Tech Sgt L F Caldwell

This past weekend, I had the unbelievable fortune...blessing...to meet and informally interview Tech Sgt Frank Caldwell. Frank was the engineer on the B-24 Liberator nicknamed "Our Belle"...the same plane that carried my great-uncle, S Sgt Lloyd N. Reid as a tail-gunner.

Frank re-counted the events of befriending Reid, as Frank called him, of being shot out of the sky, watching helplessly as four of his friends were killed, of staying alive in a POW camp, and living his life each day since in an effort to show thanks to God for having been spared.

Though Frank is 85 now, his memory is still sharp and he can take you places through his stories like nowhere I've been before. Yet, I still got the feeling he was withholding some details either out of respect for the dead or from protecting the listener. He lived in a time when extraordinary things were asked of ordinary men...and through his faith in God, he overcame tragic and horrifying events. Every now and then, we meet someone so experienced, so haunted by the past, yet so ready to share, that we merely need to introduce ourselves, ask a question, and push "record" on the tape player.

In this case, I was honored to shake Sgt Caldwell's hand, introduced myself as the son of Lloyd Reid's nephew, asked him, "What was Lloyd like?", and then...I pressed "record". Four hours later, I hit "stop". If I'm ever able to condense and combine Frank's interview and Lloyd's letters, it surely would be a best-seller...at least within our family.

(Back row, Reid-2nd from right; Caldwell-3rd from right)

New found favorite songs!!!

Have you ever put your hand in a coat not worn since last winter only to find money in the pocket? That's the type of unexpected discovery I came across today when scrolling through the 1600 songs that came with the used iPod we bought.

Before I tell you what I found, let me say how disappointed I am that my sisters did not enlighten of this '70's band's existence, pictured here, before my stumbling across them today.

Of all my years of music appreciation, never have I been handed an 8-track, album, tape, nay even a CD, by someone saying, "Hey kid, put down that Tab and let me drop some groovy tunes on you. Try out E.L.O. and when you're done, put another coat of wax on my orange Nova."

To date, I've lived a life of uninformed ignorance as to the genius that is the Electric Light Orchestra. But no longer, for I've stepped over the fence, onto the greener grass and found that it is, indeed, as soft and lush as the shoulder length brown hair of my 1974 inner self.

E.L.O.'s fantastic four songs I've always heard, but never knew who sang them are:

Mr. Blue Sky
Do Ya
Evil Woman (Funny, I always thought they were saying "mid-evil woman".)
and my favorite...
Don't Bring Me Down

PS- Yes, the clown's in the photo's background really freak me out, but I couldn't help posting it, since it so clearly conveyed the style of the '70's.