********************************************
Additional Text for the 11/22/04 Alumni Sandstorm 
********************************************
>>From: Rick Maddy ('67) 

Long and windy and thank you for the scroll button!!

To: Clarence Fulcher ('51)& Gloria Adams Fulcher ('54)
RE: <<>> 

This is a difficult question. My only answer would be prayer. I know
I had a lot of folks praying for me. Did it help? I'm still here. Am
I alive because of the prayers? I don't know. I do know I'm currently
alive because of some very brave young Marines and Corpsmen that
quickly moved forward into a very confined area that just had three
boobytraps go off one after the other (called a daisy-chain) with
seven of us dead (3) and wounded (4) and had enough medical know how
to tie a couple tourniquets expeditiously. What Linda McKnight Hoban
('65) had suggested was very very good. (Here it is again:
http://www.anysoldier.us/index.cfm). Something from home is priceless
and most personal. Have any of you seen the Vietnam Memorial in
Riverfront Park in Spokane? A soldier reading a letter from home.

OR: I received this from Ron MacCarville this morning. Mac was a
squadleader in 2nd Platoon. I was in 3rd Platoon. They heard and saw
the smoke from the ridge I was on when wounded. This is from Rene
Tilly. Her husband is Lt. Col. Tilly USMC Retired. As a company
commander of the unit I was with prior to me getting there, the
colonel took a couple rounds in the chest for the Corps during
Operation Allenbrook, I believe, Dec. 1967. Wife Rene was born in the
military; her father was an admiral during WWII. The colonel has so
much salad on his chest it spills over to the other side. The "Tiger
Man" is quite a guy.

Hi Mac: I received this message and though I would pass it on as
those who are coming to Pendleton for the 3/5 anniversary may wish to
bring some items to these Marines. And the wounded just may want to
visit with some of you guys. R.Tilly Subject: More wounded info...
please help for the holidays If you can Please pass the word onto
friends and those private businesses that may be interested in
contributing. Thanks. Not only is Balboa Naval Hospital receiving our
injured heroes but the medical facilities at Camp Pendleton are also
at near "No Vacancy" populations. In the latter case it's not money
that is needed for our wounded Marines at Pendleton, but stuff.
Here's why and what they need: At the beginning of Operation Iraqi
Freedom, some of the spouses of the deployed Marines put together
hundreds of recovery baskets in anticipation of wounded Marines
arriving at our military hospitals. The purpose behind these baskets
was to provide the wounded with personal items to be used during
their hospital stay and to help fill up their days while being
confined in the hospitals. However, due to the higher than
anticipated numbers of wounded, they are all but out of the supplies
to outfit these baskets. They are in need of the following items:
nonperishable food (snacks and candy), DVDs, all sizes of batteries,
phone cards, Game Boy games, books and magazines, Domino's Pizza gift
certificates (they deliver on base), towels and wash cloths, and
hygiene gear (razors and shaving cream). These items can be sent to
MSgt William Bonney, Office of the Division Inspector, 1st Marine
Division Rein FMF, Bldg 1413 Room 200, Box 555380, Camp Pendleton, CA
92055-5380. [or send to just about any military hospital close to
where you live. I would call first -Maddy]

To: Bob Johnson ('54)
RE: <<>>
Okay, Bob, but you are on your own from this point on. Good luck :-).

Really, I was quite surprised and taken aback with the feedback on my
rant. I appreciate you all very much for your kindness. We all suffer
from something. Goes with the territory. In this case being among the
living. I must tell you, I was not exactly what you call a model
child. I have had dreams that what happened to me in Vietnam was God
paying me a lesson for being such a "little devil" as a kid. Mouthy
little punk. Not much different than those Pismo teenagers. Just ask
Phil Collins ('67), Ken Webb ('67), Gary Nelson ('67), Mike DeMers
('67), John Hammer ('67), Bill Kaas ('67), Mike Fowler ('67), Sharon
Popp Wise ('67), Diane DeGooyer ('67), Barb Gore McCleary ('67), some
whom I've known since third grade. Too bad Alton isn't still with us.
He could do a lot of filling in. Checks are in the mail. And then my
dad one time told me that (not using the same wording - paraphrased
for a G-Rating) an eighty year old jerk was a twenty year old jerk. I
think we were discussing opening doors for women, or something like
that. From this point my awakening began. Around twenty-five. A
latent awakening. Clarence and Gloria Fulcher's post also reminded me
how much I didn't want anything while in the hospital. No visitors,
no spudnuts, no nothing. WHAT? NO SPUDNUTS!?! Which shows you how
miserable I was. I dreaded waking up because of pain. Sleep is
painless. Several of my front teeth were loose for months from
gritting in pain hour after hour. I wanted to get done with whatever
they were doing and just go home. That was where the party was. That
was where my friends were. That was where the laughter was. That was
where Mary was. I wanted nothing else. Well, the monthly 300 bucks
from the VA was nice. And the "FREE" medical. I was eighteen years
old when wounded and that taxpayer's VA comp paid for all the booze
and drugs I needed while sorting out a few things. After much
prodding and pushing from Gary Nelson, I went back to school and got
my degree in special education at the age of forty thinking I could
be of use. Boy, was that a lesson. I thoroughly enjoy and love 
those severe/profound kids. Although many being a handful for sure,
nevertheless, human beings at our best. Linda, I cannot say enough,
almost speechless (something I'm not very good at) in the form of
sorrow, to the dedication and determination of parents finding
themselves caring for their disabled babies, many times for the 
rest of their lives. I have done some subbing and coached girls'
basketball (ten years) at the junior high level here and there, but I
went after the degree so when people asked me what I did I could tell
them I was a school teacher. You have no idea how it feels when asked
by people at a party wearing ties the 'What do you do?' question when
my answer was 'Nothing, why do you ask?' Besides being the only one
with a T-shirt on, wearing brown shoes and all of a sudden finding
myself standing alone in a room full of well dressed people, holding
a glass of red wine, a cigarette in the other with a huge grin on my
face. You really have to not care to enjoy such moments in life.
Would I do it all over again. Probably. But I have told many people
that if I had it all to do again I would most likely be a Canadian
divorce lawyer. Some vets think that is funny, some don't. Isn't that
the way life is? Again, thanks to you all that wrote. Online Alumni
Sandstorm. What a hoot. Nothing like this anywhere on our planet. Way
too much fun.

Rick Maddy ('67)

Footnote: Not many from my class know this about my stay in the
Bremerton Navy Hospital. One day they brought in this Marine sergeant
with a badly infected hand onto the ward and placed him next to me.
They could not get his hand healed in Vietnam, so they brought him
home. Sgt. Craig Williamson had a car. We jumped into it one day on a
weekend pass. We drove to Richland and rented a couple rooms in the
hotel near Uptown. Now, Craig, enjoying the Bomber hospitality way
too much later came back into town and started working as a fireman
in the Richland Fire Department. Spent thirty years there, retiring
as a Chief Inspector, I believe. Who did he meet at that party? Our
very own Penny Cornelison ('67). They have about four or five kids at
last count and grandchildren now coming into their family. You can
look far and wide and not meet such wonderful people. Although I
think of them often and we talk on rare occasions very much too far
apart, introducing those two lovebirds is one of my proudest moments
from the hospital bed.

-Rick Maddy ('67)
********************************************