Richard Wood tells about Ben Henry Pooley

Ben Henry was an icon of colorful radio broadcasts, political wit and the pushing of hot buttons of politics. It got him in a lot of hot water with local politicians. So - his life of survival among many attempted murders becomes a parody of our regional politics from 1950 to 1985. 

Richard Wood gives superb analysis of much mahem in our region at his blog.
judgingshaddows.blogspot.com . The story reflects some on the friendship between Wilson and Pooley that deteriorated to a mortally flawed association in later year. 

Nothing ever connects Wilson to the challenges on Pooley's well being - and the public remains to wonder why Pooley chose to keep on publicly irritating Wilson and other political figures. Pooley, it seems was not one to let "sleeping dogs lie"..

USS FRANKLIN Survival with Sam Rhodes

At the USS FRANKLIN reunion in June 2021, Sam Rhodes, who was a young sailor in the crew - related his experience after the bombing of the ship in April - off the coast of Japan. Over 800 sailors died. Sam was a "snipe" rating (the engine crew) He carried a rating of "Watertender" which was critical to running the oil fired boilers on most combatant ships of the day.  (PODCAST AT END)

 Sam's story (in the audio interview here) tells of the burning ship and the leadership of Chaplain Joseph O'Callahan to clear the decks and care for wounded. Much live ordnance from the ships' own planes and stocks to be loaded was rolling around the deck. Some was "cooking off" in the fires. The bombs HAD to be taken off by rolling over the side - through burning decks. 

Chaplain O'Callahan (A Lt. Commander) encouraged the young men to keep rolling the bombs - even though their hands were burning. After the last bomb as over the side, he left them for a few minutes and returned with whiskey from the Sick Bay. Only the Sick Bay on a US Navy ship has alcohol and it is for medicinal use. 

The boys were all encouraged by the chaplain to take some for their pain and exhaustion. It is for this reason - with respect for appropriate drinking - the shipmates of USS

O'CALLAHAN (DE/FF 1051) have modified our "IRISH BLESSING" to include (if appropriate) following the prayer for those in need (veterans, active or others who need a prayer) a shot of whiskey may be consumed. 

This, in the locality of an Irish Pub - and in honor of Fr. O'Callahan's Irish heritage - adds an extra dose of Irish Blessings to the person who says the prayer while their hand is placed on the seal of the ship. The seal includes the cross of the Chaplain's Christian faith. 

 It became a tradition among veteran shipmates of USS O'Callahan (in service from 1968-1998) to offer an Irish Blessing - sometimes with a Card showing the seal and the ship. More about the O'Callahan, the USS Gary and USS Franklin is found at their respective websites. Sam Rhodes (USS O'Callahan and USS Gary are the two honored with Medals of Honor for actions that day.) 

Baseball with Richard Wood and Dick Miller

A discussion among friends of some of the greats of baseball and the history of the game. Dick Miller is approaching 90 (in 2021) and had a near option to enter pro baseball. Fate brought another path including near death as a Marine in Korea, the marshalling of a brilliant mind toward 2 PhD's that led to his being "the father' of the "modern" baseball (and softball and golfball). Better living through chemistry. (Read more about Dick Miller at the INCOUNTRY blog )

Richard Wood is a dictionary of sports, especially baseball - whose career went from Air Force to ship captain for offshore service ships for oil rigs. With economic fluctuations in oil, he took on Truck Driving for survival. More recently he has retired from the rigors of the sea and road and uses his time in wise pursuit of fascinating explorations of history.

His blog -- judgingshaddows.blogspot.com is a thriller collection of the wayward lives in our region - mostly before 1950. His facebook posts mirror much of the blog at Panhandle Mysteries and Mayhem. These are great reading materials ... all well researched from the archives of ancient news. .... ENJOY THIS TRIP DOWN MEMORY ROAD for baseball.

The MULAT map of 1930 and Chapman

Dick Miller and I joined over lunch today to help edit Norm Chapman's upcoming book. It presents his experience as an investigator in the case of one of the most notorious serial murderers of the 20th century. 

Helen made us some banana pudding to go with the sandwiches we brought over from "The Coffee Break". Helen shared more about her grandparents who lived at Mulat. She had a picture of them that one of her children received from Mary Henderson (in Mulat). 

Helen hopes one day to meet and visit with Mary over the old Mulat (Avalon Beach) history. Some years ago, I interviewed Kathryn Gatewood (Karen's mom) and Dot Williamson (of Floridatown) to settle some of the village roads and structures of the 30's and 40's. THose maps and the interview (you can download to play) are below.

AUDIO -- (download to play) https://drive.google.com/.../1YZ0H2ZUxpQBS0LMFhVzTiS.../view?

Helen Chapman

Helen's Family that lived in Mulat

Norman Chapman - Vietnam 1965-66

Dick Miller - Korea 1950-52

CRUDDS 7/31/21

Was a big group for us with lots of conversation. Our primary goal of World Domination was overcome by cake and donuts.

The link includes more photos and video of storytelling... 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iqW9XYsrPzZt9euz6

A Cross for Pace Assembly

LD Henderson of DeFuniak Springs is here with Steve Zepp, Pastor, Pace Assembly Ministries. Henderson donated this cedar cross to Pace Assembly in a special presentation.

 
Henderson's project began over the past three years, beginning as a project, supplying wood to help his father-in-law honor God and his departed wife with handcrafted crosses. 

Eventually His father-in-law passed away at peace but the appreciation of the crosses he donated all over the region had become a point of worship for Henderson himself. 

Over the last two years, Henderson has donated over a hundred similar crosses and many "table size" crosses for special people. "LD" Henderson has had difficult half dozen years with family health, his own health that affected his business capacity, bad weather, covid and more. 

In times of bad weather (more than most years) and in times of family or personal health issues he used time at home to make the crosses.

You can learn more about him (and the crosses) at riverloggers dot com. The special service to present the cross is online at the church website.

Things are looking up for Mr. Henderson. A number of primary contracts and timber related projects are about to show fruit. We wish him well.

CRUDDS Advanced Provisional Podcasts

 CRUDDS -- Chumuckla Reprobate's Utiopian Debate and Discussion Society ...

FEB 20 - 2021 (length 03:14:00)

FEB 13 2021 (Length 03:09:20)

FEB 06 2021 (Length - 02:45 )

JAN 30 2021  (Length - 02:20 )

PODCAST on PODBEAN -- Click. USE the slider to skip to various parts. It is  a LONG random discussion of random topics.  Be the fly on the wall and sit with us. Get a cup of coffee. Chill out.

AUDIO FILE for this podcast (for now this may be a good way to download and play on your computer.  The PODBEAN above may be best for now.

.................. secret handshake waived for the privileged

......................  

CRUDDS Participants  this date --  Vic Campbell (opinion formulator), Dick Miller Korean War Marine and Inventor, Richard Wood Retired sea captain and writer.

This link opens an AUDIO FILE for this podcast. It is on Google drive. You should be able to play it from your timeline. Use the play-bar to skip along. It may be easier to just download from the podbean site.

Other Podcasts from recent months.  Note - some of these discussions last from an hour to two or even three hours in length.  Plan of a long listen -- or just skip along and see if something interesting pops up.  Topics range from Sports, to business, to unsolved murders in our region (Wood), to a bit (but not much) of politics, to general observations on life -- and more.... Get a cup of coffee and sit back - enjoy the visit with us.

ADDING PODCAST LINKS HERE -- (audio)  These will be sorted in time with a brief description of content. ...  They will also be edited to take out empty space and irrelevant chatter.....        But  - for the patient, the content is interesting in the raw form.