Columns and News Articles
For most of my career, I was a newspaper editor, fine-tuning the work of others. But I never lost my desire to write and to tell a good story. These are a few of the columns and news articles I wrote during the course of my career as a journalist, most written toward the end and shortly after my retirement.
We've Got Your Back - saluting veterans of all wars
The Letter in a Recipe Box - saluting Marti's Uncle Hugh
Dad, Death, and Dora - why we hate Nazis
Farewell to the Texas Prison Rodeo - inside the walls
Patience and Persistence - chasing the perfect photograph
Leaving Tracks Through Life - on the White Sands dunes
Thanks, Bob Hope, For Remembering - my tribute
South Rim By Sixty - a quest to reach the top
Rainy Night in North Carolina - on friendships
Above it All at Acoma - a trip into the past
Where the Buffalo Roamed - taking back the prairie
Unheralded Sacrifice - saluting a forgotten hero of D-Day
Fewer Half-Read Books - a celebration of reading
Stories from the Heroes Flight - Veterans tell their stories
Storytelling
My military background often made me the go-to headline writer and sometimes reporter for all things service-related. I edited the stories about the fall of Saigon when I worked on the copy desk at the Tulsa Tribune, then later wrote many stories and photographed veterans and reluctant heroes. Toward the end of my career in Tyler, I was asked to travel with World War II and Korean War veterans to Washington, D.C., on six Heroes Flights. My goal was to document their stories - often experiences they had never before voiced - and share those memories with others. A few are listed below. I'll add others as we go.
Angels of An Phong - Remembering the orphans of war.
Ripped from the Wire - Flashes, Bulletins and Urgent leads from the wire services.
It Was Just a Library Card - saluting the Library of Congress
Looking Down on Life - a different perspective
Making Peace with Vietnam - a personal reckoning
Whatever Floats Your Boat - a love/hate affair with boats
Silence in the Gardens of Stone - reflections on Arlington
Milk Run on the Nine-O-Nine - a memorable flight in a B-17
Saigon, Sweat and Spades - my aversion to card games
In Search of the Batfish - helping a sailor find his sub
The Empty Grave in Mrs. Lee's Garden - a Civil War story
Michael Davis O'Donnell - Vietnam's warrior poet
World War II Heroes - they finally got their own monument
Forged By War - military memorials refuse to let us forget
Flash in the Pan - an airman my grandmother adopted—who never came home
Campfire Stories - when columns spawn even more stories
Reflections and Observations
Sometimes my columns were simply reflections on life, common sense observations, and lessons learned - sometimes the hard way. Others touched readers in a personal way, reviving memories, giving them a break from their busy day to pause and reflect... if only for a few minutes.
Days of Heat; Nights of Wonder - memories of harvest
Counting Votes & Baking Bread - a hundred election nights
Cousins, Kindness & Enos Slaughter - saluting cousins
The Nuts & Bolts of Life - lessons learned in a toolbox
I'll be Home for Christmas - this song made my mother cry
The Finer Points of Plowing - a moment of Zen on the tractor
The Power of Encouragement - seeking out encouragers
Knowing When to Get Off - lessons about hard work
Sky Vu in My Rearview Mirror - on going home again
Passages and Transitions - on moving through life
My Road Less Traveled - on making life choices
A Lifetime of Storytelling
I never really stopped thinking of myself as a writer. Some pieces below were written following my retirement from the newspaper business. Some were just expanded online posts on platforms like Facebook. Others were late-night vents and reflections on life in a personal unpublished blog I called "Musings After Midnight." If you enjoy a few of them, great! If not, I understand. But I hope you'll give them a look.
Memorial Day in a Time of Pandemic - our sacrifice was minor
Stone Post Stubborn - limestone posts corral Kansas memories
My Dad's Life in Keys - a man's life on a dozen keyrings
Playing Games in a War Zone - feature on Jennifer Young, a Donut Dollie in Vietnam
