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YOUR BALANCE
Well Ol' Spud announced
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Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:16 PM

his birthday a while back (60 I think) so I guess I can say it's great to have made it to the big seven - oh. Doesn't feel any different than 69 years old felt last year. But every year has been a blessing , especially since this day comes exactly 48 years and 2 days after surviving 2 gunshot wounds and a miraculous chopper rescue from the side of a Viet Nam mountainside on the darkest night ever - So dark I couldn't see any light when looking up or down while swinging on a rope below the chopper because it couldn't land to pick me up. Med-Evac pilots are among the greatest heroes ever. Even more blessed to be able to attend games like the one on Saturday -Go Tigers!

Message was edited by: clover65®


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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:26 PM

Thank you for your service so we can all enjoy watching the games and yes, debating on tnet too. You are a true American hero.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:28 PM

Just got rid of your triple 6's

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:27 PM

I'm not too far behind you, but far enough back to have been too young for Viet Nam. I had three older cousins go with two in the Army and one Marine and you could tell it was no place for young men. I think that all of us learn a new respect for life by this age, but your experience has to make even more special. Thanks for your service, I not sure that America ever got around to recognizing what you guys did over there. I'm sure that one of your great joys in recent years has been seeing the Tigers roar. Go TIGERS!

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:35 PM

The welcome us guys received while in places like Walter Reed was much different than what so many experienced. People came in every night of the week to entertain, show gratitude and just spend time with us to let us know they cared. Sadly, almost every G. I. on my ward was an amputee - that alone let me know how lucky I was to come away with only a limp.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:30 PM

you're still a kid.got 2 years on you.as far as feeling different,it's more about your body aging,but not your soul or spirit,so you don't feel different in that regard.can't wait 'til December,because my dad always told me there are no sins after '72.imagine the possibilities.anyway,happy birthday,and enjoy every moment of every day.we've been blessed to have lived as long as we have.

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null


Happy birthday, and thank you for your service.


Oct 1, 2018, 9:30 PM

Oh, and GO TIGERS!

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken


Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:32 PM

Happy Birthday. Thank you so much for your service to our great Nation

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Go Tigers! Once A Tiger Always A Tiger


Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:34 PM

Happy Birthday and Thank You sir !

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:42 PM

Huzzah!

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The definition of awesome!


Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:46 PM

What’s those white things on your gazebo pic? Did you build that yourself? If so you did a nice job.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:49 PM

Thank you. Those are curtains. Gone now in lieu of two privacy walls and a spa. That is 99% my labor.

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The definition of awesome!


Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:53 PM

Grew up with a boy that flew dust offs in Nam. Had 3 birds shot out from under him. You are correct they were heroes. Glad you made it back.

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Gotta have guts to fly a target that size right


Oct 1, 2018, 10:16 PM

up to the side of a steep mountain where you know you will get shot at. Seems crazy to risk more than one life and such an expensive machine to save one life..... but I guess a lot of things about war are crazy.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 9:55 PM

Happy birthday and thanks for your service!

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If I remember right a classmate


Oct 1, 2018, 10:14 PM

in 1964 Darwin Flanders flew medevack choppers. Unfortunately he made one to many flights into a hot LZ one day and didn't make it out. Why on the football board? He was about 5th string end, but a good guy.

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I entered Clemson in 1965 - don't know if


Oct 1, 2018, 10:23 PM

he was still there that year. I had a guy on my hall in the Tin Cans a couple of years later who dropped out to join the Marines because he felt guilty to have it easy while many others were fighting.

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HaPpY 70th Birthday “65”!


Oct 1, 2018, 10:25 PM [ in reply to If I remember right a classmate ]

Like the Purple Heart you’re sporting.

Gen. George says hello & thx!

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Re: HaPpY 70th Birthday “65”!


Oct 1, 2018, 10:29 PM

Thanks - always good to be recognized by one so recognizable.

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Re: If I remember right a classmate


Oct 1, 2018, 11:32 PM [ in reply to If I remember right a classmate ]

It’s an honor to wish a hero happy birthday!

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Wow!! Happy Birthday Clover! Everyday since that night has


Oct 1, 2018, 10:29 PM

been gravy for you! I bet you just shake your head at some of the trivial stuff we argue about on here. Here's to wishing you another Happy Birthday on 10/1/28!!

Spud

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Re: Wow!! Happy Birthday Clover! Everyday since that night has


Oct 1, 2018, 10:35 PM

My mother turned 90 this summer so family genetics indicate that it could be possible..... but 80 just seems like such a big number when you almost didn't make it to 22. Puts life in perspective. Like you said - lots of gravy.

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My father in law got two purple hearts in WWII. Both on the


Oct 1, 2018, 11:26 PM

same day. A bomb blew up a crater he had just vacated, killing his friend who stayed behind, and hit him with shrapnel.Later the same day, he was pinned down in a field by a German machine gunner.He would run a few steps and drop dwon. My father in law,Leon Dodson from Ware Shoals, said that German couldn't shoot for squat. So,the last time he popped up and ran, he tried to make it to the trees, but the German got him. Put a 7mm (I assume) threw his left arm, spinning him around and eventually causing him to pass out. He said when he got shot, all hell was breaking loose! When he came to, he said it was like a Sunday morning. Birds singing,etc. He walked for a while and found some wine to drink in a barn, and eventually saw some soldiers way down the road. He was weak and again about to pass out, so he took a chance that they were Americans and went their way. Lucky for him they were. He was about 5'9",a buck fifty, and ......EIGHTEEN years old.....He lived to the ripe old age of 84 and I swear, I knew him for over 30 years and I never heard him complain about too many things.

I guess getting shot up at 18 gives you a different perspective on things....

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Amen to that - so does being the closest person


Oct 2, 2018, 6:28 AM

to your buddies when they get hit or step on a booby trap ( today's IED's) - that happened twice in one day to me. And I rode a tank across a ditch with what probably was at least a 500 pound bomb in it that went off when the third armored vehicle crossed it. It left a crater almost big enough for the APC to disappear into.

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Clover, if you come to the next game...come by and see us..


Oct 2, 2018, 7:55 AM

I will let you know where...

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Thank you for your service to this great country!***


Oct 1, 2018, 10:32 PM



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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 10:36 PM

Happy birthday! By my not so good math, you were there just before my father was. He was air cav flying mostly slicks in 70 to 71. From the little bit he will tell, you guys earned your pay and then some. Thanks for your service!

Message was edited by: Davistiger®


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You know you've raised a real tiger fan when you ask your son what he wants his cub scout pinewood derby car to be and he says a Tiger!


My last chopper ride was Sept. 28, 1970...


Oct 1, 2018, 10:42 PM

rode Air Cav choppers many times as they flew us to all kinds of places. Could have been on his chopper if he was in the Duc Pho/Danang area in the summer of '70

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 10:49 PM [ in reply to Re: Well Ol' Spud announced ]

Happy birthday!!! My dad was there from 70-72 on C-130s. He never told much about his time there. He would have been 74 in November. Thank you for your service.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 10:50 PM

Thanks for your service Clover65. Those medics were some heroes and so were the MASH units.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 11:15 PM

Happy Birthday and Thank You very much for Your service.

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 1, 2018, 11:47 PM

Appreciate your sacrifice, sir. Wishing you many more birthdays.

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Welcome to the 70's, my good friend.***


Oct 2, 2018, 5:57 AM



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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 2, 2018, 6:34 AM

BLUF: THANKS for your service!

And a late but Happy Birthday to you ‘65! Looking forward to celebrating and sharing many more with you, my friend!!

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Whatever choice(s) you make makes you. Choose wisely.


Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 2, 2018, 7:02 AM

Happy birthday and prayers for many blessings for you and your family. Thank you for your service and being a part of Tiger Nation!

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 2, 2018, 7:24 AM

Happy birthday "65"!! I'm currently reading "Misty" - a collection of recollections of the pilots who flew the F-100 as fast forward air controllers. You probably had a Misty covering for you before and after the chopper showed up to get you out of there. All of you were mighty brave men - even though quite a few were still teenagers!

Thank you for your service!!

For those who might like to read about the F-100 pilots - here are two books that I recommend:

"MISTY" edited by Major General Don Shepperd, USAF (Ret.)

"Bury Us Upside Down" by Rick Newman and Don Shepperd.

Both can be found on Amazon.

Again, thank you for your service!!

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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 2, 2018, 8:20 AM

Clover65 .... I too was on a mountain in Viet Nam 48 years ago today ..... maybe in the same area as you were (overlooking Elephant Valley .... although I was much luckier than you and was not wounded. I had a squad of Marines and we were there to blow everything up since we were abandoning it as an Observation Post. We had it completely wired (actually all the explosives were tied together with "det cord") with about 4 tons of explosives and called for a helicopter to come get us, as on e well placed mortar round would have blown us all to smithereens. The air controllers told us it was too cloudy to fly, although we were monitoring the air net and knew they were flying.

After a half dozen requests, I finally told a Major at air control that if they did not come and pick us up, I was blowing up the 106 Recoilless Rifle and our Water Buffalo (the tank that holds water) and we were walking off the mountain. We were not staying there overnight. About an hour later we heard a couple of choppers coming for the equipment and us, so we were safely evacuated. A month later 4 grunts were killed and two of my men wounded on that same hill .... a long story (friendly fire called in by a Recon Team).

Thanks for your service and sacrifice!

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THANK YOU for your service! And, Happy Birthday!***


Oct 2, 2018, 8:25 AM



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"When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour. He is well-taught who learns these two lessons." -John Newton


Happy Birthday young man!***


Oct 2, 2018, 11:10 AM



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Re: Well Ol' Spud announced


Oct 2, 2018, 11:19 AM

Thank-You for your service. I, too, am not far behind you, but just missed that draft in age. As a child of about 14, I stood and watched flatbed trucks loaded with coffins rolling into Bragg. I asked my Grandma what it all was, and she simply replied "Satan". I am so glad you are here with us to share this awesome freedom, and I have no words good enough to Express my appreciation and respect for YOU SIR! THANK-YOU FELLOW TIGER !

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AND

THANK-YOU !

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Replies: 39
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