Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

How I spent my Veteran’s Day

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

I don’t think Veteran’s Day is just another day…call me corny if you like. To me it is a special day, even though I work for an institution of higher learning that does not believe so. I have to take a vacation day every year so I can do the kind of things I feel like I should do and I enjoy doing on this day.

I got up this morning and put on my flight suit that I wear when I march in the parade. It does not meet “inspection.” I’ve added a few things, a rack of my real medals and a “Cold War Medal,” a B-52 airplane pin, a few extra patches. I wore a “Retired Air Force” baseball hat, and I had Captain’s bars on my flight suit and Major’s leaves on my jacket. I do that for my own special reason. This year I added another special ornament to my uniform – my Carswell AFB “Alert Crew” badge, which I used to wear when I pulled nuclear alert in the B-52.

I got to the parade early and visited with a small group of veterans with whom I have marched for the last several years. I talked to a few, including one IMT from my RC-135 days who is now a cop and rides a Harley with a POW group of riders. I talked to a WWII friend of my late step-father’s, and a couple of crusty old WWII sailors. I talked with a man who had flown B-24 bombing missions from Okinawa to Japan. I talked to a former “Wild Weasel” EWO who is now in the Coast Guard auxiliary. I talked to a retired Army Colonel who landed at Anzio. I talked about my own father who had charged onto Omaha Beach on D-Day and stepped on a landmine and lost a leg. I shook hands with black and white and old and young. I said hello to a Pearl Harbor survivor. There was not a large number there, but there was a proud number.

I was asked to carry the US Air Force service flag at the beginning of the parade. I walked beside a WWII sailor who had to use a cane to walk, but still carried his service flag in the other hand. We marched at the head of the formation, but behind the American Flag and the POW flag.

We marched down the street of Memphis. The sidewalks were lined with business people taking early lunches so they could come out and watch the parade. On the curb set several schools of kindergarten kids who waved at the veterans and the flags. There was a review stand manned by several who no longer had the strength in their frail bodies to make the several city blocks march. There were high school bands and ROTC units. There was not an AFROTC unit from the university any more. When ROTC was no longer mandatory, the marching stopped.

I got to the end of the parade and started back to my car. I stopped as each unit’s American Flag passed me and I stood at attention and saluted until it passes. Some people looked at me strangely for doing that – wondering why I did. I talked to some of the people who had stood and clapped as we had earlier paraded past them.

I decided to take the rest of the day off. On my way home I passed the Memphis National Cemetery and I silently told the white markers. “Good work men, we’re proud of you…thanks.” When I got home I took off my uniform and hung it in the closet with a prayer that I get to put it back on next year and march once more in the parade with all the great unknown and sometimes unappreciated men in my little group.

I spent the rest of the evening packing up my latest book for mailing. It is a collection of B-52 stories from the men who flew them in peacetime and in wartime. It includes a story from a crewmember on the first B-52 shot down over Hanoi and became a POW. It also has a story from the pilot of the last B-52 shot down in Southeast Asia. It has stories from 17 different authors who had a chance to tell their own little part of their story.

I turned on my computer and had a Happy Veteran’s Day message from a retired B-52 gunner who crewed with a friend of mine in Guam and Thailand. I met him at the B-52 Association get-together in Wichita a few years ago and got to know better from the stories he submitted for the book. I also had several messages from some of my classmates who have learned in the last few years that I do take Veteran’s Day seriously. Thanks to all of you who remembered.

Thanks to all of you who also served to preserve this country's freedom. I salute you all.

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Subject:Sayonara

Barbara Seely Cooper

Class of '64

I have no memory of the actual program at the Sayonara event, but that is only partly due to getting older...As one of the people on the decorating committee for the banquet, we painted a large Japanese fan on cardboard and used big globs of masking tape on the back of the cardboard to fasten it to the wall just behind and above the speaker's podium. I think the head table was there too. Once the banquet began, and the speakers stood at the podium, I noticed the fan had begun to peel off the wall from the top. Inch by inch it loosened, and began to loom over the people at the head table. Instead of listening to the events, I was mesmerized by the fan and could only imagine the mess it would make if it fell on top of everyone. It didn't, but I can still remember wondering who would "wear" the fan before the night was over.

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Subject:Odds and Ends

Karen Oliver

Class of '65

My memory may be as bad as Joan's and Mike's but I do remember that Pat Sheldon, Class of '64

went to Birmingham Southern. He did go on to become a lawyer. I also recall making the rounds from Shoney's to Jerrys with Judith Keel and always ordering Jerry's cherry coke. Wonder where Judith is these days. Anyone know?

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Subject:Jerry's and others

Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly

Class of '64

I'm not sure, but I think Jerry's featured sandwich was the "Slim Jim," or perhaps it was just the one that I remember ordering from the menu.

C. E., was it "Bill's Drive-In" that you were trying to recall on Meridian Street? That's the one I remember being close to the Oakwood Drive intersection. I think you're correct about mostly Lee kids hanging out at Shoney's. I loved to hang out at Jerry's, too. I don't know why we all liked it so much either because it certainly wasn't the food! We stayed at Shoney's for awhile and then took off for Jerry's. We always checked out the BHS and HHS guys at Jerry's. Shoney's strawberry pie and chocolate fudge cake were too good for words. (I had both recipes at one time, but can't seem to find them.) And the onion rings. I think I usually ended up ordering a coke at Jerry's, because you had to order something to park there. Remember how we all mixed at Bradley's? LHS, BHS, and HHS all good along reasonably well and even danced together while there.

Okay, all this talk about food has made me decide to issue a request. Ed and I were at an Irish pub in Las Vegas recently, and I ordered their specialty dessert -- Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was basically plum cake with melted toffee and whipped cream on top, but people, that was the best dessert I've EVER tasted in my life! Any other Irish souls out there who might have this recipe in their family? I'll be your best friend.

By the way, I LOVE the Panthers' blue uniform color, but that's certainly not the blue I remember from LHS either!

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A magazine recently ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real life Dilbert-type managers.

Here are some finalists:

"As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and

employees will receive their cards in two weeks."

"What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter."

"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule."

The Name Game Continues

From the

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Huntsville Times

Plain wrong

Cecil Fain was probably right, as Jane R. Parks reported in her Oct. 31 letter "Lee High's name." Lee High School was named for the Lee Highway.

However, the Federal Highway Administration states that the highway, which stretches from Arlington, Va., to California, was named as a monument to General Robert E. Lee. So there is a strong connection between the school's name and the general.

That connection was emphasized in the earliest days of the school by the mural of Gen. Lee painted on the wall of the school gym, the white horse named Traveller (for the General's horse) at football games, and the athletic team name "Generals."

Byron Tidwell's suggestion in his Oct. 31 letter "Another Lee," that the school was named for "some past Alabama highway commissioner" is just plain wrong.

John T. Hubbard,

Huntsville, 35801

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