Sitting at the breakfast table I noticed a Cash-Wa Distributing semi-trailer pass by.

Ann conjectured that they had been unloading supplies at the Senior Center. I am reminded that at last Council meeting, seniors present were stating that the Senior Center does not compete with businesses in town.

Actually the subject was renting the Senior Center for special events and the fear that if alcohol was allowed on the premise, they would then be competing against the Republican Valley Event Center, the Knights of Columbus and others.

The comment was made that proprietors felt threatened when they have to compete against "government." Good point.

However the Senior Center's specialty is community meals served at a low price to qualifying customers, hence the "senior" appellation.

It seems to me that the Senior Center does indeed compete against local restaurants where the seniors would otherwise eat or grocery stores where they would buy supplies for home cooked meals. Cash-Wa is not a local business so if the Center buys from them, they are not buying local either.

Yes I am aware that the Senior Center and the volunteers who deliver do a great community service by providing home delivered meals for 75 to 90 homebound individuals five days a week. Then too the loss of business from people eating subsidized meals at the Senior Center is off set by $83,320 of State and Federal money that flows through the Center.

It seems to me that one of the greatest values of the Senior Center is the socialization that occurs between loyal patrons, guests, volunteers, those who receive "Meals on Wheels" and the employees. So how does one put a $ value on that?

We read about the armed forces badly in needing personnel to bring the action in Iraq to a successful conclusion. It seems to be a distant matter. However one of the most capable ladies that I work with in my corporate job has a daughter who is a former Marine. (Note "former" not "ex-"!) Megan, mother of one and wife to an active duty Marine, lives in Florida, and recently received a recall notice.

She is presently negotiating to see if the Marine Corps is serious about recalling a young mother who has already completed her four year enlistment including a tour in Iraq. At present time she is enrolled in the inactive reserve but has orders to report for active duty in early October to prepare for deployment.

Megan's recall reminds me of a story told one night on alert by our Squadron Navigator.

Major Patrick McGwinn was a full blooded second generation Irishman from Boston. He had been a bomber navigator in World War II and had jumped from a shot up B-24 off the coast of Italy. With the luck of the Irish it was summer, the water was warm and he was rescued in a matter of minutes. Pat wasn't the best of navigators, I think motivation was a factor, but he had wonderful life experiences to share.

Round about 1950 Pat was a civilian going to school in Phoenix. The Korean War was heating up and the Air Force needed flight crew qualified personnel. At the appropriate date and time stated in his recall notice Pat was sitting in a large room at Luke AFB listening to a young captain explaining to about twenty equally bewildered officers how the recall was going to work. All present had two choices, they could be processed in to active duty that afternoon or with very extenuating circumstances they could have up to two weeks to get their affairs in order and then come on active duty.

Pat said the young captain called the role alphabetically asking each person's preference. Surprisingly the majority were willing to come on active duty immediately. When he got to the "G's" a pilot stood up and told the captain that he needed a two month delay before coming on active duty. Pat said the haughty personnel captain harangued the two choices:

"You can come on duty immediately or you can have at maximum of two weeks delay!"

At which the slim pilot stood up holding a finger erect to represent the captains intelligence and stated "(expletive deleted) you Captain you don't know what you are talking about! I have a large department store in downtown Phoenix named Goldwater's that I have to arrange for management in my absence and I will come on active duty two months from now!"

With that Colonel Barry Goldwater stormed out of the room.

Pat told us that he had never heard of Barry Goldwater but noted then and there that he was a man to be reckoned with. Barry indeed came on active duty two months later.

He didn't serve on active duty too long though, as he was elected United States Senator in 1952 and reverted back to reserve status, from which he eventually retired with two stars.

Personally, I think Goldwater would have made a much better president than the incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he ran against in 1964.

I remember Johnson promising that a vote for Goldwater was a vote for going to war in Vietnam. Then about the first thing Johnson did when voted back into office was to trump up an excuse to go to war in Vietnam.

Many times I heard fellow crewmembers in Vietnam declare that they sure were glad that Goldwater didn't get elected because we would be in Vietnam!

It will be interesting to see if Megan goes back to war in a Marine uniform and if Joellyn gets to be a full time grandmother/mom to Megan's daughter Summer.

The last I knew we didn't take babies to the war zone but then in my time we didn't take women, either.