prime viewing place of the aurora borealis at certain times of the year!  Icelanders speak a most unusual language.  The captain and flight crew spoke instructions in their native tongue and then in English.  I can’t really put my finger on the origins of the Icelandic language, but I’d hazard to guess it has its roots in the Viking culture of olde!  The airplane’s crew were all from Iceland and I must say they are a most handsome people…very attractive and they all seem to have beautiful smiles!

Well, the flight from Reykjavik to Brussels took about 3 hours and everything went smoothly.  It was a brilliant, sunny day in Brussels as we approached the city by air.  This city is one vibrant place!  We saw the impressive glass structures that denote NATO headquarters as we approached the airport and Brussels is really a crossroads city of Europe.  It’s the home of the European Union.  When we got of the plane, our personal guide Roland was waiting for us and we got to his car in record time to start our European adventure.  Harold and I could tell right off the bat that Harold had made a great selection for a tour guide.  Roland is a charming person…great smile, outgoing personality and has a graciousness about him that truly sets him apart.  Good vibes right from the beginning!  Not to mention he has a great vehicle to go touring in.  A really great looking Renault Espace Luxe 4Pax, something akin to a SUV, but even more spacious it seemed than the SUVs with which we are accustomed.  This made for a comfortable journey, for sure!  As we left the city of Brussels to head south toward Arlon, Belgium, Roland some things about himself…he started dancing when he was 8 years old and danced professionally as young man.  He was a member of a dance company in Belgium for some number of years and is acquainted will all of the major dance forms…he said his favorite dance form is salsa.  He gave up his dancing career when he got married and went into selling women’s hosiery and accessories to various women’s boutiques, shops and department stores all across France and Belgium for a German-based manufacturer.  He earned a good income and enjoyed the work, until retail changed dramatically and the need for a manufacturers sales representative declined.  He then decided to enter the personal tour guiding service.  He is fluent in English, Spanish, French & German.  He vacations in Cuba every year and has developed quite a circle of friends there.  He leads some personal tours there.  His European tour services can be booked through ToursByLocals (toursbylocals.com).  Based on our experiences with Roland, of which I’ll share with you in future blog posts, it’s well worth the additional money to hire a guide like Roland…and I would try to hire him again in a heartbeat.  He made the trip so much more than what I ever expected.  What fun we had with Roland as he could engage local people to help us find the places we were looking for related to Harold’s father’s service in World War II.  Roland arranged a fantastic place for us to stay…a farmhouse in rural south Belgium near a town/village called Anliers.  In fact, we think it was right along the road that Harold’s father took as he outfit made its way north from Arlon to relieve surrounded Bastogne in The Battle of The Bulge!  How about that!

Well, I’m looking forward to sharing lots more about our journey through France & Belgium.  I hope you will enjoy traveling with me in future blogs.  There is so much to share…in fact, my head is full of so many experiences we had on this trip that it’s hard to process everything, but I’ll do my best.

In the meantime, here are few thoughts for the day:

I’ve returned to looking at my 1969 Topps Football Card collection and came across a card for a Gene Howard, a graduate of Langston University (does any one know where that school is located?).  This rookie card says that he “showed exceptional poise and promise…An excellent prospect!”  He’s the first NFL player I’ve come across that came from that pretty obscure school.  Gene was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1946.  Unlike most of the players I’ve come across in my 1969 Topps Football Card collection, there’s not a lot of information about Gene on the internet.  He was the 175th overall pick in the 1968 NFL draft.  It looks like he was one of the original New Orleans Saints, as he started playing football for them as a defensive/corner back in 1968 and led the team in kickoff returns that year, which I think was the Saints’ first year of existence?  He went on to play for the Los Angeles Rams from 1971-1972 and then the Southern California Sun in the World Football League in 1974.  He had 14 interceptions, ran the ball back for 176 yards and scored one touchdown in his NFL career.  And that’s all the info I could find about Gene Howard!  If you know anything more about him, would you let me know.  He’s 72 years old now.  His life after football is a mystery…

Q:  Pollex is the medical term for which part of the human body?

A:  The medical term for your thumb is pollex (compared to hallux for your big toe).  The thumb is the first , most lateral digit on the radial side of the hand, classified by most anatomists as one of the fingers because its metacarpal bone ossifies in the same manner as those of the phalanges.  Other anatomists classify the thumb separately, noting that it has a much different articulation with the metacarpal bone and is composed of one metacarpal bone and only two phalanges. (And now you know!).  It’s interesting to note that in the survey I read, 25% of respondents thought the pollex was the armpit; 38% thought it was the thumb; 34% thought it was the bellybutton; and 4% thought it was the knee when asked to guess which one…how about that???

Here’s the silly question for the day:

Q:  What kind of coffee did they serve on the Titanic?

A:  “Sanka”!

Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.”

—Katharine Hepburn, multi-Oscar winning actress

“What we would here and now call our “happiness” is not the end God chiefly has in view; but when we are such that He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.”

—C.S. Lewis, “The Problem Of Pain” as quoted in C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom:  Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature” (2018)

Here’s to a great Thursday and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)