Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung

     I just recently returned from one of the far-flung camps in our area of operations.  It was one of those places where you couldn’t drink the water without boiling it first (not even to brush your teeth).  Pretty much all the food was fried, even the vegetables (and sometimes even the fruit).  The mango smoothies and the fried bananas were pretty tasty, but the only other snacks around were whatever our families sent to us, with the exception of some knockoff Nabisco cookies.  There was a local version of lemonade that tasted really good (not too much sugar), and all tea there was sweetened (helped prevent me from missing Texas). 

     Even though water wasn’t scarce, the plumbing wasn’t quite as good as most Koa campgrounds, so it was Navy-style showers, which wasn’t too bad.  The toilets weren’t the ‘flushable’ variety, though, so you had to fill a bucket with water and dump it in order to effect a flush. 

     The food there ensured you’d get familiar with the flushing process. 

     Hand sanitizer, while not really abundant, was fortunately available in places where soap was not. 

     If you like sun, surf, insurgents, fish, and mangos, this is the place for you!

     It looks like Admiral Fallon just resigned.

     His deputy will be the acting CENTCOM commander.  Lt Gen Dempsey was in command of 1st Armored Division when I was working over in that neck of the woods.  He helped me get some medals pushed through for my Airmen that had gotten downgraded by (ironically) CENTCOM (actually the air component).  I thought that was pretty cool of him!

     My Grandma passed away today. 

     Grandma was the mother of four children who grew up close and have remained so for my entire life.  She worked as a nurse on the night shift; she went for years simply ‘high-fiving’ Grandpa and her children as she walked in the door and they walked out in the morning.  She spent about fourteen years taking increasingly more care of Grandpa as he suffered a series of strokes and in the end cancer.  She never asked for anything for herself that I can remember in my life, she only asked if there was anything she could do for us kids.  Me? I learned to always ask for an afghan (I did this with both my grandmothers).  It would take months to get one because she’d knit one for whomever in the family asked her for one, and all of us knew to ask her for one (and there were a lot of us in the ranks of the grandchildren).  She was always almost always working down a request list.  But we always eventually got our afghans.  The afghans were about the only things I worked hard to salvage out of my flooded home in Grand Forks in 1997, and I use them all to this day.    

     Grandma wasn’t just a beloved family member, she was also my last close family member who was a direct historical link to the generation that came of age in the Great Depression and fought the Second World War.  She was almost the first person I called after September Eleventh once I’d cooled off a little.  She was the one I could talk to who could help put the event into some semblance of proper perspective; she’d lived through the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, after all.  We also talked about the 2003 Iraq War shortly after the fall of Baghdad, and I remember specifically telling her "Now all we need to do is win the peace."  At the time I didn’t think it would take as long as it has.  The outcome is no longer really in doubt (unless we quit all of a sudden); we’ll win, although it will depend largely on Iraq itself to determine the speed.  Unlike the last great war, there won’t be a surrender ceremony on a battleship at the end of this one; we’ll wake up after awhile and realize it’s over, barring some other extraordinary circumstance.  But Grandma won’t be around to see it with me. 

     Most important of all, she was the spiritual cornerstone of the family.  If I felt like I needed a prayer chain going, once Grandma let me know she was on it, the chain always felt anchored.  I don’t know how many times my family and I got to go to church with her and Grandpa when we were younger.  She almost always played organ at the services, but she was equally talented with the piano.  The fact that I can quote the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 verbatim are her credit.  There was usually a reward of some sort after we recited back to her whatever verses she’d asked us to memorize.  I don’t remember what it was, it was probably a couple dollars.  In the end, the real reward clearly was not the material thing but the wisdom gained; this is a lesson I’ll remember and use to pass along to my successor generation. 

     Actually, the true reward will come someday in the far future when my time comes to depart and travel down that road to find her again.   

     Congratulations on one of the longest, most meaningful, and most successful lives in which I’ve ever been blessed to share.  Rest in well-deserved peace, Grandma!

     Weltanschauung friend Glenn made the Austin American-Statesman, check out the guy to Gov. Perry’s right (larger picture here)!  

     Glenn, his brother, and the Governor are all Eagle Scouts and are all members of the Order of the Arrow; much like the two guys who make Weltanschauung possible (primarily this one but also this one).  It turns out Gov. Perry is a huge supporter of Boy Scouting! Awesome!

     I keep forgetting to ask Glenn if he’s in the National Eagle Scout Association.  I wonder if Gov. Perry is a member?

     I was watching CNN International when the story broke that Prince Harry was RTBing from Afghanistan where he was apparently calling in airstrikes, which is the exact same job my Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) unit in Germany performed.  They showed a little footage of him in an interview (click here for the video page, you may need to open the Harry’s deployment ends clip, 3:08 long, start paying attention at 0:31). 

     What grabbed my attention was his headgear the Prince was wearing during the TV interview (Photo #5/13 appears to be the cap in question).  He was wearing a desert-colored baseball cap.  I have the exact same desert-colored cap, just like my controllers wore.  My cap has velcro on the front, and most of the TACP types I know put a desert-colored American flag on their caps.  Mine was no exception.

     Neither was Prince Harry’s!

     Weltanschauung friend Bonnie is in the Chicago media for her work helping raise funds to build a Fisher House there (one near the Hines VA Hospital and later another in northern Chicago)! Congratulations, and thank you very much for supporting Fisher Houses.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, a Fisher House is a place where the families of service men and women can stay while their loved one recuperates from wounds. 

     Bonnie had some very nice things to say about Kevin Butler (Chicago Bears field goal kicker, rookie during Super Bowl ‘85) and also about Gary Sinise and his Lt Dan Band (they played in concert to raise money for the Fisher House in Chicago).  I second both, what great acts! It looks like the Lt Dan Band will be back to repeat the feat on 19 July 2008 at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL (Thanks also to Ms Deborah Rickert of Operation Support Our Troops–Illinois for the additional information about the upcoming concert; and thanks to Grant & Power Landscaping for helping support the overall effort)! 

     Below is the text of an e-mail from Fisher Houses for Illinois, Bonnie is mentioned in the second-to-last paragraph.

Debi Rickert of OSOT~IL presents a check for $75,000 to Fisher House on behalf of Operation Support Our Troops ~IL, Inc.

The following message was sent out by the Fisher House Chair to it’s Committee: Hello to Fisher Houses for Illinois Board, Committees and Volunteers: We have really great news to report. What a thrill and what a surprise! Fisher Houses for Illinois received a generous contribution of $75,000 from fellow military support organization Operation Support Our Troops-IL (OSOTIL) at this non-profit’s July 21, 2007 Rockin’ for the Troops Benefit headlined by CSI:NY star Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band.  These funds are specifically earmarked for the Fisher House for Hines VA Hospital.

     This may be the only thing I’ve ever read or heard from Michael Kinsley that was worth repeating.  This was hilarious!

     What’s fun is that I now get to find the Times’ most egregious errors, publish only their failures, claim that based on their ineptitude that their product is worthless, and call for everyone to stop reading the Times. 

     The parallels here compared to what they’ve been doing to us in the military with respect to Iraq are uncanny. 

     It’s like poetic justice. 

     Hat tip to HoyStory.

     If it’s not one problem for American consumers who purchase Chinese products, it’s another. 

     Anyone who likes these new digital photo frames as much as I do, take heed!

     Are any of the companies that make these digital frames publicly traded? I haven’t been able to find out.