Regarding Veterens Day pride: I am proud to have served in the Air Force as a medic on C-9 Nightingale Aeromedical Evacuation Aircraft (Hospital Plane) even though technically I am not a "Veteran", since my service date falls after the "Viet Nam Era" and before the more recent qualifying conflicts (Desert Storm/Shield etc.) I am even more proud of my father, who left engineering school in 1943 to serve as a junior engineering officer on ships in the Maritime Service (Merchant Marine) during WWII and after (Marshall Plan). These ships included tankers carrying aviation gasoline to resupply aircraft carriers in the Pacific, cargo ships carrying high explosives (TNT) into the war zone, and ferrying livestock from South America to Europe to help feed the starving people and restart the agricultural economies of Eastern Europe after the war. In the war zone his ships were subject to air and submarine attack. With the cargos they carried, one hit would be enough to blow up the entire ship. While his avgas tanker was anchored (sitting duck) to support a pacific island landing, one of their sister ships took a direct hit from a Kamikaze and then blew up and sank in seconds with all hands on board. No survivors. There is a new memorial to "vetererans" of the Merchan Marine being dedicated in St. Louis today. And of course my grandfather, Ernest READER, who grew up in Western Mound township and enlisted (at 27) in the U.S. Army to fight in Europe in WWI. He served in Company C of the 9th Signal Battalion, U.S. Army Signal Corps, according to the document which accompanies his Purple Heart, given for wounds received in action in France in 1918 (shrapnel in his leg). He also had a campaign medal and the French Crosse de Guerre. Grandpa was promoted to Sergeant in the field, but for some reason, which he never talked about, was busted back to private while recuperating at an Army hospital in France. I remember asking Grandpa if he still had his uniform but he said that the moths got it years ago and Grandma made a planter out of his helmet and it rusted away! Happy Veteran's Day! Don Reader St. Louis, MO e-mail: readerd@storz.com