Reddick Family Web

Nobility, Humility, Loyalty

A flight phenomenon

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Southwest Airlines Flight 7 leaves Lubbock at 6:55 a.m. and stops in Dallas before flying on to Houston. Its 9:30 arrival at Houston Hobby Airport makes same-day appointments at MD Anderson feasible. But today something unusual happened on the way to Houston.

The flight leaving Lubbock was oversold, so the automated voicemail I received from Southwest at first seemed to be a consequence of that circumstance.  I became aware of the voicemail shortly after I turned my phone back on after landing in Dallas. The message said that portions of my flight had been canceled, and suggested that I might want to call Southwest to get details

Now that seemed strange, because there I was sitting on the plane, in Dallas. The flight attendant had just announced that passengers continuing on to Houston should remain seated until the crew had counted noses. So I wondered, was this a ploy to deflect people from and oversold flight? Was it a message I should have had before I left Lubbock?

So there we sat on the taxiway while I pondered the message. Just as we pulled to the gate, the announcement came that there had been a change in aircraft for those going to Houston. We were supposed to check in at Gate 6.

There was a long line at Gate 6. The board at the gate  said the Houston flight, Flight 9, would be leaving at 9 a.m.  The gate attendant asked if I had a boarding pass. I repeated I had just come in from Lubbock and that they had taken the boarding pass in Lubbock. She looked incredulous. I said “Flight 7.” After she did something on her computer, she told me to talk to the agents at Gate 8.

I was beginning to worry about my first (11 a.m.) appointment at MD Anderson as I stood in line at Gate 8. There I received a boarding pass – position B51 – for Flight 9, back at Gate 6. Now it was 8:30 a.m. As I took a seat at Gate 6, I soon realized there was no plane at the gate. The plane arrived at 8:45, and I thought, “now we’ll see if Southwest can turn this thing around in 10 minutes.  They did.

Plane arrived in Houston right at 10. At 10:08 I was putting my bags in a taxi. At 10:11 we were leaving the airport. I told my driver the dilemma. He said he could have us at the Medial Center at 10:35. He beat that by 2 minutes; I dumped my bags at the hotel and got to my first appointment at 11 a.m.  It’s now 7:39 and I am waiting for my last procedure.

 

A rare find

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High in the Civil Courts building in downtown St. Louis, Kathy Grillo’s solitary desk marks off her corner work space among row after row of cabinets and boxes filled with old records tracing people and events in the gateway city. Kathy’s title is Records Manager of the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri, and she is a national treasure. We were directed to her during a couple hours we had between things at the AEJMC conference in St. Louis.

Nancy in St. Louis
Nancy before Civil Courts building in St. Louis

After lunch, Nancy and I walked around downtown a little, admiring the architecture, making mental notes of restaurant locations, and generally reveling in some precious down time together. Working on an imperfect recall of an earlier conversation with Roxanne about a famous trial that took place in St. Louis, we had begun asking sheriff’s deputies, bailiffs, and clerks where the Scopes trial was held, and where the tours were. That’s how we met Kathy.

At first, court officers, staff, and clerks responded as thought they thought we were asking about a trial in progress. And as we explained that we were asking about the famous trial on evolution, back in the twenties, with Clarence Darrow, they gave us blank stares. It was unsettling. “How could they not know about the Scopes Trial,” we asked each other. Finally, one of the clerks we had talked to earlier came over to the desk and said, “y’all take that elevator over there up to the second floor and ask for Kathy.”

Tucked back around the corner in a hallway at the west end of the building was a tiny old elevator. On the second floor it emptied out into a reception area with another long desk behind which were a couple of women. “Kathy?” I asked.

“No.”

“Is Kathy here?” I continued.

“Kathy Grillo?”

“I don’t know. Downstairs they said we should come up here and ask for Kathy.” Then we explained what we were looking for.

They didn’t know about the Scopes trial either, but the second woman nodded, and said, “Just have a seat, and Kathy will be here in a minute.”

In about five minutes, a dark-haired woman, about forty, wearing dark pants and a light shirt came from the general direction of the elevator. We asked her about the Scopes trial. “A Tennessee case,” she said. “You mean the one with Clarence Darrow?” she asked.

Thus began a delightful hour-long conversation during which she took us up into the archives where she works, discussed her work, gave us a facsimile copy of Dred Scott’s petition (this was probably the famous St. Louis case Roxanne was talking about) to be heard in court. Kathy told us they were into a two-year long project digitizing old records under her charge. She showed us huge court journals from the 19th century, where the ink is fading.

She revealed they have a collection of court documents classified as “freedom” documents. She said they recently digitized a lot of Lewis and Clark documents. It seems the famous explorers gathered a lot of outfitting from St. Louis merchants promising “the government will pay for it.” Apparently the government did not.

We exchanged, business cards, Kathy and I. She asked if we needed anything else, and made it clear we had only to ask. It was a nice, unexpected discovery in the middle of the annual AEJMC conference.

Adjusting to a new life

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Hi Mom!

I am doing well.  As always, the adjustment has been hard, but I am getting there.  The elevation here is greater than one mile high so the air is void of O2 but also the air is very polluted too!  Worse than Los Angeles.  Everyone has an adjustment period where working out even moderately is very difficult and you even wake up several times throughout the night gasping for air.  Then there is the Afghan crud.  Everyone gets it and I had it a couple of weeks ago.  Felt lousy, sluggish, feverish and nausiated for a few days.  My boss sent me to my room to sleep it off and so I took advantage of to get plenty of rest while I could because that won’t happen too often.

Lt. Lane with gear
Lt. Lane feasting on MRE.

I had my first visit.  Vice Admiral Thompson and 5 other Admirals with the Defense Logistics Agency came for a visit.  Things went smoothly enough, but I am glad to get it over with.  The Vice Admiral must have been pleased because he coined me!  Every General and Admiral has his own commemorative coin, and it is traditional for him or her to award people’s good performance with a coin in the handshake.  When I sent the Admiral and his party off into their C-130, he gave me his coin in a handshake!

The coins are pretty cool.  It gives me something to collect and remember my time here by, but it is hard work to plan and coordinate these visits. The General officers are not so bad, but it is all of the “strap-hangers” or the other people that come along for the ride.  Sometimes they want to do their own thing, and I have to deal with these requests very politically because my job is to support the principal’s itinerary, and not all of his other strap-hangers.

I have lost about 15lbs since I arrived here.  The main reason is that the food is not so good.  I reside on a NATO base–not an American base.  The food has a european/mediterranean slant to it, but they don’t even do it very well.  The meat is always dry and stringy.  They cook a lot of pork, lamb, chicken, and fish.  They sometimes do steak, and turkey.  There are always fresh vegetables, and salad.  There is always pasta and rice/veggie mix too.  I don’t do the pasta, but I do the rice.  They do potatoes whole and peeled and mashed, but I avoid the potatoes too.  My typical lunch and dinner consists of meat, rice/veggie mix, steamed veggies, and salad with oil and vinegar and black pepper.  Olive oil and white distilled vinegar is all they have in the way of salad dressing.  I have grown used to this.  I eat more salad and veggies here than ever before in my life!   The food is healthy, that is for sure.  But it also is not too good-tasting so I eat a lot less!  When I got sick, I hardly ate anything for a week! The food didn’t appeal to me, and my stomach felt so bad that I couldn’t take much anyway.

Breakfast is the same every day.  Eggs, cooked in a variety of ways depending on the day of the week and bacon.  The bacon is not strips like you and I are used to.  It is more like pan-fried shaved ham.  It is thick and dry and stringy.  but the flavor is good and it seems to be less fat than American bacon strips.  Also available for breakfast are: stewed tomatoes, baked beans, shriveled nasty hot-dog links, a big pot of pre-made oatmeal, and a variety of cereals.  Sometimes there is french toast or pancakes, but I do not care for either of these.  Sometimes they have cheap nasty maple syrup, and you will never find any powdered sugar. There are a variety of breads for toasting, too.  There is a “sandwich” line where you can build your own, but there are few meat–salami is always one of them, and then usually roast beef.  There is only one type of cheese, though, and I do NOT care for swiss!

There is plenty of fattening, unhealthy, delicious American food at the other US camps in Kabul.  My team of colleagues and I get over to these other places occasionally and I consume a whole LOT more calories during these meals.  Two grilled cheese sandwiches, fried chicken and broccoli smothered with cheddar cheese sauce!  Mmmmm!  A loaded baked potato and fire-grilled steak!  A double cheeseburger with french fries and baked beans!  A hotdog covered with chili and cheese!  I eat my way to an upset tummy fast at these American dining facilities.  The diet thatat my NATO compound keeps seems much easier on the digestion.  American food is my fast ticket to gas city!

The tap water is for hygeine purposes only–it is not potable.  We drink bottled water only and we even have to brush our teeth with bottled water.  Neglecting to do this can result in sickness and unintentional rapid weight-loss!  Local dairy is to be avoided also!  All drinks provided in the dining facilities are bottled!  Soda, juice boxes, and ultra-high pasteurized milk that just doesn’t taste the same as fresh Amerian homogenized/pasteurized skim milk!  I miss my skim milk!  Thought of getting a pitcher and my food-storage powdered milk from home.  That would taste better than the high-shelf-life ultra-pasteurized stuff, and at least I will be able to get my calcium in me.

The water I shower in is usually cold.  The hot water gets used up fast with 40-60 girls to one hot water tank!  I take luke-warm to cold showers most mornings.  I have learned out of necessity to take a combat shower!  Turn water on, get wet for 10 seconds, shut water off.  Soap up, shave, and lather the shampoo.  Turn water on for 20 seconds and rinse off!  30 seconds total of running water and I’m nice and clean!  On the rare ocasion that I do get some warm water, I linger in there a little bit longer, but the showers are also very disgustingly filthy, so I never stay too long.  I miss long hot showers and seamy hot baths!  I suspect that I will want to take many of these when I get home.

There is a well-equipped gym, but all the measurements are in Kilos–not lbs!!  This made for an interesting first workout!  And when I stepped on the scale for the first time, I thought I was unhealthily light weighing in at 62 for the first time when I got here!  I weight 59 kg now=130lbs.  I am still dropping weight, though.  The weight machines are all  man-size also, too big for me to use a lot of it, so I mostly do free-weights.  There are plenty of cardio machines and a variety of cardio classes and sports offered too.  I plan to play some soccer as soon as David mails me my indoor soccer shoes.  There is a large outdoor field too, but it doubles as a helopad and therefore has limited availability for sports events.  The propellers of a blackhawk would do quite a number on a soccer-ball I’d imagine!

I also get over to the U.S. Embassy as often as I can to swim.  They have a 23-yard lap pool.  Pam sent me all of my swim toys and laminated swim workouts so I can have some fun and get a good workout at the same time.  It is still hard for me, though, due to the poor quality of air.  I just can’t perform the way that I do back home.  I went to spin class at 0530 this morning too, and the oxygen thing kicked my butt.  I will get used to it, though, I guess.

We sometimes walk in a group between the HQ ISAF compound and Camp Eggers.  It is in the green zone, but still we walk with loaded pistols.  As I mentioned before, the children mob you and try to get you to buy bracelets and scarves.  I am not intgerested in buying from them, but I do want to help.  I talk with them and I am learning their names.  One boy named Rhosa pleaded with me to buy from him so that he can get new shoes.  His shoes were falling apart!  I promised Rhosa that I would provide him some new size-3 shoes.  All the kids’ shoes/sandals are pretty shoddy.  Their toes hang out and their feet are filthy.  I would like to provide ALL the children with new shoes and socks before the winter.  I think my La Jolla/PB ward would jump at the chance to help in that effort. Nothing too valuable though, because they will just end up selling them.  I want to see these kids wearing the shoes I procure for them.

The children’s hands are filthy too.  My friend Pete once pulled out a handwipe and cleaned a girl’s hands. She admired her clean hands like she has never seen them so clean in her life!  I can tell that they do not shower often if ever, and they do not use deoderant either. The kids are dirty and they stink!

One widow in blue burka with a small boy beggs outside the gate.  “Please, my baby sick.  Need money for docotor.  My baby sick.”  Her toddler does not look fatally sick to me, but his belly is round and protruding like he might be undernourished.  His cheeks are dry and chapped.  Looks like he has outgrown his clothes, and he could use some shoes like the other kids.  He is an adorably cute kid, though.  They all are very beautiful children with strikingly gorgeous eyes.  It is hard to tell them no.

If the children are any gauge of the effectiveness of our efforts here, then I would say we still have a long way to go as for “winning the hearts and minds”, or as I prefer to put it “earning their trust and confidence”.  There is a school between the camps and while walking by the other day, a child shouted, “F@*& you!” at us several times as we passed.  Another boy on the streets called my friend a “bad man”.  A US Air Force Captain offered two boys a chocolate candy bar that he split into two for them.  One boy ate and enjoyed but the other refused and swatted the candybar away.  He did not trust us Americans.  This distrust no doubt is transferred down from his elders.  We have a long way to go here even in the capital city.

Was at the U.S. Embassy pool one night when I heard several explosions.  My swim companion decided it was time to get back to our respective camps once he noticed that the security guards on the grounds had doubled.  Sure enough once we got to our camps, the take cover sirens sounded.  There was a rocket attack at the Kabul air base.  The next morning there was a suicide bomber attack in a Kabul hospital dining facility that killed 6 and wounded twenty.

Such a world that the people of Afghanistan live in!  Can you imagine raising your family here? Yet the people are so resilliant to suffer decades of war and unrest that has kept them living in such poor and destitute conditions.  Such a resilliant people to have to fight for survival and to bounce back after so much loss.  We must be successful in our mission here.  We must aid these hard-working people to establish a legitimate central governement and security force of their own.  And that is what just we are doing here.

We serve the Lord’s purpose here too, I believe.  I believe the Lord uses the joint coalition forces here to help establish the conditions of freedom and liberty which will someday allow for the freedom of religion in Afghanistan.  Can you imagine an Afghanistan where Christian Churches, Jewish Temples, LDS Temples and Islamic Mosques can coexist?  When this is at last realized, perhaps we will see a more peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.  At any rate, I do know that the Lord loves the people of Afghanistan as he loves all of His children.  He seeks to bless them and if my service in anyway helps this cause, then I feel blessed and a pleasure to serve.

Your Loving Daughter,
Heather

Jake and Ani’s Trip to the Mojave

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We just got back from a Desert Field Studies Center in the Mojave Desert. We went there as a class for Cuesta College and had a blast!!! We started off the trip by meeting at Cuesta College at 6:30 am on Thursday April 30th. That means we had to get up at 5:00 am. Yikes!

First Gila Monster reported in the area for decades.
First Gila Monster reported in the area for decades.

Good thing our bags were packed and we were ready for the adventure. It took about 5 hours to get there with various stops on the way to see Joshua trees and Juniper trees. We already knew about those Junipers!

After arriving at the Center we got our room assignments, unpacked, and then were off to dinner. After dinner we had a lecture and then off to astronomy. We observed the Moon and Saturn including the rings that night. It was so awesome and really interesting!

Friday was a full and fun day. On Friday we went to the Lava Wash and hunted lizards. On the way to the wash we spotted a Desert Tortoise on the side of the road. It was about 8 inches long and estimated to be 20 years old. When we got to the site we started out lizard hunting. This entailed tieing a slip knot with dental floss at the end of a car antenna and catching all you could find. Neither Jake nor I caught any that day, but we had so much fun trying. After all was caught, we observed them and documented our findings.

Here we are upon arrival at the Desert Studies Center
Here we are upon arrival at the Desert Studies Center

After lizard hunting we came back to camp and had another lecture about desert fish and then off to dinner. After dinner, and when it was dark enough, we were off to scorpion hunting. Jake and I each had our black lights, which when shined on a scorpion will cause it to become florescent. That was fun until my shoe got caught in some barbed wire. I couldn’t see, and it ripped the front part of my shoe. Im just lucky it wasn’t my leg!

Saturday was our absolute favorite. Jake and I and our class woke up very early and we were off to the Kelso Dunes. Once there, we loaded up on water, our lizard nooses, and sunscreen (which I seemed to forget) and were on our way up the dunes. It was 1.5 miles to the top and 700 ft up – in sand. Jake caught a Leopard Lizard on the way up. He noosed it, and then wrestled it to the ground. Maybe not that extreme but it was a big lizard and it was quite the sight. We continued on our way and it was getting harder and harder for me.

I wanted to quit several times but Jake was there cheering and encouraging me on. Did I mention how wonderful he is? We both made it to the top and what an experience it was! Seeing the 360 degree view of the dunes was breathtaking. I would do it again! We also saw another tortoise at the dunes. After the dunes we visited the Vulcan Mines. It was awesome to see all the Iron filled rocks.

On our way back from that we see our instructor slam on his brakes and pull over to the side of the road (we saw this with the first desert tortoise). We assumed it was a large snake or something. We all get out and it was a Gila Monster. This was awesome because there have been no Gila Monster sightings recorded in 40 years.

Our instructor, who specialized in Herpetology, was in a state of euphoria. It brought him to tears. It was so incredible to see. We came home today after a 5 hour car ride. I would do it again in a second. We both learned so much about the desert life and would love to learn more in the future. Here are the photos from our trip. Hope you enjoy them!

A hymn and a court of honor

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I know that “America the Beautiful” has been in our hymn books as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of it as a hymn to God. After all, it is stuck at the back of the hymn book (#338) with the likes of the “Star Spangled Banner” (#340) and “God Save the King” (#341), and we tend to dust it off in summer and forget abut it the rest of the year.

So that song’s status as a hymn has just not impressed itself on my mind and heart, the way say “I Stand All Amazed” has and does.

That is, not until Tuesday evening.

Immediately following the invocation at her nephew’s Eagle Scout court of honor AnnaLisa Stratton sang the hymn, solo and a capella. Her rendering of the hymn – all four verses – was as much a prayer as the invocation offered by her brother-in-law, Lance. He had prayed, among other things, for a spirit of patriotism to be felt by those present.

When AnnaLisa concluded “America the Beautiful,” there was a silence and a discernible spirit of God and country so strong, that for several seconds no one moved (if they even breathed) until Eagle Candidate Cameron Nettle’s soccer coach Donny Matticks started clapping and urged all to join. 

The Nettles: Zachary, Shelley, Cameron and Steve
The Nettles: Zachary, Shelley, Cameron and Steve

That spirit tangibly invoked the theme of Cameron’s court of honor. It is a theme expressed in the Scout Oath, which begins “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country….”

On the patriot side of things, Cameron’s uncle Scott, a fighter squadron commander in the U.S. Air Force and himself an Eagle Scout, recited the oath as he spoke of God and country and of leadership. 

The Oath also speaks of helping other people and of obeying the Scout Law, a collection of 12 principles to guide moral behavior. Cameron’s grandfather, Lorum Stratton, himself a former Scoutmaster, gave a demonstration on the Scout Law. Aided by six Scouts in his demonstration, Grandpa Stratton identified in Cameron’s life 12 men who exemplified each one of those virtues until all 12 virtues were described.

Cameron’s high school soccer coach spoke of Cameron’s leadership and teachability.  Another of Cameron’s uncles – Jess Karren, who was cited by Grandpa Stratton as an exemplar of bravery in his service as a peace officer – provided the benediction.

It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so of a Tuesday evening, and inspired gratitude for the blessings of God, of this nation, and of the Boy Scouts of America.