Hey guys. My Mom isn't doin that well at all. So I'm headed back to Texas Tuesday till the end of the month to visit her. If she makes it she turns 96 on May 20th.
Not sure how much I'll be on the stage the next 2 weeks but I'll try to check in now and again on everyone and see how y'all are doin.
I want Y'all to behave yourselves while I'm gone. None of that back bitin and bickerin either. Bless your heart, Y'all be nice.

My BIL passed away late last night in his home after a 3 year battle with the most insidious form of cancer (pancreatic.) He’s the one person I’d never guess would contract anything, he llived an extremely healthy lifestyle. My wife Betsy and I were down at their home in
Lancaster since Monday and just recently got home. Some of you may remember my posts of some family outings on the local waters, my sister Sandy and their grandson Ryan would travel up here quite frequently, we’d fish and grab lunch or dinner at a pizza/ Italian restaurant and simply just enjoy each other’s company. He was my BIL but also a great friend, and I am proud and honored to have been called his friend as well. He is most deserving of some sort of tribute.
Think I’ll have to do some fishing tomorrow to sort things out.

Alice Bennett was a first cousin, lived in Lubbock TX, and ran away with a friend and hitch hiked to California in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s. Once they arrived L.A., Alice said they nearly starved until they were taken in by Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist, who was popular there at that time. Later, when Alice got a job, she worked as a truck driver for the U.S. Navy and married a sailor, Sam Blummer.

Sam was in the Navy several years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, he was on one of the Navy’s aircraft carriers at sea when the Japanese destroyed the battle ships at Pearl. They were almost immediately in combat, and finally his ship was sunk. He survived, sent back to the states to outfit another aircraft carrier in Virginia. Alice drove their car all the way across the country to be with Sam during this period.

Once the new carrier is complete, they sail thought the Panama Canal and join the war in the Pacific. They are under almost constant attack, kamikaze’s did severe damage, and finally this carrier, too is sunk. Sam was by this time a chief petty officer and was assigned to work below decks. He said because the way the ship was listing, he knew they would soon get the order to abandon ship.

Once they got the order to abandon ship, he and a buddy go topside, they’ve tied their shoestrings together and put their shores around their necks and jump overboard. In the water, Sam said they were fortunate to find a raft and climb aboard. Sam then notices they are going in circles and looks and his partner is staring skyward. Up, overhead is a Japanese Betty (Mitsubishi) bomber dropping bombs on their carrier. Sam said to him, “If you don’t paddle, we will either be killed by those bombs, or sucked down when the carrier goes under.”

Later, they are picked up by a U.S. Navy destroyer escort. Since Sam was an old salt, he simply went below decks and climbed into the first empty bunk and goes to sleep. He is kicked out at the next watch change and then has to stay topside.

I had asked Sam why he wasn’t concerned about the sharks? He had related that during their almost constant battle with the Japanese air attacks there were a number of burials at sea off the fantail of the carrier. The seas behind the carrier was often whipped white with foam from the sharks. He replied that he hadn’t had time to think about it until he was already safe on the rescue ship.

After the second carrier was sunk, these survivors were back in Pearl Harbor. Some of the chief petty officers were assembled and the brass told them, “You men had been enough combat, we have a new assignment for you.” This assignment was to man a tugboat and tend the submarine nets at the mouth of the harbor at Pearl!

Many years later, we get a surprise visit by Alice and Sam who have a camper and are traveling around Texas. We have a long visit and since Sam had seen the Battleship Texas in the Pacific, I suggested we visit that on the way to the San Jacinto Inn for a seafood dinner.

Sam was tickled to see the Texas, but when we are seated at the restaurant, we find that neither of them eat any kind of seafood! I can understand why Alice is not a fan, because growing up in Lubbock, that wasn’t an item they would have ever had. I asked Sam why he wasn’t a fan of any kind of sea food. He explained that while in the Navy, he had been promoted to the first level of becoming a chief petty officer. Then as they crossed the equator, there was a ritual of the King Neptune’s court where all those neophytes were given a hazing introduction. Since he was one of the new non-commissioned officers who had not been initiated, they got special treatment, which among other things was being forced to eat boiled fish for a hog trough with a soup ladle. For that reason, he could not stand sea food. Fortunately, we were saved by the restaurant also serving some fried chicken, biscuits, and honey as part of our meal.

I am not sure the names of the aircraft carriers, one was the Yorktown but do not remember the name of the second carrier. I have purposefully omitted description of a lot of the carnage witnessed by Sam during his service, but thank God, there were the few like him to stand in the gap until others could be trained and come help. Just Sayin...RJS