Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Jan Hunt (L) - Class of '66

I am on the left in the photo above with the big plastic frame glasses and my Lee High School graduation ring showing on my right hand. I am very proud to have served my country. I have PTSD pretty bad and it hurts kinda bad to put details down but I'll send some service times and awards for the records.

I entered the US Army in August of 1967 and was assigned to A Battery 3/13th Artillery "The Clan", 25th Infantry Division, Republic of Vietnam 1968-69, Two Purple Hearts with Oakleaf cluster, Two Army Commendation Medals, Vietnam Service Medal with Silver Star, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palm leaf, and 6 other US Army medals for merit, service and training. In the Alabama National Guard NCO Academy as Drill Instructor. Retired from US Army Reserve in 1993 as First Sergeant HHC 926th Engineers. I often dream of my Brothers in arms who are now gone to stand in the formation of our Lord's Army and how I yearn to stand with them once more.

I still write to my brothers-in-arms that I served with. There is just four others and myself that I know of that fought at FSB Maury and are still alive. God bless the families of those that didn't come home. The young boy that saved my life by physically carrying me to safety died later that morning. I think about Garrett Timothy O'Conner every night I try to fall asleep. We all must pray for the safety of our troops today.

I have many funny military stories as well as sad ones. Glad, bad, sad, they are still my memories.

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Skip Cook - Class of '64

I entered the Army in January 1969 and went to Basic and AIT at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. I attended OCS at Ft. Belvoir, Va.- commissioned 5 Dec 69 as a 2Lt. in the Ordnance Corp. Stationed at Redstone Arsenal in the Surface-To-Air/Development project manager’s office until leaving the service in December 1971. SAM-D later became the Patriot missile system.

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Brian Pfeiffer - Class of '64

Army, '66 - '70, Army Security Agency, three years southern Germany, south of Munich. I also am proud of my service and take offense at anyone who takes you or any of us to task for honoring Memorial or Veterans Day.

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Rod Vandiver - Class of '65

I never really considered myself a veteran since I didn't go to battle, although I served in the Navy from July 66 to July 70. But I am so proud of the fact that I served. My father was in WW2 and the Korean War. The fact that I served got me some points when I took the test for the San Diego Police Dept and maybe that is why I made it. Now after 31 years of service to the City of San Diego I am finally retired. And my friend, Mike Storm, whom I have not seen since 1965, will also soon retire. He served in the military and Police also. I have a real feeling of closeness to those who gave up years of their lives and some their lives to serve their country. Don't let anyone sway you from remembering the vets. Veterans day is Veterans day and no one else's. We can celebrate everyone else on another day.

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Bryan Towery - Class of '66

Please add the following to the Vietnam Service list: US Navy.

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W. Dale Meyer - (Would have been) Class of '66

I was dismayed to read that honoring veterans could ever be construed to be right wing. I usually take this day and call all my fellow veterans to thank them for their service on their day. We bask in freedom because veterans allowed us to enjoy these freedoms...lest we forget. Former HM2

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Jim Betterton, Class of '64

I served in the U.S.Air Force Security Service during the Vietnam years, from April, 1966 through July, 1973. I was a Staff Sergeant when I completed my service. I served at Goodfellow Air Force Base, San Angelo, Texas. I served at Headquarters, USAF Security Service, San Antonio, Texas. I served in Southeast Asia at Korat Royal Thai Air Base in Thailand, at Udorn RTAB in Thailand, at Ramasun Station in Thailand (not far from Vientiene, Laos), and at numerous places and remote sites throughout Europe (England, West Germany, Italy, and Greece).

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Charlie Hancock - Class of '66

We Veterans appreciate your efforts.

I was a Navy Hospital Corpsman and served with grunts of the First Marine Division as an infantry medic in Vietnam. I was shot at and missed. I realize now all these years later that The Lord made me bulletproof and invisible to the enemy. Still not sure why. I'm very honored to have served with such brave men. I never fired a round while in VN. When shooting started, I had other priorities; wounded to bandage and medevac.

I'm Chaplain this year of my Marine Corps League Detachment and active in Toys 4 Tots.

My service was Mar, 1968 thru Dec, 1971. I got a 90 day early out to return to college. (They were as glad to see me go as I was to leave.) Nearly 3 of my 4 yrs were attached to Marine units. I was never in the Real Navy. I was however attached to the Real Marine Corps. I hold the Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnam Service, National Defense and good conduct ribbon. I think I'm eligible for the VN Campaign ribbon too but it's not on my DD 214. At this point in my life, I don't care.

I think those who escaped military service missed out. Period. Their lives would have different I think for all of them. Probably better. But not everyone can serve. I think that's too bad. I'm all for mandatory two-year minimum for nearly everyone with few exceptions.

Thanks for the Pro-Veteran stance!

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Michael Griffith, Class of '66

U.S. Army - Vietnam 1969-70, Bronze Star

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Mike Vaughn - Class of '65

I completed the two year Army ROTC program while in law school. The two-year progam involved attending two six-week summer camps (one at Ft. Knox, KY and the other at Ft. Bragg, NC) and doing the last two years of the normal ROTC classroom work. When we were commissioned in 1972 Vietnam was winding down and they did not need most so we were put on active duty for six months and then placed in the Individual Ready Reserve. I completed the Armor Officer Basic Course at Ft. Knox, KY and then was assigned to the Weapons Department as an instructor for the balance of my brief tour. I later learned about the Roundout Program in which a few Guard and Reserve units were assigned to fill a slot in the TO&E of a regular Army unit and would deploy with that unit if it ever deployed. As a result, the units got the best equipment and training, including training with the parent units each summer. I joined the 3/117 Mech Infantry BN of the Tennessee Army National Guard, which was part of the Third Armored Division at Ft. Hood, TX. The Air National Guard flew us to training each year at Ft. Hood. Later we were transferred to the 4th Mech. Infantry Division at Ft. Carson, CO and flew there for AT. When the Roundout program was phased out, we became an Armored Cavalary Squadron. I was a captain when I got out and had served as a Rifle Platoon Leader, Executive Officer of a Rifle Company, HQ Company Commander and S3 of the BN. I have been out of the unit for many years now, but my old unit has served proudly and well in Iraq where it sustained a number of casualties.

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Aaron Potts, first class of Lee - I find it so funny that you come up with some of the things we use as a child, that followed us into our lives as adults. The strings and cans were put together to be a communication device and strangely enough, it actually worked. Shortly after I got my electrical engineering degree I was asked to go to Galion, Ohio to do some design work on a telephone system, NX1E and ETS4 phone system for North Electric Company. Jokingly someone said we could install some strings and a couple of tin cans and save the company some money. However, the company didn't see the humor in it. Needless to say, the printed circuit boards we were designing, in some cases didn't work as well as the tin cans either.

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Bruce Fowler, Class of '66 - Tin Can Telephones. You talk in one end and hopefully someone else can hear at the other end - and visa versa. You have to pull the string very taut and it helps if the string is knotted on both sides of the hole so you can have a very snug fit.

The tin cans act (somewhat) like one-open-end organ pipes and the sonic vibration of the speech vibrates the end of the can, which vibrates the string, which vibrates the end of the other can.

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Woody Beck, Class of '65 - It is obvious that it's the old "Who can suck the most spaghetti" game. A long section of cooked pasta is inserted in the ends of two empty cans. The contestants place the cans to their mouths and the sucking begins. He who sucks the most spaghetti is the winner.

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Arni Anderson, '58 - Those LOW TECH items are TELEPHONES. Walkie talkies and I'm sure called several other names. My parents lived in Chicago when I made my first pair and I thought If I only had a string that reached all the way to Chicago I could talk as long as I pleased.

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Bobby Cochran, Class of '64 - Seems to me that we had some fun one day in Mr. Blackburn's room with a similar "transciever" - would that have placed it sometime around 1959?

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Jim Bannister, Class of '66 - The Mystery Item is a tin can & string voice communication device. A far cry from a cell phone. Actually paper Dixie cups and monofilament fishing line worked much better than tin cans and string. You could communicate fairly well as long as the line was kept tight.

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