Prime's Worm Hole : America lost another hero last night

Sunday, July 31, 2011

America lost another hero last night

America lost one of it's true heroes last night and I lost a true friend. Elmer Eugene Browning passed from our presence on this earth about 9:30 PM last night. His wife said that his heart gave out and they just couldn't get it started again.

She was so heart broken when I spoke to her this morning and she reminded me how everyone loved Gene and how he loved them. She told me 'he loved you too.' She asked me 'how could anyone not love my Gene?'

Gene was a WWII veteran of 35 combat missions over Europe, in the belly of a B-17 . He held the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and Purple Heart among over a dozen other awards for his actions in service to the nation that he loved. Gene was a small man, you had to be small to fit into a ball turret period. He had lost most of his hearing in that turret by the end of the war, but he never complained that I am aware of. Just the consequences of serving when his country needed him.

I have written of Gene before. I did a piece a few months back called 'Serendipity.' That blog became one of the most read things that I have ever written on this blog.

Gene was a former member of the Douglasville Ga. American Legion and a current member of the Dallas Ga. American legion. He rode in the Douglasville 4th of July Parade just a few weeks ago and was so proud. He wore his uniform and his old bomber hat and his ostrich skin cowboy boots that he loved.

I tried my best to be there with him that day, but I had obligations that prevented me from getting there until the parade had already begun, so I couldn't ride beside him and share in his joy that day.

We were about seven weeks from realizing a dream that Gene had been looking forward to for almost a year. We had worked very hard to get him on the next Honor Flight to Washington. The Honor Flights are organized to take surviving WWII veterans on a day trip to Washington to see their memorial. And that had finally been accomplished. Gene and I were going. I was going to be his guardian on the flight and for the day. Everything was approved and we were leaving on September 22nd for the trip. Gene was so proud of that news and so happy that he and I would be making that journey for him to see his memorial. His dear wife Melba intended to go also.

I won't be making that trip with Gene now. He is already there. Looking down from glory and smiling at what must truly be awe inspiring from his vantage point now.

All that I know right now is that my heart is truly breaking. All I can think about is the last time that I saw Gene about a week ago. I went by their home and spent a couple of hours with him and Melba and as always, before I left, Gene stood up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you buddy."

I love you too buddy....and I miss you so much.

I just hope and pray that when the day comes for me to make my own Honor Flight home to glory, that Gene will be one of those there waiting for me at the terminal.

And that he will give me another big hug and say, "I missed you buddy and welcome home."

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Prime's Worm hole

This is a place for me to muse about the issues that affect our world. My world and my country and my life in particular. I can say what I want to here and those who may stumble across my musings, are welcome to comment,or not. America is under siege. Everything this nation has ever represented, is now being torn asunder and crushed by the onslaught of egalitarian socialism. All morals and social values have been devolved into the belief that systemic racism, is the only underlying cause or reason for any societal ills in America. And that representation, is nothing but a Trojan Horse argument. A means of getting the egalitarian camel's nose into the tent. And now that it has been inserted? There is mayhem and anarchy and burning and looting all across America. And the only questions that remains to be asked and answered? Are these. When is enough enough and when will the American people call full stop and take the law into their own hands, to repel this socialist based attack on the Constitution and our personal freedoms.

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax", I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make that much money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled
I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step...I joined the Democratic Party

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If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

Captain Michael O'Donnell was lost in Cambodia on March 24 1970, while flying a UH1 rescue helicopter, trying to rescue an eight man LRRP team under attack in Cambodia. He was listed as MIA along with the eight he had attempted to rescue after his UH1 Huey was shot down by enemy fire. The official military report listed the eight as shot down 'non survivable' and 'non recoverable.'

Michael O'Donnell was submitted for the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was awarded the Distinguished flying cross, the Bronze Star, The Air Medal and The Purple Heart and he was promoted to the rank of Major (posthumously).

In 1978 he was officially listed as KIA by the Department of Defense.

A little about the philosophy of the author

The Borg Conspiracy is one man's purely pedestrian thoughts, independent musings and frequently cheeky commentaries...Mixed with an abundance of patriotism, love of God, and love of country.

My thoughts?

In my opinion........in another generation, all that will remain of our once great republic, may be little more than what is left to weather the passage of time in the form of a few obscure and forgotten monuments to the great American experiment.

If America should fail....let it be written as her epitaph.....died by her own hand. The greatest experiment in freedom ever undertaken, lost in the end to the pursuit of the illusion that egalitarian tolerance was more valuable than individual freedom.

Let us be warned.
Franklin, Payne, Jefferson. They all knew the consequences of the lack of vigilance and they tried to warn us. They gave us a document as our guide post. We were to guard it and revere it and use it to guide and govern our future and our posterity.

No one listened.