Corrected link for stupid sheriff

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/94qtlx/democalypse-2014---south-by-south-mess--mex-tex

Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss

On occasion it's dangerous.

What kind of community would elect this guy Sheriff?

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/avy6xw/democalypse-2014---south-by-south-mess--ad-of-brothers

Electric Aggregation Renewal

Palmer Energy, the City and County's aggregation broker announced the results of a request for bids for a new energy supplier contract that becomes effective on January 1, 2015 for Wilmington and April 1, 2015 for the unincorporated areas of the county as well as Midland and Port William.

Because the county is the aggregation authority for the city and the two villages the plan is for the county commissioners to selected the supplier for all entities.

The current provider, DP&L Energy Reserve (DPLER) was not among the low bidders. AEP a large and well known electrical energy company, had the low bid of 6.1 cents per kilowatt hour for a 36 month period. This price is about seven tenth of a cent higher than DPLER's current price.

Palmer's recommendation is to choose the low bidder's offer. The commissioners will make their provider selection within the next month.

A reminder that DP&L will continue to provide billing and system maintenance support no matter who the energy supplier is.

Paul Hunter   

Its Now Official, Politicians can lie!

Its Now Official, Politicians can lie!

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/beagle-ads-continue-bogus-claim/nhtPk/?source=ddn_skip_stub

The Lie:

Beagle Ads Continue Bogus Claim

New television ads for Republican state Sen. Bill Beagle continue making the false claim that Dee Gillis, his democratic opponent for the 5^th District Senate seat, raised her own pay on the Tipp City Council.

The Facts:

Ohio Law states that the salary of any officer of a city shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he [sic]was elected or appointed.

The Rationale:

A federal judge in Cincinnati has struck down, as unconstitutional an Ohio election law that banned candidates or independent organizations from lying in political campaigns.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/09/11/0911-false-statements-in-campaigns.html

Paul Hunter

Addendum to Election Blues Post.

The state legislature has exhibited a continuing failure to comply with the Ohio Supreme Court’s March 24, 1997 opinion concerning state funding of public education. The opinion stated that the state funding system "fails to provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools" as required by the Ohio Constitution and directed the state [legislature] to find a remedy. The court would look at the case several times over the next 12 years though the underlying problems with the school funding system were never fully solved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeRolph_v._State

 

Ms.Rios, the Green Party candidate or governor has suggested that one way to get the state officials to comply with the court’s order is, “to start putting legislators in jail’'.

Paul Hunter

The Election Blues

Personal Cure For The Election Blues

Unhappy with Governor Kasich's theory of creating prosperity by feeding the wealthy and starving the middle class?

Disappointed by the flawed Democratic candidate for governor, FitzGerald?

Voting for the Green Party candidate, Anita Rios, is a viable option that will send a message to the ruling party that there is a portion of the electorate that is dissatisfied and should not be taken for granted.

Unhappy with Representative Cliff Rosenberger's total adherence to the party line as indicated by his votes that are almost totally against his district's best interests?

When voting this fall, the only way to show your disappointment with an unopposed Rosenberger is to not mark his name on the ballot.

This form of protest is the only way we have to show the eventual winners of both races our feelings concerning their performances.

A short statement of Rio's positions on some issues.

Disagrees with the rush toward flawed charter schools.

Agrees that our heath care and criminal justice systems should be more about the common good than corporate profits.

Favors legalizing marijuana in order to stop the criminal activities surrounding the illegal trade.

I am not a green party member but I'm tiered of the coal industry ruling our politics and making our state an anti alternate energy loner.

Paul Hunter    

Thanks City Council

The city's aggregation broker has announced thatWilmington natural gas customers that have agreed to be part of the city's aggregation plan

will have a fixed rate of 49.4 cents per unit (100 cubic feet) from November 2014 until September 2015. Average fixed rates from five non aggregated suppliers is 65 cents per unit.

http://www.occ.ohio.gov/publications/natural_gas/Comparing_Your_Energy_Choices_VECTREN.pdf

Paul Hunter

Where's the prosperity?

Where's the prosperity?

We are told by by the governor and our legislators in Columbus that by starving local governments and schools of state funding the income tax tax burden can be reduced thus increasing prosperity statewide.

With this rationale in mind it is interesting to note that five of the states with the highest tax burden are also in the top ten states with the highest household incomes.

Paul Hunter budhunter@frontier.com

The Rich And The Poor (States)

	The Ten Richest States
State	Rank	MHI*		Vote 2012	RTW**	Minimum wage
California	10	$60,190		Obama	no	$9.00
Minnesota	9	$60,702		Obama	no	$8.00
Virginia	8	$62,666		Obama	yes	$7.25
New Hampshire	7	$64,230		Obama	no	$7.25
Massachusetts	6	$66,768		Obama	no	$9.00
Connecticut	5	$67,098		Obama	no	$8.70
Hawaii	4	$68,020		Obama	no	$7.75
New Jersey	3	$70,165		Obama	no	$8.25
Alaska	2	$72,237		Romney	no	$7.25
Maryland	1	$72,483		Obama	no	$8.00
	The Ten Poorest States
Oklahoma	10	$45,690		Romney	yes	$7.25
Tennessee	9	$44,294		Romney	yes	none
Louisiana	8	$44,164		Romney	yes	none
South Carolina	7	$44,163		Romney	yes	none
New Mexico	6	$43,872		Obama	no	$7.50
Kentucky	5	$43,399		Romney	no	$7.25
Alabama	4	$42,849		Romney	yes	none
West Virginia	3	$41,253		Romney	no	$8.00
Arkansas	2	$40,511		Romney	yes	$6.25
Mississippi	1	$37,936		Romney	yes	none
* Median household income ** Right to work law.
Sources: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/09/18/americas-richest-and-poorest-states-2/4/
http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx

Clinton County Casino Tax

Clinton County's October casino tax distribution of $127,889, is lower than one year ago when it was $129,982.00

2014's quarterly totals were

January 2014 $127,109

April 2014 122,514

July 2014 $126,068.

October 2014 $127,889.

Paul Hunter

Coal Rules Ohio

If this program shows signs of threatening Ohio's coal loving legislature, including our own Cliff Rosenberger and Bob Peterson will vote for a moratorium on deployment. Their past votes on alternate energy may predict the future. Paul Hunter

Breakthrough That Could Change World Forever

Lockheed Martin, the aerospace and defense conglomerate based in Bethesda, Md., is claiming to have made a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion, which could lead to development of reactors small enough to fit on the back of a truck within a decade.

In the simplest terms, nuclear fission breaks a single atom into two whereas nuclear fusion combines two atoms into one.

Fusion, the holy grail of nuclear power, creates three to four times as much energy as fission. More importantly, fusion’s key advantage over fission is that it does not produce cancer-causing radioactive waste.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2014/10/15/lockheed-martin-claims-fusion-breakthrough-that-could-change-world-forever/

What's To Be Done?

With the undernatured-undernurtured workers in future?

Can this social, economic and educational dilemma be solved using the free market model?

Dewey Chaffins was 19 years old when he left Appalachia for northwestern Ohio in 1958. The youngest of 10, he'd grown up in Garrett, Kentucky, a hardscrabble coal town where his family had lived and mined for generations. During the 1950s, when the coal industry in eastern Kentucky fell into a steep decline, scores of young men packed up all they had and headed north toward the industrial Midwest. Chaffins found opportunity in the city of Lima, a manufacturing boomtown where there were so many factories, as one retired autoworker recently told me, ''you could walk into a place, get a job without even a high school diploma, and if you didn't like it, you could quit, walk across the street and have another job that afternoon.'' By the time Dewey and his 18-year-old wife, Linda, settled in Lima, seven of his siblings, their spouses and some of their in-laws were living in and around the city, where they quickly found work in the automotive plants or tire factories or steel mills, joined the UAW or other unions, and set about raising their children in a manner none of them had ever dreamed possible............

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/where-the-tea-party-rules-20141014#ixzz3GDV6qzdg 

Cliff Strikes Again

A revenue giveaway?

Local residents, educators and elected officials are concerned about the steep reduction in the amount of revenue sharing the state legislature sends to these local entities. These reductions have made it very difficult for local governments to maintain essential services without going to the voters to make up the lost funds.

To add to the problem, our state representative Cliff Rosenberger has cosponsored and the Ohio house has passed HB 375 (House Bill 375, introduced last month with the support of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association). Even Governor Kasich called this bill stupid. The bill kills a potential source of revenue for local use, a reasonable tax on the growing, oil and gas industry.

Posted by Paul Hunter

Cliff Rosenberger (OH – R) was a cosponsor of Ohio House Bill 375

http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/jan/15/report-blasts-gop-severance-tax-bill/

Published: Wed, January 15, 2014 @ 12:00 a.m.

By Tom McParland tmcparland@vindy.com YOUNGSTOWN
Policy Matters Ohio released an analysis of a Republican-backed severance-tax bill, criticizing it for imposing too-low rates on oil and natural gas extracted from horizontal wells and for directing revenues toward tax breaks.
House Bill 375, introduced last month with the support of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and House leadership, would tax production from horizontally fractured, or fracked, wells at 1 percent of the net value for the first five years.
After that period, the rate would increase to 2 percent for high-producing wells and drop back to 1 percent when production declines.
The revenues would fund both Ohio’s oil and gas regulatory framework and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The rest would go toward a statewide income-tax reduction.
But Policy Matters Ohio took aim Tuesday at multiple parts of the bill in a report authored by Wendy Patton, a senior project director at the independent policy-research institute.
“House Bill 375 proposes the lowest rates and most- generous provisions for the oil and gas industry of three severance-tax proposals considered in Ohio during the past year,” the report said.
One of those bills was a defeated proposal championed by Republican Gov. John R. Kasich that would have put the severance tax at 4 percent after one year.
The other is a bill sponsored by state Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, which would levy a 7.5 percent tax on oil and natural gas extracted by fracking. The revenue would go toward environmental funding and the establishment of a permanent severance-tax trust fund.

But most of the severance-tax revenue would go to local governments, a provision that was missing in the Republican proposal.
Hagan said the appropriations would act as a partial replacement for financial cuts to local governments that were made in the past few budgets and act as a way of preparing itself for when the shale industry is through.
“Ohio is missing the opportunity to invest in the future,” said Hagan, who characterized the competing proposal as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry.
Policy Matters Ohio also criticized the low rates in HB 375.
“They need to be higher, in line with other fracking states. If the severance-tax rate is based on value, collections fall as prices or production falls with market trends, cushioning the industry from disproportionate burden,” Policy Matters Ohio wrote in the conclusion of its analysis.
Researchers pointed to other Midwest states, which have severance taxes between 3 percent and 8 percent, more consistent with Hagan’s proposal.
But supporters of HB 375 argue that it is hard to compare severance-tax rates across states because resources and production vary with geography.
Policy Matters Ohio also criticized tax breaks in the bill that, it said, subsidize “the oil and gas industry through tax credits and exclusions.”
HB 375 would create a nonrefundable income-tax credit for the amount paid in the fracking severance tax.
“With this income-tax credit, the state boosts returns for all investors with interests in horizontal wells in Ohio,” the Policy Matters Ohio analysis said.
The focus of the severance tax, the group said, should be on investing within the state and offsetting the “public costs” of shale drilling, such as the toll on bridges and roads.
In addition to raising rates and trimming tax breaks, Policy Matters Ohio recommended that lawmakers increase revenue for oversight, knock out the income-tax reduction and base the tax on gross value, not the net.
“We must not lose the opportunity to harness the shale boom and invest in the future for all Ohioans,” Patton said in a statement.

- See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/jan/15/report-blasts-gop-severance-tax-bill/#sthash.Y0A78DHr.dpuf

LOX To GOX

Liquid Oxygen (LOX) to Gaseous Oxygen (GOX)

When my unit transitioned to KC-135 tankers in 1975 my flight engineer days were over and I RIFF'ed down to first the Doppler shop then the Instrument shop supervisor.

During those early years I, and probably many others wondered why such a large aircraft had a space saving LOX system. By it's very nature LOX evaporates away whether or not it is used and needs periodic and complex servicing. Also puzzling was the fact that a GOX system had been added to the 135 to provide back up during prolonged remote site alert missions.

Around 1984 I did some research and felt that the LOX system could be eliminated and the existing GOX system could, in a well maintained system furnish sufficient supply for eight hours of essential war mission unpressurized flight.

I then started to get serious about doing away with the system but until I heard that the 135 maintenance support center at Tinker AFB was having trouble procuring spare parts for the LOX system my efforts garnered little local or command attention.

In 1985 Tinker gave me permission, with my commander's consent, to deactivate 0017's system and collect and record a months long service record. The test indicated a savings of assets and the obvious safety issue.

To make a long story less long-About this time a friend from a think tank at nearby Wright Pat AFB informed me that his shop was interested in funding off the shelf innovations if there was sufficient return on investment. I convinced Tinker and the National Guard Bureau to allow me to do a large scale prototype sample on six of our assigned aircraft. The think tank gave me a $45,000 grant to fund the conversions. To keep the Guard on my side I had to add a second row of takns to duplicte the lost LOX capacity.

The results of the prototype, that later included two Grissom AFB reserve tankers were positive and my data indicated a life cycle savings of $250,000,000 fleetwide.

By 1986 Tinker was on board but SAC HQ, that art in Omaha, played their “not invented here card” and refused to buy in. A young LC on the SAC engineering staff whispered to me at a conference at Tinker that he and the others thought my idea was valid but dared not say so publicly.

About this time, mid 1986 SEC DEF Casper Wineburger was to tour one of our aircraft during a visit to the Columbus area. I asked my commander, if possible, to guide Casper to the back of a converted aircraft.

When they showed up at the mod a photographer snapped a picture of me, the mod, and Casper viewing the GOX installation.

I obtained a copy of the picture, converted it to an overhead transparency and sent it to the friendly LC at Offut. He quietly slipped the slide into a stack that were used to brief CIC Sac monthly on mods and suggested mods for the fleet.

The rest is history and my good friend Jason Besser ended up installing the TCTO (that I wrote) on his unit's birds and the rest of the fleet soon followed.

I have spared y'all the details of procurement, assembly and tech data creation for the prototype.

Paul Hunter SMS OANG Ret.

Better Option (re-post)

Professionally run institutional homes for neglected children are no substitute for a stable home and family environment

EXCEPT.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/grandmother-stargell-was-doomed-doomed-from-the-wo/nhJHd/

Grandmother: 'Stargell was ‘doomed from the womb’

DAYTON —

Anthony Stargell Jr. grew up in a dysfunctional family, has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, struggled to read and was raised by grandparents, an uncle and “the streets,” according to testimony Monday in the death penalty-eligible sentencing phase of Stargell’s murder trial.

One of Stargell’s grandmothers testified that the 14 children born to her daughter — Stargell’s mother — were “doomed from the womb” because of her lack of love, attention and caring. Family members said Stargell’s birth name was Antonio Nino Brown, a reference to a drug dealer in the 1991 movie New Jack City.

A jury last week found Stargell, 23, of Dayton, guilty of three counts of aggravated murder in the killing of 54-year-old Dayton businessman Tommy Nickles in April 2012. The jury heard opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys as it weighs aggravating circumstances against mitigating factors before deciding on what type of sentence Stargell will get. 

Posted by Paul Hunter

An Airman's Story Part VI

My new crew of six was formed up just in time to fly off to Harmon AFB Newfoundland for a 90 day TDY. Since the unit had more crews (30) than aircraft (20) we flew as passengers on a MATS DC-6. Why not dead-head with one of the other crews? That year several tankers and their crews had been lost due to propeller cracks that resulted in blade separation followed by engine separation and spin out. I recall a terse message from an observer in a tanker formation that was repeated in a safety magazine, “The aircraft spun out of control through the under-cast and was not heard from again”. As a result of these incidents the max gross weight was reduced to the design limit of 155,000 pounds from the SAC dictated overload 175,000 and SOBs were kept at a max of ten. This limit existed for over a year until a new solid aluminum blade replaced the hollow steel one.

The TDY went well and we enjoyed fishing for cod off the end of the runway and listening to Dee-jay Alan Moge spin the platters on the AFRS station. 
As my first hitch was about to end in 1956 I had to make a decision whether or not to re up. I checked with Eastern Airlines for an engineer's position and was informed that they had openings and I would have to train in Florida and be stationed on the east coast. The first year pay would be about the same as my E-5 over four was.
On the other hand the military was making a big push to retain current members. Reenlistment bonuses were offered for some skills, benefit packages for families were introduced. Our fist child was born in a civilian hospital on my dime. Our second child, due a few days after my enlistment would be born in the base hospital and all expenses covered. I reenlisted that summer for a six year hitch.
After several crew changes and TDY’s to Thule Greenland, Sevilla Spain, Brize Norton UK and a couple to Portuguese Azores over the next several years life became routine and promotions slowed to a crawl Air Force wide.
While TDY to the Azores a personality conflict with my aircraft commander (AC), Major Sharp, came to a head. 
The 91st was tasked to provide refueling support to nuke armed B-47s rotating from alert status in Spain back to the states. 
Portugal's stated position was that NO nukes would be allowed on its territory and if violated the U.S. could no longer have use of the important island base. As a result two ground spare tankers and an air spare were assigned to each mission. 
During one mission our receiver B-47 asked for more fuel if we had any to spare. It was common knowledge among tanker crews that receivers would take every drop of fuel you had as insurance. The AC asked me if we had any extra fuel and I replied that we were at minimum fuel in order to make it to our alternate base in North Africa. After landing the AC informed me to never ever tell him about our fuel situation and when I replied that then he should not ask for the information. He then ordered me to come with him to the commander's office as he was contemplating a court martial action. The Commander must have brushed him off because no further action was forthcoming. In any event our crew nest was fouled and we were to spend the next two years together like it or not.
I contemplated leaving the service. My decision was made easier in 1962 when the unit was scheduled to convert to the new KC-135 tanker and flight engineers became excess to needs. That summer my old squadron-mate Stan Jozwiak came up to the 91st to get re-qualified in the 97. I asked what he was up to and he related the story of the Ohio Air Guard getting the cast off Air Force tankers and setting up at nearby Clinton County AFB.
I drove down to Wilmington one afternoon and was interviewed by Lt. Col. Cattran and offered a position as an instructor engineer with the transitioning 160 ARG. Frank certainly rued his decision several times over the next several years when our personalities conflicted. I stayed in the unit for 25 years and retired from Rickenbacker (Lockbourne) in 1987. A great ride and I enjoyed almost every minute of it.

Water, Water Everywhere

Nor Any Drop to Drink

Presentation to city council 9/18

Please understand that I do not enjoy making these presentations One reason is that I am not very good at it. Having said that, I am a data freak and when I come across information that may be helpful to the city I feel obligated to share it with council and the public. My intent is to be non confrontational and to offer constructive ideas.

The subject at hand is a case in point.

During the debate on the need to increase water department revenue and quotes from a paid consultant about how to do so, I heard not one word about about the 130 million gallon gorilla in the closet.

Yes I30 million gallons of treated water per year has gone missing. This loss is equal to a football field sized pool 30 feet deep.

After several days of searching the public record and talking with utility billing and water department personnel I collected the following historical data for 2013.

Revised numbers:

Data and source:

From the water department: millions gallons (MG) of treated water delivered 557.5

From utility billing office – treated water sold: MG 396.8.

Difference between delivered and sold: 160.7

From the water department: MG used in the plant: 27.1*

From the utility billing department:

Waste water plant use, metered but not charged MG 1.5

City Building use, metered but not charged MG .33

My estimate of other city buildings used but not charged MG .8 (probably high)

My estimate of un-metered uncharged legitimate uses including fire hydrant flush, fire suppression, sprinkler tests: MG 1.0

All other non metered - not accounted for MG 130

* Treated water is used in the treatment process

Some leakage is to be expected but In my uneducated opinion a 24% loss rate is more than just excessive.

a. The loss represents thousands of dollars per year in wasted treatment costs. The market value is over $700,000.

b. This information needs to be confirmed and if it is found to be valid, action should be taken as outlined in the included internet link.

http://water.epa.gov/type/drink/pws/smallsystems/upload/epa816f13002.pdf

We are actually wasting 162 thousand pounds of lime, 71 thousand pounds of alum, 24 thousand pounds of CO2 and ten thousand pounds of other chemicals including, charcoal, phosphate and chlorine into this lost asset. 7 million gallons of treated water used in the treatment process is also lost. We might as well be taking the material directly to the landfill. Shouldn’t this gross waste be pursued as ardently as seeking new revenue?

I do hope that the Fife Ave. work will help to reduce a little of the loss but I wonder what took us so long.

Paul Hunter budhunter@frontier.com

According to: http://water.epa.gov/type/drink/pws/smallsystems/upload/epa816f13002.pdf

WATER AUDITS AND WATER LOSS CONTROL FOR PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS

1. The average water loss in public water systems is 16%. Up to 75% of the loss is recoverable.

2. Authorized consumption is the sum of billed and unbilled metered consumption.

3. Unauthorized consumption is unmetered and unbilled consumption caused by theft.

4. Leakage and other unmetered consumption such as fire department activities can account for a significant amount of unbilled consumption

Airman's Story Part V

Part V Out of Texas
When in-clearing at the base personnel office at Lockbourne I was informed that I would be assigned to the J-47 repair shop because of my most recent training. I pointed out to the clerk that I was also a flight engineer by training and requested assignment to one of the refueling squadrons that was equipped with KC-97 tankers. I suppose that fate played a part in the clerks mind when he said, “OK I will send you to the 91^st.”
The 91st orderly room clerk saw that I had an aircraft maintenance AFSC and assumed that I was intended for the flight line as a mechanic. (In the 50s flight line maintenance and operations were in the same squadron.) I insisted that I was a flight engineer and should be assigned to that section.
It was pointed out to me that a true “catch 22 “ applied to my situation. In the first place I didn’t have the required 250 panel hours to become an engineer on the 97, secondly, that only one AFSC applied to the engineer career field that was a seven level skill number. To hold a seven level the person had to be a Staff Sergeant (E-5) or above. The result was that I didn’t have the AFSC because my rank didn’t match.
The First Sergeant suggested that I talk with the OIC of the squadron’s flight engineers section. The Captain agreed to give me a chance to train for the AFSC while we worked through the regulation maze. I was back on flying status and now on a path toward earning the coveted flight engineer’s wings with the propeller symbol.
During training I met a Master Sergeant named Stan Jozwiack who had just transferred in from a B-36 unit and who was to play a part in my future career.

After about 18 months of training that included two months of KC-97 aircraft systems ground school as well as a two month Military Air Transport Service (MATS) C-97 simulator and transition course at West Palm Beach, Florida I was promoted to Staff Sergeant and awarded the seven level AFSC. By the spring of 1956 I had accrued the required 250 panel hours, passed the flying proficiency examination and was assigned to a combat crew. I was now a SAC trained killer. 

New Sanitation/Landfill Superintendent

After being investigated and cleared of possible conflict of interest allegations, Braden Dunham has been appointed to fill the position of superintendent by the Mayor. Dunham, a current employee is a member of the family that owns and operates a refuse collection service called Caribou Sanitation. Caribou uses the city's landfill to dispose of its county collected waste.

Paul Hunter  

Airman's Story IV

Part IV

Early one morning, when all were asleep in the barracks, the noise of breaking glass and banging shutters caused all to awake. A predawn tornado struck Randolph After we had collected our wits we went out to the flight line only to find our B-29s scattered about like ten pins. The aircraft were considered alvage and the tow taget squadron was disbanded. This event would cause another turn in my career.

Some of our barracks mates had made a weekend trip to nearby (150 miles) Mexico and related that the good time they had experienced. Only one of our orphan gang of five had a car and we convinced him to drive us down to the Mexican border town, Nuevo Loredo in March of 1954. It was a trip that would forever change my life.

After spending the night we realized that we had two more days remaining on our pass and decided to see the “real Mexico”. We drove the 150 miles to Monterrey a large industrial city. While dining at open air cafe that evening I spotted the woman of my dreams. She was sitty at a nearby table with with her young sisters. In a few short months Erna (Nena) Lackner was to become my wife of sixty tears and the mother of our four children.

In early September of 1954 the Air Force finally grew tired of our small group's demands to regain our flight engineer status We were assigned to a new career path that included a two month jet engine mechanic's course at Amarillo AFB in northwest Texas. From there we would be assigned to an operational unit at as yet unknown base. Leaving my new wife behind at her parents home, I drove north to the panhandle for the six week course. The plan was to have my wife and family join me at my permanent duty station.

Near the end of the J-65 course I received a sad letter from my Dad, informing me that my mother had terminal cancer and had only a few months to live. I asked Dad to contact the Red Cross and the local Congressman and ask them to arrange for a compassionate transfer to nearby Lockbourne Air Force Base. The transfer was approved and I was on my way back to Ohio after twenty-seven months in the Air Training Command. I was now educated in aircraft and engine mechanics, aircraft performance, and jet propulsion theory.

The transfer was approved and My wife, pending baby and I flew into Port Columbus on a cold November night where my Dad picked us up and drove us to family farm where we planned to stay until the baby was born and we could muster up enough cash to set up a household of our own nearer the base. I cashed in all my savings bonds and purchased a 49 Ford for the 50-mile commute to Lockbourne.

An Ohio Farm Boy's Travels

The International Bridge connecting Laredo and Nuevo Laredo was swept away.

June 24, 1954

As a result of the above incident Airman 1st Class Paul (Bud) Hunter, age 20,  was forced to find an alternate bus route to Monterey, Mexico on July 1st. He was on his way to marry the love of his young life, Scarlet (Nena) Lackner.

Trailways Bus company offered transportation to McAllen, Texas a border town across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico.

In the middle of the night Bud arrived at Reynosa and after a scary incident at the Mexican border station he bought a ticket to Monterey on a Transportes Del Norte bus.

He arrived in Monterey the next morning and, following his fiancé's directions, took a taxi to “en frente de country club” at the base of the sierra de la cilla. (saddle mountain)

 

After spending a day and night at the Lackner home in Monterey, Nena and Bud took a bus 60 miles south to the  Lackner farmstead near Linares. That night was spent sleeping under the stars after dining on fried rabbit and avocado sandwiches. Bud remembers thinking., how did  I get from a farm near Mechanicsburg, Ohio to this place?

An Airman's Travels

The International Bridge connecting Laredo and Nuevo Laredo was swept away.

June 24, 1954

As a result of the above incident Airman 1st Class Paul (Bud) Hunter, age 20,  was forced to find an alternate bus route from San Antonio, Texas to Monterey, Mexico on July 1st. He was on his way to marry the love of his young life, Scarlet (Nena) Lackner.

Trailways Bus company offered transportation to McAllen, Texas a border town across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico.

In the middle of the night Bud arrived at Reynosa and after a scary incident at the Mexican border station he bought a ticket to Monterey on a Transportes Del Norte bus.

He arrived in Monterey the next morning and, following his fiancé's directions, took a taxi to “en frente de country club” at the base of the Siera de la Cilla. [saddle mountain]

 

After spending a day and night at the Lackner home in Monterey, Nena and Bud took a bus 60 miles south to the  Lackner farmstead near Linares. That night was spent sleeping under the stars after dining on fried rabbit and avocado sandwiches. Bud remembers thinking., how did  I get from a farm near Mechanicsburg, Ohio to this place?