My father was on the Officers staff for General Clark in the Fifth Army in WWII. He was issued a Harley Davison's model 45 motorcycle, and would deliver orders to field commands. He was with the Italian Partisans for six months before that. My father's great Uncle Stephen was the commander of the Kings Guards to Frans Joesph, and was a second cousin to Nicholas Romanov. After 1905 most of my fathers faamily came to the US from Russia. On my mom's side my uncle Tommy had 7 ships sunk under him in the NAVY in WWII. My Grandfather Tom O'Brian was an ordnance sargent in WWI, and was gassed by the germans, he supplied the machine guns with ammo. My Mom's great great uncle O'Brian was the second engineer on the CSS Alabama during the Civil War. I was in Air Force ROTC Missle Command in collage. I worked for the Dept of the ARMY as a light weapons instructor for ARMY ROTC at UVA, and as a NAVY ROTC rifle instructor, also at UVA. At McCormick Obseervatory, UVA, I worked on a Dept of Defence Nuclear Missle targeting project (Astrometry) and did the targeting calculations for ICBM's 1982-86. Two of my best friends today are formar Army Snipers both were in viet Viet Nam, and Laos, and they were MAC SOG. Both shoot today, but one is disabled from a UH-1 crash in Nam. (Pat Saunders ARMY ret.) I have a lot of respect for the US fighting men. History should be remembered. The country must remain strong. The world is not a very nice place. Thank God for: The US Marines, The US Army, The US Navy, the USAF (I teach today at McConnel AFB) and the US Coast Guard...God Bless The U.S.A.!!!
Douglas George