We Are "Forever Young"

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Last week I had the privilege to be selected as one of 15 Vietnam Veterans here in Memphis to receive a trip to Washington D.C. by the group known as "Forever Young". They paid all my expenses, and I had to pay Sue's part for her to attend with me. We flew out of Memphis and were honored by a crowd waving American flags, wishing us good luck, and thanking us for our service as we boarded the plane.

The Forever Young group is very much like the group known as "Honor Flight" and basically treated the same. We had a water cannon salute to our airplane when we arrived at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and were also greeted with scores of people waving flags and cheering for us. We had a motorcycle escort from the airport to our hotel.

The group consisted of members of all the services and included an Air Force Vietnam P.O.W. We visited all the major military memorials in the capital and ate at some of the finest dining places I have ever eaten in. Some members of our group were selected to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the Changing of the Guard ceremonies we attended. 

When we visited the Vietnam Wall, I left one of my personal challenge coins at the base of the panel which listed the names of the 33 B-52 crewmembers who were killed during Linebacker II. That was the codename for the Hanoii and Haipong bombing campaign which eventually brought the North Vietnamese back to the bargaining table and was responsible for the freeing of our prisoners of war and the halt to our involvement in Southeast Asia. Our time there was short due to our busy schedule so I did not have time to look for the names of the Lee graduates who were listed on the wall. 

One of the moving events was a surprise to me. Sue was secretly asked to get some of my friends and family to send cards or letters to recreate the atmosphere of a mail call for the servicemen who were deployed overseas during the war. I was surprised to find that so many of you had answered her request and I was informed I received more mail than any of the other veterans attending. Thank you for all who took the time to provide me with that special moment.

Surviving the Hurricane in Weaverville, NC

Linda Weldon,

LHS '65

Dear Tommy and all my LHS friends,

This may or may not be of interest to our group.  Please feel free to publish or not.  Edit as you see fit - I will not at all be upset to see a brief version of my tale of woe of our disaster here in Asheville, NC.  

I am really disappointed that I will not be able to attend this month’s Lee Lunch Bunch.  I look forward to seeing everyone every six months and actually enjoy visiting Huntsville and my old stomping grounds.  Every six months that I visit, I see changes in the area.  But lots of changes everywhere so I just go with the flow.

I live in Weaverville, NC, which is in Buncombe County. Asheville is just down the highway a few miles and most of my shopping, activities, and friends are all in Asheville.  As you may have seen on the news, western NC and all the small towns in this area have been devastated by Hurricane Helene.  Who knew we would get so much damage from a hurricane! Snow storm maybe or some heavy rain, but a hurricane?  

Our driveway looks like a war zone.  Randy and three of his friends worked three long days to cut down trees so we could get out of the driveway.  One tree fell but it fell to the side and hit the ground - not the house. Now THAT was a miracle for sure!  We did not have power, hence no water, for 5 days.  The well pump is powered by electricity so no power = no water.  There is a transformer with three big power boxes of some kind at the foot of the hill where we live.  We expected to be out of power for days or weeks till the power company could redo those poles.  Surprisingly and quite unexpectedly our power came back on around noon yesterday - Wednesday, 10/2.  Now we have power and water and can get into town for what limited supplies are available.  We have horses and cows on the farm so there is a 40 gallon water trough in the front pasture for the animals.  That water came in handy for flushing toilets.  It was not drinkable but was handy for other uses.

Most stores - even Walmart - have been closed since there has not been power. The area gas stations actually have gas but with no power, customers could not get gas.  Many people who live in this area have invested in generators for use in power outages, but the generators run on gas. We have a small generator so we were able to at least keep the refrigerator and freezer running and have not lost any cold or frozen food.  I shutter to think of the losses for the grocery stores in the area.  

In addition to no power, no internet and no cell service.  I’m a news junky so it’s been really tough for me to not know what was going on in the world.  Funny thing is that an occasional text would come through from one on my phone contacts, but the political ads via text were non-stop!  How did that happen???  Yesterday T-Mobile had a truck at the local shopping area that had wi-fi and charging stations.  That service was provided free to anyone that could get to the site.  I sat in the parking lot for about an hour downloading emails (over 300 from the last five days) and and looking at news sites.  I even downloaded a few books from the state digital library to read till we got power. 

It is now Thursday.  We got power and internet yesterday but still limited cell service. The story is that cell towers are intact but fiber optic cables were cut when trees fell.  Who knows how long it will take to solve that situation.

Enough about my situation!  If any of you have family in this area, I will be happy to try to check on them.  Emails are going through but texts and cell phone calls are sporadic.   It may not be possible but I would try.  The Governor and emergency management people are telling us to stay off the roads. I-40 and I- 26 are major cross county interstates but bridges are down in some area so travel is complicated for leaving the area.  

Lessons learned for me:  keep all power banks for devices fully charged.  Keep extra batteries particularly the different size ones for lanterns and other household equipment.  We will make sure our water trough out front stays filled.  It was really handy to have that extra water.

  I am sure others in our group have experienced similar or much worse disasters. Folks who live in Florida have these hurricanes often, folks in California have fires, and other areas have had their challenges.  That might be a topic for future discussions - disasters and their aftermath. We were incredibly fortunate to have had as little damage as we did.

I have always had concerns for reports of emergencies in other areas.  Now I have a much deeper appreciation for the experiences of others as they manage life in the midst of catastrophic events.

We are grateful to be alive and well - inconvenienced but safe and sound. 

Hope to see you all in April at the next lunch meeting.

The Wayback Machine

What I left out about my trip to Washington D.C. was that when I returned I came down with a sore throat, which was followed with running a temperature, and eventually to a POSITIVE Covid test. I am taking the Paxlovid now fighting it, but I don't have enough energy to dedicate a lot of time to Lee's Traveller this week. I hope to be better next week and can give you an easier memory than today's issue.

I got to thinking on my trip. At one time I ran around with a group consisting of Lewis Brewer, Bob Walker, Larry Dale Bryant, and myself. After graduation Lewis joined the Navy, Bob joined the Army, Larry the Marines, and it was the Air Force for me. We didn't have a Coast Guard follower in our group.

SAVE THE DATE

Lee Lunch Bunch

Classes of ’64, ’65, ‘66

Date: Thursday, October 24, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM

Place: Logan’s Roadhouse

Balmoral Dr.

Huntsville, AL

Reservations Required through the following:

Patsy Oldroyd ‘65

C (256) 431-3396

H (256) 232-7583

keithandpatsy@att.net

Getting this together this time was more difficult than ever before. Logan’s now requires groups to go through a reservation agency. Also, I had to do some tall talking to avoid the expensive reservation fee they now require along with a contract. Our history of the past fourteen years there for our LLB is the only thing that saved me this time from all of that. I was lucky to only have to do the reservation agency. So… PLEASE do let me know if you plan to come, and do show up! Sorry no last-minute show-ups without a reservation. Thanks! 

Last Week's Questions, Answers, 

And Comments

Suzette Yost von Kamp, LHS ‘58-59, "When I was at Lee in Jr High,, we had two sets of twins on the beginning football team. Larry and Herry Fretwell and Terry and Gerry Duncan. If we ever won any games, I do not remember. The Duncan boys went to Butler and the Fretwell boys went to Huntsville High."

Gail Brady Ayres, LHS ‘66, "Thank you for sharing the info about Mrs. Nelson's passing.  I loved working as a library assistant and learned many things that guided me in my career choice from  Mrs. Nelson.  We ran into each other over the years, usually in a book store.  I received my Masters in Library Science from Alabama and worked in Morgan County Elementary Schools for 25 years.    Mrs. Nelson had a great influence  on my life and she was very special to me."

Nancy Davidson Hummel, LHS ‘65, "Tommy, I meant to send in my comments about football but I forgot. I can still smell those crisp fall nights at Goldsmith-Schiffman Field. I belonged to the Pep Club which Mrs. Jones, I think, organized to support the cheerleaders at the games. We wore blue skirts, white blouses, and white gloves. We were supposed to sit in the area in front of the cheerleaders and scream as loud as possible when they led cheers. Several of my close friends were in it, too. Of course, things changed if one of us happened to be dating. At one point I was dating a band member and, of course, the band had its own section. The best a dating couple could do if they weren't both in the band was have the band member sit at the edge of the band section and the date at the end of the row closest to him or her. It was extra thrilling if Lee won the game.  Somehow for me the new stadium was never as good as those nights at Goldsmith-Schiffman."