Dennis..Your kind offer must be refused. My physical condition does not permit me to stray too far from home base. I have macular degeneration (an aging disease) and my vision is only 20% in one eye and basically no vision in the other. My mobility is also impaired and I walk with difficulty, using a cane.

Fortunately, my wife of sixty-two plus years is still able to drive us wherever we go except to a large metropolitan area where she will not cope with the traffic.

I'm earned a few handicaps. I served 5 years in the U.S. Navy during WWII and in the Korean war. A task force that included the USS Forest Royal, on which I served, and other ships that were part of the convoy that supported the evacuation of the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army personnel from the Chosin Reservoir after the Chinese entered the war and forced a retreat of U.S. Forces in order to avoid a direct conflict with Russia.

These brave men fought their way back,through hoards of Chinese troops, to the port of evacuation (about 73 miles). Incidentally the temperature at the time was minus 40 degrees below zero, and these brave men brought their wounded and their dead back to the ships for evacuation.l

I have ancestors who served on active duty, in each of the Wars of the United States beginning with the American Revolution, The Civil War, (Confederate States of America);and including World War I and II, and the Korean Conflict.(I know of only one family member lost in battle (Cecil Vandiver, Sgt, Radio Gunner, on a B17 Bomber) that was shot down by Japanese Naval Gunfire over the Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands in the later part of July 1945.

The only notice that Cecil's parents had of Cecil's loss, was a telegram from the United States Army Air Force stating that Cecil's aircraft and crew were missing in action. In 2010, I was researching the National Archives online and found "A missing aircraft report" that named each officer and enlisted men aboard the ill fated plane. There is a monument located in the Punch Bowl on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii Islands that list the names of Americans missing in action, Cecil Vandiver, is included, in WWII.

There is 4 a monument on the campus of the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, Ga., where Cecil was a student at the onset of WWII., that honors all students who died serving their country. There is also a memorial brick, with Cecil's name, as part of a memorial at Northlake Baptist Church, Gainesville, Ga.

Cecil was an only child and his parents had long since died before I discovered the missing aircraft report. Another B17 that was a part of the flight, observed Cecil's plane destruction and noted the longitude and latitude of the crash, and I have in my files an exact crash site. The plan was only about 1/2 hour flight time from its base in the Aleutians.

Only a very few veterans of WWII and Korea are still among the living and our numbers decline each day.

I am honored to have a letter of commendation signed by Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, and the Korean War Metal with two battle stars. I served either on a ship at sea or a Pacific Island Naval Base, for five years, 3 months, with only two leaves home to Georgia during the time of my service.