Ingram Chronicle
February 2004 Volume 2 Number 2
This picture is of a miniature casting of the sculpture by Robert Merrill, of the LDS Church, for the final casting of the full size (9') statue of a Mormon Battalion member to be erected in the West Wetlands Statuary Area, near the Colorado River, to commemorate the passage of the Mormon Battalion through the Yuma area around 1 January 1847. There have been 100 of these produced, to be sold at $3000 each to raise the $200K needed to complete the project. There will also be medallions in gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with plaques of the armamentaria of a soldier of the period for sale as part of the fund raising by a group that calls itself the "Army of the West."
Here we are near the end of February, and I am just now getting thoughts in order for this edition of the Ingram Chronicle. I went to the monthly meeting of the Yuma County Retired School Employees Association yesterday, to visit the new Yuma City Hall at One Civic Plaza--at the end of Orange Avenue and Giss Parkway. This statue was on display in the office of the Mayor of Yuma, Brother Larry Nelson. This reminds us of the small statue of Parley P Pratt that is on display in the Ward building that was being shared by the Parley's 4th Ward during the refitting of the Rosslyn Heights building (around the corner from Grandfather Frank's). That full sized statue is placed at the junction of South 23rd East and East 21st South in front of the Albertson's Store.
We are enjoying the usual fine weather of a usual Yuma Winter, with occasional rains but otherwise good, comfortable weather. We've had some rain through the area, but we'd rather the moisture end up in Wyoming, Colorado or eastern Utah, to fill the reservoirs on the Colorado and Green Rivers--to store the water for our later use here in the Yuma area! The rain has forced me to replace the wiper blades on my Ranger and Rosie's Ford pickup trucks.
School is progressing as usual, with the students striving to keep up with the lectures and laboratories--I am enjoying another session of the Metallurgy class at AWC. I have the largest group of students ever--16 enrolled and 15 attending classes. We are in the midst of the Heat Treatment/Hardness sequence of laboratory tests--we will be testing the Rockwell Hardness as soon as the metal has been finished by the class members for that procedure--sanding and polishing to 0.3 micrometer finish! Then we will etch the metal to see the grain structure of the metal as altered by the heat treatment and different quenches--oil, brine, water, air, and furnace cooling.
The AWC Student Chapter of the American Welding Society went to San Diego for a meeting of the Southern California Section of AWS at the plant of High Technology Welding, Inc. where we were shown some high tech examples of welding research for the USN--on exotic metals for construction of fast ships. We all enjoyed the meal and the talk and demonstrations there.
I have completed the shadow box for my medals from the Korean War Era….and have it hung in the living room. I am not trying to brag, I think, but I feel that I should be allowed to display them there, unobtrusively. The medals are the National Defense Service medal, for service between 31 October 1950 and 28 August 1954, the Korean War Service medal with several bronze combat stars, for service in the USS Haven (AH12) from October 1951 to January 1953, the United Nations Korean War Service medal for the same service, the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation medal for service to the ROK Army and ROK Marines in the USS Haven, and the ROK War Service medal, for service in Korea during the Korean War.
I was able to prepare a shadowbox for the Purple Heart medal that Bob Denman, jr., earned in Viet Nam, and present it to him so that he could display it in his home. I hope that my listening ear has helped him overcome some of his post-traumatic shock affliction from that period. We can sit and share a few war stories with each other, like a pair of old veterans refighting the old wars all over again. He also has called on me for "advice" or encouragement with his involvement in various hazardous material incidents--he had been a student in my HazMat classes for the Fire Departments (Yuma, Rural-Metro, and MCAS). It is still interesting to go out on an incident scene and share some insight into the proper handling of the materials.
I was out to the Yuma Unit of the Arizona State Prison a few Sundays ago, with Bob DeShazo, an old crop-duster pilot, and got to swap lies about flying in the old days--when I was in the CAP Cadets of the Dallas Squadron of the Texas Wing of the U. S. Civil Air Patrol. When we flew real airplanes--old Piper L4 and Stinson L5 two-seater planes, and I got to ride with the USAF Captain (USAF laiason to the Texas Wing) in the AT-6 on search missions--those were the days--I had about 35 to 40 hours of actual flying time (at the controls) along with several hundred hours as an observer on searches and flood surveys of the Trinity River at flood stage. Bob was telling me of his earliest experiences with flying helicopters to do the crop-dusting in Yuma and Imperial counties. And flying the peace officers on searches of the desert for various miscreants. We had a good time shooting the breeze as we usually do.
I will have to complete this later--before the end of the month--didn't get it done--it is now early March--will have to go with this part now-
-Love to all,
Dad
February 2004 Volume 2 Number 2
This picture is of a miniature casting of the sculpture by Robert Merrill, of the LDS Church, for the final casting of the full size (9') statue of a Mormon Battalion member to be erected in the West Wetlands Statuary Area, near the Colorado River, to commemorate the passage of the Mormon Battalion through the Yuma area around 1 January 1847. There have been 100 of these produced, to be sold at $3000 each to raise the $200K needed to complete the project. There will also be medallions in gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with plaques of the armamentaria of a soldier of the period for sale as part of the fund raising by a group that calls itself the "Army of the West."
Here we are near the end of February, and I am just now getting thoughts in order for this edition of the Ingram Chronicle. I went to the monthly meeting of the Yuma County Retired School Employees Association yesterday, to visit the new Yuma City Hall at One Civic Plaza--at the end of Orange Avenue and Giss Parkway. This statue was on display in the office of the Mayor of Yuma, Brother Larry Nelson. This reminds us of the small statue of Parley P Pratt that is on display in the Ward building that was being shared by the Parley's 4th Ward during the refitting of the Rosslyn Heights building (around the corner from Grandfather Frank's). That full sized statue is placed at the junction of South 23rd East and East 21st South in front of the Albertson's Store.
We are enjoying the usual fine weather of a usual Yuma Winter, with occasional rains but otherwise good, comfortable weather. We've had some rain through the area, but we'd rather the moisture end up in Wyoming, Colorado or eastern Utah, to fill the reservoirs on the Colorado and Green Rivers--to store the water for our later use here in the Yuma area! The rain has forced me to replace the wiper blades on my Ranger and Rosie's Ford pickup trucks.
School is progressing as usual, with the students striving to keep up with the lectures and laboratories--I am enjoying another session of the Metallurgy class at AWC. I have the largest group of students ever--16 enrolled and 15 attending classes. We are in the midst of the Heat Treatment/Hardness sequence of laboratory tests--we will be testing the Rockwell Hardness as soon as the metal has been finished by the class members for that procedure--sanding and polishing to 0.3 micrometer finish! Then we will etch the metal to see the grain structure of the metal as altered by the heat treatment and different quenches--oil, brine, water, air, and furnace cooling.
The AWC Student Chapter of the American Welding Society went to San Diego for a meeting of the Southern California Section of AWS at the plant of High Technology Welding, Inc. where we were shown some high tech examples of welding research for the USN--on exotic metals for construction of fast ships. We all enjoyed the meal and the talk and demonstrations there.
I have completed the shadow box for my medals from the Korean War Era….and have it hung in the living room. I am not trying to brag, I think, but I feel that I should be allowed to display them there, unobtrusively. The medals are the National Defense Service medal, for service between 31 October 1950 and 28 August 1954, the Korean War Service medal with several bronze combat stars, for service in the USS Haven (AH12) from October 1951 to January 1953, the United Nations Korean War Service medal for the same service, the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation medal for service to the ROK Army and ROK Marines in the USS Haven, and the ROK War Service medal, for service in Korea during the Korean War.
I was able to prepare a shadowbox for the Purple Heart medal that Bob Denman, jr., earned in Viet Nam, and present it to him so that he could display it in his home. I hope that my listening ear has helped him overcome some of his post-traumatic shock affliction from that period. We can sit and share a few war stories with each other, like a pair of old veterans refighting the old wars all over again. He also has called on me for "advice" or encouragement with his involvement in various hazardous material incidents--he had been a student in my HazMat classes for the Fire Departments (Yuma, Rural-Metro, and MCAS). It is still interesting to go out on an incident scene and share some insight into the proper handling of the materials.
I was out to the Yuma Unit of the Arizona State Prison a few Sundays ago, with Bob DeShazo, an old crop-duster pilot, and got to swap lies about flying in the old days--when I was in the CAP Cadets of the Dallas Squadron of the Texas Wing of the U. S. Civil Air Patrol. When we flew real airplanes--old Piper L4 and Stinson L5 two-seater planes, and I got to ride with the USAF Captain (USAF laiason to the Texas Wing) in the AT-6 on search missions--those were the days--I had about 35 to 40 hours of actual flying time (at the controls) along with several hundred hours as an observer on searches and flood surveys of the Trinity River at flood stage. Bob was telling me of his earliest experiences with flying helicopters to do the crop-dusting in Yuma and Imperial counties. And flying the peace officers on searches of the desert for various miscreants. We had a good time shooting the breeze as we usually do.
I will have to complete this later--before the end of the month--didn't get it done--it is now early March--will have to go with this part now-
-Love to all,
Dad
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