Emmie 2015

Emily Grace Dobson is 12 years old today

Happy Birthday To Me!

On this day in history:

The space between a woman's breasts was given a name by the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists: the intermammary sulcus. 

A camel at the Knowsley Safari Park on Merseyside, England was killed by lightning

On Victor Records, singer Allan Jones recorded "I'm Falling in Love with Someone".

At a poetry reading by Archibald MacLeish, fellow poet Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt the recital. 

 At the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, John M. Miller, dazzled a large crowd as he executed a perfect loop-the-loop in his autogyro. 

AND

I was born 71 years ago in St Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California.  After several months living at 45 Newton Street near the Cow Palace, my Dad, W E (Pete) Dobson went overseas as a tail gunner in a B25J named Tuff Stuff in the Rome Arno Air Campaign and my Mom, Isabelle Adams Dobson, accompanied by my maternal grandfather. William Theodore Adams aka Skeet (he was a railroad man so he and we traveled free) brought me home to Federalsburg, Maryland by train.  We only changed trains twice.  Once in Chicago and once in Philadelphia and were picked up at the train station in Bridgeville, DE by my maternal grandmother, Pauline Horsey Adams and taken to the town where I spent the next 24 years of my life, the memories of which today are buzzing around my head like lightning bugs on a warm summer's night.

College, US Air Force, marriages (that is not a typo), two children, two grandchildren and several dogs later, I sit here in Seaford Delaware trying to count my blessings.  It is difficult for me to do that because I don't know where to start as there are too many of them.  Suffice it to say I have led what many would called a "charmed life".  I simply call it blessed by God largely as a result of Godly family members and friends who have prayed for me from before my birth.

So to all the folks I have known before, who traveled in and out my door, I am glad you came along and if I could sing I would dedicate a song to the all the folks I have known before!!!   

PS:

To the uninformed, I celebrate my birthday for an entire week hence The Week O' Dan

 

Purple Heart Day

Today is Purple Heart Day

On August 7, 1782, the original Purple Heart (the Badge of Military Merit) was established by General George Washington

The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917, has been wounded or killed. Specific examples of services which warrant the Purple Heart include any action against an enemy of the United States; any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the Armed Forces of the United States are or have been engaged; while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party; as a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces; or as the result of an act of any hostile foreign force. After 28 March 1973, as a result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the Secretary of the Army, or jointly by the Secretaries of the separate armed services concerned if persons from more than one service are wounded in the attack. After 28 March 1973, as a result of military operations while serving outside the territory of the United States as part of a peacekeeping force.

What Thanksgiving Means to Me

Thanksgiving is not for another four or five days, so I realize that I am a little early with this Thanksgiving message.
It may take some extra time and planning to shop for, cook for and set the table for the one or two extra people your family may want to share this year's Thanksgiving meal with.
I am talking about inviting one or two -- or more -- of our troops to your home this Thanksgiving, especially if you are at an overseas location and fortunate enough to have your loved ones with you.
Wherever you are, there are plenty of lonely Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who would love to spend a few hours with you and your family sharing not only a home-cooked meal, but also enjoying the warmth, family and, yes, the bitter-sweet memories of home, that such an occasion will bring.
How do I know this?
Well, on Thanksgiving of 1942, one Dominic Cirincione, an Italian immigrant who ran a fruit stand on Mission Avenue in the Mission District of San Francisco, invited two GIs who were stationed at the nearby Cow Palace to dinner at his home to join his wife and daughter. "Dom" became lifelong friends with one of those soldiers and actually became the godfather to his first born son who met him as an adult for the first time after returning from US Air Force duty in Japan in 1969. 
That GI, who never forgot that kindness,was Private Wesley E "Pete" Dobson, who went on to become a SSgt, US Army Air Corps, Tailgunner, B25J by the name of "Tuff Stuff", recipient of the Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters for distinguished air combat in the Rome Arno Air Campaign. He and Isabelle Adams Dobson gave birth to their first son the following summer at St Luke's Hospital near San Francisco's Mission District.  Dom was one of the very first to hold his godson, Danny Boy, as he called me!!
Have a Very Meaningful Thanksgiving,

Captain W Dan Dobson
United States Air Force
1967-1972

150 YEARS AGO TODAY

Tuesday 19 November 2013 is the 150^th Anniversary of the Gettysburg address.  Less than 30% of the people of the United States in 1863 supported President Lincoln.  Over 95% of the newspapers in the United States, after the address was given, said, “…it is not worthy to read.”

Please take a few minutes to read this address which along with the Declaration of Independence are the keystones of American Philosophy:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battle-field of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.  It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Securing Our Future,
dan

Assuming

His request approved, the CNN News photographer

quickly used a cell phone to call the local airport

to charter a flight.
He was told a twin-engine plane

would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane

warming up outside a hanger.
  He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut,

and shouted, 'Let's go'.
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane

into the wind and took off.

Once in the air, the photographer instructed

the pilot, 'Fly over the valley and make

low passes so I can take pictures

of the fires on the hillsides.'
'Why?' asked the pilot.

'Because I'm a photographer for CNN',

he responded, 'and I need to get

some close up shots.'

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment,

finally he stammered, 'So, what you're telling me,

is . . . You're NOT my flight instructor?'

Are you really asking the hard questions of your customers or not because you are afraid of the answers or afraid of "offending them".  Get over it as you are as guilty as the guy in the story above and the consequences while maybe not life threatening could be dire.  There is nothing threatening about asking the following: " I just have a gut feeling that there are some issues that we need to discuss that we have neither taken the time to do so."  You can do this and you need to do this.  You have a sixth sense or you would not be doing what you are doing.  Please take advantage of that talent rather than waiting around to react to something after it happens.

Zooming not assuming,
Captain Dan