JOURNAL ARCHIVE: August 5, 2006...
This is interesting, the part about the joke. Maybe it's nothing or maybe it reflects that I had been discovered alive after a long period of people thinking I was dead. HEY Could that be why I have the memory....I wrote about it a while back. I was talking to my brother, Kevin, and he was telling me he didn't think our dad was dead. I believed he was dead, but it was a closed casket, so the memory of Kevin telling me that persisted. I was writing a while back that my father Joseph, may actually represent me in some regards.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/051887a.htm
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the ``E'' and ``E Star'' Awards
May 18, 1987
Secretary Baldrige, Ambassador Yeutter, and Secretary Lyng, good morning to all of you. It's a great pleasure to have all of you here, not only to celebrate World Trade Week but to celebrate you, the men and women at the cutting edge of American competitiveness. One of America's greatest assets is the skill and professionalism of its businessmen and women, and entrepreneurs. The can-do spirit of our business community is in stark contrast to the inefficiency and poor performance often associated with other economic systems.
Of course, mistakes do happen. You know the story of the fellow who ordered a bouquet of flowers to be sent to the opening of his friend's new branch office. And when he got there, he was shocked to see flowers with the inscription, ``Rest in peace.'' [Laughter] He was so outraged that on the way home he stopped at the florist to complain. And the florist said, ``Just think of it this way, today someone in this city was buried beneath a flower arrangement with the inscription, `Good luck in your new location.''' [Laughter]
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Assuming that I was shot down in Feb. 1986 by Libya.
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http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/22686b.htm
Address to the Nation on National Security
February 26, 1986
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One cannot sit in this office reviewing intelligence on the military threat we face, making decisions from arms control to Libya to the Philippines, without having that concern for America's security weigh constantly on your mind. We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations. George Washington's words may seem hard and cold today, but history has proven him right again and again. ``To be prepared for war,'' he said, ``is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.'' Well, to those who think strength provokes conflict, Will Rogers had his own answer. He said of the world heavyweight champion of his day: ``I've never seen anyone insult Jack Dempsey.''
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/22686b.htm
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We need to remember where America was 5 years ago.
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Pakistan, the country most threatened by the Afghan invasion, ridiculed the first offer of American aid as ``peanuts.'' Other nations were saying that it was dangerous -- deadly dangerous -- to be a friend of the United States.
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August 6, 2006
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I wrote a while back about the time I remember being in the hospital with Randy Romine's dad, Ronnie. There was some other details I wanted to note but did not, just seems like inconsequential details, but now I am thinking it all means something. We were spending the night or maybe a few days at someone's house. I guess because Ronnie was in the hospital. These people had kids about the same age as Melissa and me. They had just built a new swimming pool, but the pool was so cloudy, or muddy really, that you couldn't see the bottom. It also wasn't heated. One kid told me to put my hands in the pockets of my swim trunks and by doing so, I did a backflip off the diving board. We watched Saturday Night Live one night. I don't think I had seen it in a while. One day, mom came by to pick us up and told us that Ronnie had died. I don't think it is a coincidence that his ailment was emphysema which sounds similar to the lung problem Reagan had from the gunshot wounds.
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On the space shuttle, can the landing gear cover open without extending the landing gear? I'm thinking that the left side door opened but the right door would not open. I jumped up and down on it until it opened and then I fell through to the outside. I am wondering if I had a tether on and was being bounced up and down against the elevon. I think about that scene from Ramnbo 2 where something similar happens to him. I guess I cut the tether with a knife. I wonder if I had a closing blade or a straight blade. Either way, I would be lucky to not have dropped the knife as I was being bashed against the side at 1200 mph.
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I am growing more certain that the period I remember as going to school during 1986 and 1987 actually represents something very much different. The dates match up with that Reagan meeting in 2/18/86 and that day the Stark was hit on 5/17/87. I remember being in those three sequential schools during that time period. The three schools may be encoded in my memory for continuity, which actually makes sense, or my journey had three distinct phases. One phase could have been a Libyan prison, that I escaped and was then taken captive similar to Crowe's "Gladiator" and the third phase being some kind of trek across the desert to, I guess, Djibouti.
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I was reading parts of the wiki article about the "Dallas" tv series and I remembered this series. I remember liking watching it but I don't remember any of the episodes, except one that I think was the first episode where the woman was floating him in the water to try to get his gills to work or something as he was unconscious. The "Aqua Man" character was a favorite of mine especially when mom took us swimming in the summers to Lake Greeson and Dierks Lake. I guess these memories represent something else, some kind of training for becoming a SEAL perhaps.
And "Namor" can be formed from that character on "Lost" named "Ethan Rom." It could be "The Roman" or "The Namor." I'm pretty that the "Namor" name was chosen because it is "Roman" spelled backwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Atlantis
Original run 22 September 1977 – 6 June 1978
The Man from Atlantis was a short-lived American science fiction television series that ran for 17 episodes on the NBC Network during the 1977-1978 season, following on from a successful made-for-television movie that had aired on 1 March 1977.
The series starred Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris, a survivor from the lost continent of Atlantis. Possessed of superhuman abilities, including the ability to breathe underwater and withstand extreme depth pressures, Harris is subsequently recruited by a secret organization that explores the depths of the ocean in a futuristic submarine, the Cetacean, fighting evil as it goes.
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I was writing something about this the other day. I remember Jim Shea was talking about it some time afterwards, so it must mean something. Why would they need to deflect my memory about it if there isn't something relevant to me about it? This occurred in 1983 and 1984, so it doesn't fit into my 86/87 theory. but maybe I knew this guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson
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In 1983, Jackson traveled to Syria to secure the release of a captured American pilot, Navy Lt. Robert Goodman who was being held by the Syrian government. Goodman had been shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country. After a dramatic personal appeal that Jackson made to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Goodman was released. Initially, the Reagan administration was skeptical about Jackson's trip to Syria. However, after Jackson secured Goodman's release, President Reagan welcomed both Jackson and Goodman at the White House on January 4, 1984[2]. This helped to boost Jackson's popularity as an American patriot and served as a springboard for his 1984 presidential run.
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This happened on Feb. 18, 1999, and along with other suspicious details, I wonder about the Feb 18th.
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/02-18cohen.asp
Remarks by Secretary of Defense William Cohen and Bill Gates
Thursday, February 18, 1999
Redmond, Washington
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So I wanted to come here to talk just a little bit about what the military is doing in our lives, even though you may not see it except on a -- perhaps a CNN broadcast when we have to take on a Saddam Hussein or perhaps even have a deployment to either Bosnia or Kosovo or some other region. But you should be aware of how completely dedicated these men and women are who are serving us, how proud you should be of them, how proud I am to be in this position, to at least express my support for what they're doing, and to call upon each and every one of you to spread the word.
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Hell, this would be a pretty funny way to welcome me home, if it was June that I returned, and if I was even missing at all. The U.S. Naval Academy mascot is a goat.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/061987d.htm
Proclamation 5669 -- National Dairy Goat Awareness Week, 1987
June 19, 1987
By the President of the United States
of America
A Proclamation
We can all be grateful for the significant contributions to our economy made by farmers and others who raise dairy goats and market dairy goat products. American farmers currently raise roughly 250,000 of these hardy animals, which can thrive even in harsh areas and have a long association with our country.
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So 11/25/86 is probably when I was declared dead. My memory of Thanksgiving that year reflects what people in my family told, that Thanksgiving was hard that year because they thought I was dead.
Damn. That explains some memories I have about Thanksgiving. I don't recall Kerry Burgess ever making it home for Thanksgiving after joining the Navy. There was that one time after I got out of the Navy that I went home as Kerry Burgess for Thanksgiving. The reality is probably just the opposite. It was only that Thanksgiving of 1986 that I didn't make it home for Thanksgiving.
In 1986, Michael died on Tuesday Nov. 25th. Thanksgiving was a couple days later, Thursday, the 27th. Maybe that is why I have that memory of getting fired by Rich Molck a few days before Thanksgiving. Because someone told my family a couple days before Thanksgiving that I was dead. Someone questioned why they had to give them that news right before Thanksgiving. But there really never is a good time to deliver that kind of news.
Maybe this is why I have that memory I wrote about earlier. Michael were driving out to the Oklahoma state line to get some beer. We lived in a dry county. He almost wrecked at one point to pull into a cemetary. He drove in there and then slowly turned his small Dodge pickup so that the headlights crossed over the headstones. I asked him what he was doing and he said something about it being a cemetary and that I should get used to it.
I am thinking that this memory represents that everyone thought I was dead. My memories of the days of us mourning Micheal's death are what my family described to me about my death.
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Could this be related to that memory I have of Jim Shea being in the brig on bread-and-water that time? Could it represent a time I was lost and starving?
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/110687f.htm
Proclamation 5739 -- National Family Bread Baking Month, 1987
November 6, 1987
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Bread, the staff of life, both gives and symbolizes sustenance. Until recent decades the American people baked their bread at home, and today many families enjoy this tradition, not simply for its wholesome nutrition but also for its rich association with the well-being and security of family life.
I am finding it very hard to concentrate as I try to verify that there was no Thanksgiving speech during November 1987. I have to read the same line three times and still not understand what I just read.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/87nov.htm
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August 7, 2006
I'm thinking again about that time Rachel Barnet wanting to watch that Swayze movie "Ghost" on video at my apartment on Wexler in Taylors. She didn't believe that I had not already seen it when I figured out who was the bad guy.
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When I wrote about this scar on my wrist being from shrapnel, I forget to mention another thought I had. I was thinking about that scene in "Memphis Belle" where the tomato soup exploded in the cabin and they thought the other one had been hit. I have been thinking that something like that happened to me, but I was really hit and that is what the scar on my wrist is from. It's not on the back of my wrist, but on the narrow side, as though something went directly through it, leaving a small scar going in and a big scar going out. If I could remember it, I would probably feel amazed that it didn't tear my hand off.
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Not sure if I wrote this yet, thought about it last night:
Taylor Wainwright
T.W.
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August 8, 2006
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http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/53186a.htm
Radio Address to the Nation on Terrorism
May 31, 1986
My fellow Americans:
History is likely to record that 1986 was the year when the world, at long last, came to grips with the plague of terrorism. For too long, the world was paralyzed by the argument that terrorism could not be stopped until the grievances of terrorists were addressed. The complicated and heartrending issues that perplex mankind are no excuse for violent, inhumane attacks, nor do they excuse not taking aggressive action against those who deliberately slaughter innocent people.
In our world there are innumerable groups and organizations with grievances, some justified, some not. Only a tiny fraction has been ruthless enough to try to achieve their ends through vicious and cowardly acts of violence upon unarmed victims. Perversely, it is often the terrorists themselves who prevent peacefully negotiated solutions. So, perhaps the first step in solving some of these fundamental challenges in getting to the root cause of conflict is to declare that terrorism is not an acceptable alternative and will not be tolerated.
Effective antiterrorist action has also been thwarted by the claim that -- as the quip goes -- ``One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.'' That's a catchy phrase, but also misleading. Freedom fighters do not need to terrorize a population into submission. Freedom fighters target the military forces and the organized instruments of repression keeping dictatorial regimes in power. Freedom fighters struggle to liberate their citizens from oppression and to establish a form of government that reflects the will of the people. Now, this is not to say that those who are fighting for freedom are perfect or that we should ignore problems arising from passion and conflict. Nevertheless, one has to be blind, ignorant, or simply unwilling to see the truth if he or she is unable to distinguish between those I just described and terrorists. Terrorists intentionally kill or maim unarmed civilians, often women and children, often third parties who are not in any way part of a dictatorial regime. Terrorists are always the enemies of democracy.
