About a month ago, I heard this Gulf War story from Christophe Ames. I’ve cleaned it up a bit, but that’s it. It is his story and history. The story is both a sad one, and one of heroics. More than anything, it’s a true story. Here is Christophe’s narrative…

Today is the 30th anniversary of what I now consider the first day of my true adult life. The time of innocence is only a memory now. A few days after the deaths, as we stood in formation in Hangar Bay 1, aboard the USS Saratoga CV-60 in our Dress Blues, there wasn’t a dry eye aboard. We stood at attention for the reading of the names of the fallen and laying of the wreaths in the water.

That’s when it finally hit me, exhaustion abated, adrenalin subsided, my brain allowed me to think instead of only reacting. Boyish ignorance was never again to be of solace to me at the realization I was not “invincible”. I thought time might dull my recall, but as I think of it today, the memory is clear as a bell.

…It’s Zero dark hours on 22 December 1990, in the port at Haifa, Israel. It was my first deployment on the Saratoga during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Airman Brent A. McCreight, Petty Officer Michael L. Bellevue, Petty Officer Mike Bray, and myself among others, had been further inland and were working our way down to the Israeli shoreline. Brent ALWAYS volunteered for the mission, but I had also asked Michael to go with us on that fateful night.

We were to rendezvous with three small egress boats piloted and crewed by Israeli Nationals. They were to take us out of the harbor, into open water and back to our ship. It was a moonless night, very cold, and the seas were rough.

The first boat filled and departed. As the second boat boarded, they only had two spots left and there were four of us from the unit. A debate ensued on who would stay. The third boat was delayed and had not yet arrived and none of us wanted to leave anyone behind. We knew the third boat could be canceled.

I spoke up and said “Brent and Mike have seniority so you guys go. Bray and I are best equipped to stay on shore in case Boat 3 doesn’t make it before dawn breaks.” At that, they boarded and departed.

After hunkering down under tarps and debris on the dock to protect us from the weather, the third boat finally arrived. We loaded the remaining sailors and departed. The seas just outside the breakwater were so rough, we actually caught up to the other two boats which were fighting to make it to the fantail aft of the carrier. Outside the harbor in the open waters, the current and waves picked up fiercely.

As Boat 1 was attempting to moor and off load people on the Saratoga, Boat 2 was in a tight holding orbit. As we approached, we were getting ready to start a wide orbit. It was pitch black and the Saratoga was at minimal lighting. All you could see of the small boats were the faint nav lights bobbing up and down in the waves.

Then it happened. The middle boat, Boat 2, went up on a wave and then just disappeared, gone in an instant. There was no warning, the lights were there one second and gone the next.

By the time we fought to get to the site of the capsizing, Boat 1 had turned around to assist, but Boat 2 was gone. It sunk so quickly, all hands aboard went under instantly. There wasn’t anything we could do except search and rescue. We were listening for survivors calls against the noise of the stirring seas and roaring wind. We didn’t know it yet, but many of the sailors went to the bottom with the boat.

There was nothing normal about what was happening. They weren’t even our boats. They were Israeli boats and crews who were familiar with the seas. Hardly any of us was wearing life jackets, let alone our normal issued life vests with chem lights.

We pulled survivors and bodies from the water. MAA3 (MAA is a Navy Military Police designation) Delwin Delggado jumped from the top deck of the boat into the cold dark waters for his shipmates. He selflessly saved seven people before succumbing to the icy waters, making the ultimate sacrifice.

Bray and I pulled aboard survivors and even performed CPR on one, until we hit bingo fuel (no fuel) in our boat and had to head back. I never saw Brent or Michael alive again.

The next few hours turned into days. I was the first one offloaded while I was giving CPR to a shipmate. I’ll never forget the person who grabbed us both, hauling us aboard. As the boat pitched and rolled in the 3-5ft swells, the fantail seemed as steady as a pier. The man who hauled me out was the EOD Diver, who also ran the hangar bay calisthenics.

He looked like the SEAL Senior Chief from the movie “GI Jane” played by Viggo Mortensen. I immediately recognized him because I’d attended most of his workouts. He hadn’t really ever invited us non-divers, I’d just show up every day, form up in the back and then try not to puke. Over time, I recruited a couple of other non-divers to come with me. After awhile, there were a bunch of us and the good natured ribbing began. We brought towels to lay on the deck because the divers didn’t share exercise mats. He’d see us coming and say, “Here come the Airedales & they brought their towels, because if they came close enough to the water they will dissolve… Bunch of sugar britches.” When we formed up with them, he’d look at me and say, “HI SUGARCUBE keep up the pace & try to stay dry.”

… That night he was half in his dry suit and a kapok (a kapok is a rudimentary military life vest), strapped to the fantail landing. He was perfectly timing his pulls, as he yanked guys off the small boats while they pitched and rolled. We picked up my fallen shipmate and put him over my shoulder, as I leaned over the side of the wildly moving boat. The Sr Chief and some medics hauled the two of us aboard. The medics grabbed the guy and took him to the Medical Bay. I’m not sure who he was, and I never knew if he made it.

I didn’t follow them. I turned and looked at Senior Chief and he said “Strap in SUGARCUBE and lend a hand” as he commenced to putting safety straps around me. A Boatswains Mate manning the boat lines threw me a Kapok. I suddenly realized the medics that had helped me off were now away and attending to my injured shipmate. Senior Chief was the only one left and needed help getting other sailors onboard. We unloaded the rest of Boat 3 and then Boat 1. The last living sailor was finally hauled aboard. 21 sailors, friends, and brothers in arms were lost that night.

I heard a soft, purposeful, immediately recognizable voice behind us say, “OK Senior Chief you can get ready to go get my boys.” Senior Chief replied “Yes sir” and mumbled, not so quietly under his breath, “It’s about time.” I turned and saw Captain Mobley, who had been close behind us the whole time. Later the OOD would say the Captain was at the Bridge moments after the man overboard alarm was sounded and then immediately went to the fantail once he heard the boats were coming in.

It came out later that the Captain had to stop Senior Chief and his SAR swimmers from just jumping in the drink as soon as they heard the “man over board” alarm. Until they knew what had happened and exactly where, going in dark with no specific direction and under a possible threat would have been disastrous. They would have most likely just added to the victims list. If that happened, no one would be left to go in after the SAR Swimmers or anyone else. The Captain made the right call, the hard call.

After our two boats were unloaded, they suspended boat operations to evaluate what happened. I went up, changed to dry clothes and headed back to the fan tail. That’s when I saw Brent one last time in the Hangar Bay. I positively identified his body and made a silent promise to NEVER forget him and to make sure EVERYONE else got back aboard. I said my goodbye and headed Aft.

Dawn broke and I arrived at the fantail which, at this point, was roped off and secured except for the small quarter deck entrance to the fantail ladder. I beelined straight there. Right as an MAA was motioning to stop me, I looked past him and said in a loud voice “Captain Mobley.” I looked at the MAA and said, “Excuse me” and walked right past him and up to the CO who was talking to the XO, and Admiral Boorda. I looked at all of them, and then right past them. Never stopping, I said with a nod for each, “Sir, Sir, Sir.” I proceeded past them and down the ladder to the landing.

I suited up and strapped in as if I’d been ordered to a duty station for the impending arrival of the first retrievals of the day. No one asked any questions. There wasn’t anyone from the earlier crew, because Senior Chief was now coordinating diving operations. They were retrieving our shipmate’s bodies still trapped in the sunken boat more than one hundred feet below.

I didn’t leave the fan tail for almost two days.

I ate brown bags in between boats unloading. Senior Chief and his crew retrieved all but one of our shipmates. We pulled every sailor’s body off those pitching and rolling boats until everyone was back aboard. Senior Chief and I saw each other a couple of times that day during his required out of water time between dives. He came over and checked on me, and made sure I had food and people to help for the remainder of the time…

…The next time I saw Senior Chief was a few weeks later before a work out. He didn’t raz me as usual. He read my name tape and from then on, he only called me “Ames.” Everyone else was teased except me. He actually asked me to lead some of the workouts when he was not available. We exchanged brief pleasantries, but never spoke of that night.

The last time I saw him was a year later when I was promoted to Petty Officer and he said, “Hey Ames, I see you got your crow. It just proves even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and again.” He was the last to “tack” it on, he grabbed my arm, raised it up high…and then hit me in the stomach! He said, “Divers hit DEEPER.” Not being a diver, I didn’t realize at the time the honor he bestowed upon me.

That night we lost 21 Sailors and Brothers in Arms. A part of me never left that Fantail, that Harbor, that Hangar Bay. A large part of me was forged on the Saratoga, especially that night. I think of my shipmates often and have survivor guilt to this day. I was the one who had asked Mike to go. What if I hadn’t? What if I had picked someone else? What if I went on Boat 2, or Bray had? Would I have somehow survived, would he have, or would I have succumbed to the same fate as my friends? What if…What if…but I digress…

I had the opportunity to meet Brents family the summer of ‘15 at his Memorial. It was deeply meaningful for all of us and helped me immensely. This year, thirty years after the event, is just as vivid and memorable. The bite is just as deep, although now a little less sharp.

I’m keeping my promise from more than a quarter of a century ago. My shipmates, you are NOT forgotten. You fulfilled your duty, and we have the watch now. Fair Winds and Following Seas My Friends, My Shipmates, My Brothers. “Until we meet again in Valhalla, in the house not built with hands, but eternal in the heavens.”

_____________

A list of those fine young men who gave their Last Full Measure that night:

BELLIVEAU, Michael L., 24 years old, Lakewood, Colo.

BROWN, Christopher B., 19, Leslie, Ga.

BROWN, Darrell K., 19, Memphis, Tenn.

CARRINGTON, Monray C., 22, North Braddock, Pa.

CLARK, Larry M., 21, Decatur, Ga.

DELGADO, Delwin, 26, Jacksonville, Fla.

FLEMING, Anthony J, 25, Buffalo, NY

FONTAINE, Gilbert, 22, Spring Valley, N.Y.

HUYGHUE, Wilton L., 20, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

JACKSON, Timothy J., 20, Anniston, Ala.

JONES, Alexander, 19, St. Louis, Mo.

KEMP, Nathaniel, 18, Greenwood, Fla.

McCREIGHT, Brent A., 23, Eminence, Ky.

NEEL, Randy L., 19, Albuquerque, N.M.

PLUMMER, Marvin J., 27, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

SCHIEDLER, Matthew J., 20, Hubbard, Ore.

SEAY, Timothy B., 22, Thomaston, Ga.

SETTIMI, Jeffrey A., 25, Fort Wayne, Ind.

STEWART, Roderick T., 20, Shreveport, La.

SHUKERS, Jeffrey W., 28, Union, Iowa

WILKINSON, Philip L., 35, Savannah, Ga.

_____

25,000 plus National Guard troops will be in our Nation’s Capitol on January 20th, Inauguration Day. This doesn’t include the National Guard troops deployed across our country at state capitols on the same day. All of this is to prevent the violence and insurrection threatened by right wing extremists.

People have noted the size of the contingent in our Nation’s Capitol is larger than the combined number of troops we currently have deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq (5,000 as of January 15th, 2021).

For me, there is another number that puts this deployment in perspective – The Battle of Yorktown in 1781. It was, in essence, the final battle of the American Revolution, resulting in American Independence. With a combined American/French force of approximately 18,000, General George Washington defeated the 8,000 troops under Lord Cornwallis in October of 1781.

• 

Think about it. In the battle that determined American Independence, there were approximately 26,000 troops between the two sides together. America is now deploying nearly that number itself, to guarantee extremist rabble doesn’t act out it’s fantasies.

The cost to defend and ensure American democracy is never cheap. It was not in 1781, and it is not 240 years later in 2021. That we need 25,000 troops, not to mention untold numbers of law enforcement personnel, to ensure a peaceful transition of power in this country is both sad and appalling.

What is equally as sad, is that no one expects anything to change for the foreseeable future. Whither next America?

As a footnote to history, it’s worth noting that after the Battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis refused to attend the surrender ceremony, saying he was ill. Instead, his deputy, Brigadier General Charles O’Hara, led the British Army on the field that day. The official treaty between Britain and America would not be signed for another two years.

• 

Addendum:

• Thanks to my friends Tim Stouffer and Mark Dunavan for our discussions on this topic. Tim, who knows more about history than anyone I personally know, first made the comparison to Yorktown in our discussions and helped me flush out this blog.

• The official treaty between Britain and America, “The Treaty of Paris” was signed on September 3rd, 1783.

• Our Constitution was not ratified until June 21st, 1788.

He told us five years ago his thoughts about what he could do and how his supporters would react. Remember? Just prior to the Iowa caucuses in 2016, candidate Trump stated “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

His followers listened, and remembered. Yesterday, speaking to the mob in Washington DC, the president upped the ante – “We are going to have to fight much harder….We are walking to the Capitol…. You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength”.

At the same rally, his personal lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, stated “Let’s have trial by combat”.

Well, the president got his “day of reckoning.” As a result of yesterday’s violence and seditious acts, they both got their wish. There are four dead, and for only the second time since the British torched the Capitol building during the War of 1812, our Capitol, was violated. Property was damaged, property was stolen, and people died.

The world continues.

⁃ The state of Georgia elected two Democrats to the United States Senate, giving Democrats control of the Senate. I have to believe this was a direct repudiation of President Trump and particularly his actions of the last two months.

⁃ Former President George W Bush, Mitt Romney, General Mattis and other prominent Republicans and former Trump staffers have all condemned this president and these actions.

⁃ Several Trump appointees are now resigning.

⁃ Congress certified and Vice President Pence announced the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

I understand for the “true believers” in the Trump camp, yesterday will change nothing in their view of this president, or the election. Nothing ever will. For the rest of us, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, lets look forward to a new day.

Feel free to share this blog…..

It’s a sad day for America when all ten of our living former Secretaries of Defense feel compelled to release a letter saying the election is over, Biden has legally won, and the military should NOT be used to intervene in the election. Think about the American reality that prompted such an op-ed piece

In their letter, they take great pains to point out that they, and those in the military have sworn “an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party”. Seven of the ten signers are Republicans, or served under Republican presidents. Two of them, Mattis and Esper, served under President Trump.

These ten men have differing views on the direction of America, but none of them believe in any one person holding sway over the Constitution. Their belief is in The United States of America itself. That they wrote and published this letter says volumes about where we are in America.

Looking across our country right now, I am disheartened at how many of my fellow citizens have taken up the “cause” of one man’s misrepresentations and lies.

There has been much written about cults, causes and movements here in America. While cults were originally thought of in regard to religious activities, the definition has expanded to include devotion to a person, idea or movement. Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon, wrote about people who convert to cults and causes. At the time, he was writing about his own conversion to Communism, but it could be about any cult, movement, or cause:

“To say that one had “seen the light” is a poor description of the mental rapture which only the convert knows (regardless of what faith he has been converted to). The new light seems to pour from all directions across the skull; the whole universe falls into pattern like the stray pieces of a jigsaw puzzle assembled by magic at one stroke. There is now an answer to every question; doubts and conflicts are a matter of the tortured past – a past already remote, when one had lived in dismal ignorance in the tasteless, colorless world of those who don’t know. Nothing henceforth can disturb the convert’s inner peace and serenity – except the occasional fear of losing faith again…”

There are now so many cults, causes and movements here, people have published warning guides about them. Compiling lists from several articles, the signs to look for include:

• The leader/group is always right and the exclusive means of knowing “truth”. No other process of discovery is acceptable or credible.

• Although there may be outside followers, there’s usually an inner circle who follow the leader without question.

• Cults typically oppose critical thinking. There is no tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

• Typically cults exploit their members….often financially.

• The idea that if you leave the cult, horrible things will happen to you. There is no legitimate reason to leave – former followers are always wrong in leaving.

Sound familiar at all?

We, as Americans, need to look past any one person, past any one president, and look to the future of this country. Americans have never sworn an oath to only one individual and never should. I take heart that these former Secretaries, and people like Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, continue to do the right thing. America will weather this storm and grow from this experience. It will be because people, not Democrats, not Republicans, but Americans, did the right thing.

Addendum:

You can read the full text of the former Secretaries’ statement here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html?fbclid=IwAR1MmpArgZ8vQ41ljU1tCYsEFHmRA6m-B1QZtXbeqU0tWDFqZ7Gf2FVTPFE

It was Christmas, 1965. I was ten years old and in Fifth Grade. I’d figured out a year or two before Santa Claus wasn’t real, but my Dad made me promise not to tell my sisters. Even though Santa wasn’t real, it was still an exciting season.

For Christmas at our house, you’d typically receive one “big” present, several smaller presents, and of course clothes (ughhh). For the big present, you could petition Santa at the little Christmas House in downtown Ottawa, or more importantly, make sure Mom and Dad knew. Sometimes you’d receive the present, but just as often not. Money was typically tight at home, and Santa might, or might not come through.

In 1965, I wanted a Transistor Radio. They’d been around for a couple of years by then, and the price was starting to come down. Before the iPhone, iPod, Boomboxes, or the Sony Walkman, there was that first mobile music device – the Transistor Radio. The Beatles and The Stones both appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1964, but more importantly, Rock ‘n Roll was on the radio. If you were a kid growing up in Illinois at the time, that meant WLS out of Chicago. Everyone listened to WLS.

Unfortunately at home in the Hall household, if the big radio was turned on, it was tuned to WMAQ, also out of Chicago, which played Big Band, some Jazz, and “popular” (not Rock) music. Dad didn’t like Rock. He was strictly a Jazz/Big Band guy, and “those kids who only played four chords” weren’t going to be on the radio in his house. A transistor radio promised freedom, but from my view the odds of getting one weren’t high.

Christmas Eve finally arrived, and then came Christmas morning itself. We kids started waking around 3:30AM, making trips to the bathroom so we could see the Christmas tree along the way. Finally, around 5:30, Mom and Dad let us get up, and we started ripping into the presents.

Eventually, I found the battery. Dad showed me how to open the radio and we placed the battery inside. I turned it on…. and music! Wait, what’s this? It was old people music. Dad explained to me he received a special deal on this radio and it didn’t include WLS. It did however have WMAQ and their adult music. I was disappointed, but at least I had a radio.

Later that morning, I was in our backyard, sitting in a tree, listening to the radio as it played Christmas music from WMAQ. A car pulled into our driveway and out came Uncle George, Aunt Mary and my cousins. They all wished me a Merry Christmas and wanted to know how Christmas had been. I said pretty good and showed them the radio. Uncle George, Aunt Mary and the older kids laughed, waved and went into the house.

Billy looked at me as if I was stupid, and then exclaimed “Gimme that!”

I handed him the radio and he played with one of the wheels and all of a sudden – Boom! There were The Beach Boys singing “Little Saint Nick”! Whoa! It turned out I didn’t know about the frequency dial on the radio, and Billy had tuned it to WLS at 89 AM. (He was right to look at me the way he did. ;-). )

I raced into the house with the Radio. “Dad, Dad! The radio DOES get WLS! Billy showed me how to tune it in!” Dad looked at Billy and me, and I believe a small smile crept across his face. “What?! The salesman told me it wouldn’t receive WLS. I’ll have to talk with him”. He then made Billy and me go back outside “if we were going to play that Rock ‘n Roll”…

I recently talked with Billy about the story. He laughed at the memory and remembered thinking my Dad might kill him. He also remembers changing all the buttons in his family’s car to WLS for the drive home that day.

Having a good Christmas, and then your big cousin helping to make it even better – how cool is that?

I know with Covid, this Christmas will be different for many of us. Here’s hoping you make special memories to remember, and laugh about for years to come.

Addendum:

Dad grew to enjoy the Beatles. Many years later, we were talking after he and mom returned from a Jazz fest where a band played a medley of Beatles songs. Dad’s comment to me: “You know, those Beatles made some pretty good music”. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, or at least they could in Dad’s case…. 😉

If you want to read a couple of other Christmas memories from the Hall house, you can find them here:

⁃ The Christmas of 1967, when my sisters, Roberta and Tanya, found the hidden Christmas presents, and paid a price: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/the-christmas-morning-that-almost-wasnt/

⁃ The Christmas of 1963, when my Sister Roberta and I both receive Ice Skates… Roberta proceeded to skate circles around me: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/skating-at-varlands-pond/

⁃ The Christmas of 1933, with a story about my Dad, and Uncle Mick: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/a-hall-family-christmas-story/

The transistor radio really was the start of the revolution in portable music. You can follow the trail from Transistor radios to Walkmans, Boomboxes and iPhones. As it says in the referenced article, “The mighty transistor radio was the first piece of technology that gave young people complete musical freedom from parental disapproval.” Read more here: https://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/internet/retro-tech-the-transistor-radio-11363937910884

Not all heroes wear capes. They aren’t all soldiers, first responders, or health workers in the time of Covid. Some are just doing their job. My friend, Kelly, is one such hero. She works for the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, Arizona and has received death threats, just for doing her job.

On November 18th of this year, I noticed a blog I wrote in August of 2017 was getting a lot of online clicks/views. The blog is titled “This is not my America” and was my response to the horrific KKK/Nazi torch lit parade in Charlottesville, Va that year. I assumed someone liked the blog and linked to it in their own blog, or perhaps tweeted the link out. The next day, there were even more views (almost 150 in total). I decided to investigate further and traced the clicks to a specific blog site, as opposed to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or web searches, which is how most readers find me.

It turned out a right wing blogger was calling me a leftist in her blog and said I was “attacking the Founding Fathers”. The blogger went on to use my Charlottesville blog to condemn my friend, Kelly, as also being a “leftist”. (a link to my Charlottesville blog is at the end of this piece, if you want to see what a leftist I am).

The right winger stated “no Republican/Conservative would have retweeted the blog, but Kelly did, outing herself as a leftist/Democrat”. Later, in the same blog, she commented about my friend Kelly – “If this is true, then we’ve flushed out yet another traitor in our midst. Just one little Benedict Arnold of many. ”

Why was my friend under attack from this blogger and others? Upon further reading of the attacker’s blog, I found out Kelly now works for the Maricopa County Elections Department. In the course of her job, and at the direction of her boss, Kelly sent an email out to election workers shortly before the election, telling them voters should use the provided Sharpie pens on Election Day to mark their ballots. Evidently Kelly was an evil person and part of a cabal doing everything she could to cancel out the votes of Republicans on Election Day. Someone leaked the email to the trolls, with her full name, email address, and phone numbers.

According to conspiracy theorists, voting machines couldn’t read ballots marked with sharpies, and thus hundreds of thousands of votes for Trump on Election Day weren’t counted in Maricopa County and elsewhere. Now this was demonstrably false and was debunked multiple times. In fact, Sharpies worked better than pens, and would cause fewer issues on Election Day than ball point pens. This didn’t stop the trolls from posting about the Sharpies, or my friend. If you want to see some bizarre stuff, do a search on Sharpiegate.

I decided to contact my evil friend, and see how she was doing, but I ran into a problem or two. Her work phone went straight to voice mail. Her cell phone went straight to voice mail. Her LinkedIn account was shut down, as were her twitter and Facebook accounts. I also couldn’t reach her via Messages, or Messenger.

I was starting to worry.

I contacted a mutual friend to see if he had any other way to reach Kelly. He passed on a cell number he knew worked for her previously. I reached out…. and we connected.

While Kelly was OK, she was having some issues in Arizona. Trolls were coming after her and bombarding her accounts with threats and vulgar comments, so she shut them down. People called her names in person and online that you wouldn’t want your mother to hear. She was receiving death threats and her voicemail for work and her cellphone were porting directly to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office forensic team. The death threats were credible enough that the sheriff’s department discussed assigning protection to her.

Kelly and I talked about the election and what was going on in Arizona. She was in surprisingly good spirits for someone threatened with death. In her words –

“I’m OK. The County offered me a security detail because I’m getting death threats. I have all new phone numbers. There were lots of sick, disgusting messages I wish I’d never heard. These people are ugly. They’re pulling at every straw. I took everything down out of fear for my family, but they have taken that as an admission of guilt.”

The only thing Kelly was guilty of, was doing her job.

Kelly shared with me that her parents, and her wife Sarah served as her base and her foundation. They were keeping her sane with jokes, and with messages of love. Her boss and Maricopa County were also standing by her – with protection, words of support and defense of the truth.

I said to her “I’m proud of you. Now is the time for good people to stand their ground, and doing the right thing is important. You, my friend, did, and are doing, the right thing.”

She answered back “I hold that in my heart – I have nothing without my integrity.”

***

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office completed an extensive review of all actions surrounding the election. In an interesting twist, one of those attorneys was Tom Liddy, the son of G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame. The Attorney’s Office found no issues with the conduct of the election, and in fact stated the Election Board did everything they should, to ensure a fair election. Mr. Liddy’s comment was “This is the best election I have ever seen… in terms of turnout, and security”.

On Friday, November 20th, the court threw out the third lawsuit raised since Election Day in Arizona. Later the same evening, the five member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors met to canvass and certify the 2020 general election results. There are four Republicans and one Democrat on the Board. In a two and a half hour meeting, they discussed the election, and listened to input from the Election Board, and the County Attorney’s Office.

Scott Jarrett, the Director of Election Day and Emergency Voting, said this in his closing statement “The heroes of this election are the election staff…. the people who still came to work, even as people were chanting at them, and calling them names…..”

Just after 6PM, the board unanimously approved the canvass of the November election for Maricopa County.

The Chairman of the Board, Clint Hickman, said “We’ve canvassed the General Election results and can assure Maricopa County voters proper steps were taken to ensure a full and accurate count of all votes. No matter how you voted, this election was administered with integrity, transparency and in accordance with state laws.”

He went on to say “I learned a lot about the character of people in this community… I will not violate the law or deviate from my own moral compass, even though that is what some have pressured me to do… I specifically want to thank the staff who have worked tirelessly to run this election during a pandemic – Scott, Kelly, Rey…. I want to personally thank you”.

Not all heroes wear capes. One works on the presidential election in Maricopa County, Arizona. I’m proud of my friend Kelly, who continues to provide election support, even as I write this blog.

Addendum :

• You can read my blog “This is not my America” at this link, and judge for yourself how much of a “leftist” I am: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/this-is-not-my-america/

• I chose to only provide a couple of screen shots of the right wing blog that linked to my site. I did not want to give the blogger any more exposure by providing a link to her site and the information she is publishing. As you may have seen in the screen shot above, there was a strange mix of comments about Kelly, the blogger possibly being sued by her own parents for defamation, and a little Lord of the Rings thrown in as well (although she misspells Eomer). It’s a strange world we live in these days.

• As I was writing this blog, the trolls continue to post about Kelly. She stays in close touch with the Sheriff’s Department. Kelly was happy with me using her full name in this blog, but due to the ongoing nature of the harassment, I chose to use her first name only, and to not provide a complete picture of her.

• You can read more about Sharpiegate here: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/05/sharpie-ballots-trump-strategy-arizona-434372

• You Can read more about the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors certifying the election here: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/20/maricopa-county-supervisors-meet-consider-certifying-election-results/6362991002/

• You can watch the Maricopa County Board meeting here: https://youtu.be/XUHPaJWiG68

Fifty seven years ago this Sunday, the world changed and went spinning off in a different direction.

Friday, November 22nd, 1963 started like any other day at McKinley School in Ottawa. I spent the morning in Miss Langbehn’s third grade class with my friends Tim and Howard. Released from school for lunchtime, I walked the half mile home with my buddy Howard, arriving a bit before noon.

At home, Mrs. Wiley, our baby sitter, had tuna sandwiches ready for my sister Roberta and me. We ate them quickly and then adjourned to the front room to watch Bozo’s Circus on WGN TV for half an hour. Around 12:30PM, Roberta, who was in first grade, and I left for the walk back to school. We didn’t know President Kennedy was shot right about the time we left home. In that pre-internet age, the shooting wasn’t public knowledge for another ten minutes, until Walter Cronkite interrupted the live soap opera “As the World Turns” on TV to announce the news at 12:40PM.

Blissfully ignorant, we played with friends at the school yard. Shortly before 1:00PM, we lined up at the school door, as we did everyday, to enter the school in a column of twos. While standing in line, my neighbor, Leonard Mayberry, ran up to me and a couple of others and said someone shot President Kennedy. At first, we thought he was telling us some kind of joke, but he kept repeating the news. It didn’t make sense and I thought, for whatever reason, he was making up the story.

As we entered our classroom, Miss Langbehn quickly quieted us down and told us to pay attention. The intercom came on and Mr Powell, our principal, announced President Kennedy had been shot, and his fate wasn’t yet known. I distinctly remember thinking he would recover. Mr Powell left the mic open with the radio on, giving us news and updates…. the criticality of the wound… the shooting of a police officer in Dallas… the arrival, and departure, of priests at the hospital…

The classroom was stone quiet as we listened to the intercom. Miss Langbehn, and perhaps some of the girls were quietly crying.

Although it wasn’t publicly known, President Kennedy was officially pronounced dead at 1:00PM, just as we were entering McKinley School after lunch. At 1:33PM, assistant White House Press Secretary, Malcom Kilduff officially announced to reporters at the hospital that Kennedy was dead. This update wasn’t on the news yet.

At 1:38PM, Walter Cronkite came on TV and radio and announced Kennedy was dead, and Lyndon Johnson would be sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. We sat there stunned.

A minute or so later, Mr. Powell said a few words. To this day, I don’t remember what he said, but it seems they were words of comfort. School was dismissed and we walked home, each of us in our own world.

The next several days are a blur to me now, but Roberta remembers sitting on the couch next to our mom, watching JFK’s funeral procession. She told mom she felt like she wanted to cry and mom answered “if you feel like crying, it’s OK”. They both might well have spoken for all of us.

Addendum:

• It’s hard to imagine how different the world could have been if JFK was not assassinated. What would have happened in Vietnam? Would Johnson’s Great Society programs of Medicare and Medicaid still have passed? Could a northerner like JFK have gotten the Civil Rights act of 1964, or the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to pass as LBJ did? What about Bobby and Martin? Would Nixon have run in ‘68? Would Watergate have occurred? The list of questions and alternate futures is endless.

• Thanks to my sister Roberta, along with friends Tim Stouffer, Howard Johnson, Leonard Mayberry, Joy Starjak Algate and Lynn Galley Robinson for their memories of that day. Tim and Howard were in Miss Langbehn’s class with me and had similar recollections of sitting in class listening to the intercom. Leonard, Joy and Lynne were in Mrs. Voight’s third grade class across the hall and their memories of the events, both in the playground, and the classroom were similar.

• Several of us remember Mr. Powell leaving the radio on with updates. The information I’ve provided regarding the radio content here in the blog is what I’ve pulled off the internet of what those updates were. I don’t have an actual recall of what was said, only that the intercom was on and the news didn’t appear to be good.

• Although the days following JFKs assassination remain a blur for me, my friends have some distinct memories. Tim remembers being confined to the house for the next several days, and not being allowed to play outside. Howard recalls the confusion of those days and not quite understanding what was going on. Lynne remembers watching TV with her dad a couple of days later and seeing Oswald shot on live TV by Jack Ruby. Joy, who later became a teacher herself, recalls the doppelgänger feeling she had when 9/11 occurred and she was again in a classroom, this time as a teacher.

• Mrs Wiley and tuna sandwiches – Mrs Wiley was our babysitter then. She was an older lady and lived about a block away. Tanya, our younger sister, was only four years old, and stayed home with Mrs Wiley while mom and dad were at work. Roberta and I may or may not have eaten tuna sandwiches that day, but I think it was our lunch about 90% of the time with Mrs Wiley…. tuna sandwiches and Campbell’s Tomato Soup.
• I pulled the timeline information for Kennedy’s assassination from Wikipedia. If you want more information about the assassination timeline, you can find it here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_John_F._Kennedy_assassination