May be a period of heavy training rains with the rivers rising but we had just one good soaking all summer so far and did bring flooding . Corpus will get the frontal brunt and Houston the counter clockwise NE side heavy flow. Aug 1980 we were taking a week vacation at Corpus Christi Beach across the bridge while my mom watched Tom. Sandy Shores was a motel type Best Western and we’d a nice unit facing the bay. We watched Allen as it really sped cross the Atlantic to become the biggest Cape Verdi storm ever with lowest pressure recorded. Just kept on a coming right thru the Cuba slot and hit Corpus a giant Cat 5 on 9th and 10th. We left as soon as we could see the bullseye was us and it wiped out the entire beach front vacation home and the Ocean Drive lovely mansions as well. We went back a week later and stayed downtown but the motel unit was filled with sand as was the big pool. Everything got rebuilt much more substantial than before and Sandy Shores became a tower. But the old cheap motel bay fronts were where I taught Tom to surf fish for years instead. Ill winds do blow some good. Build a fire and have some quality time. Sleep at dawn.
Stood in good stead when he was assigned as OB GYN NCO in Charge night time at Keesler AFB Biloxi in 1996. Deliver emergency babies nites and fish for sharks and MS coastal fish in the day.

Had a friend, Jerry, who had a Lugar pistol and a balsa surf board in 1960. Found the 1900’s clever toggle bolt was mechanical mess compared to the same short recoil tilt barrel 1900’s simple 1911 .45 with more power. 9MM simply folded up in line of sight but did absorb recoil in the pistol hand for quick rapid fire. USAF at the time was into S&W .357 with reduced .38 special for aircrews. Near impossible to screw up the double action no safety needed. I got really good in a few years flight training school after school. I could never get up on the board at Santa Cruz point where a lot of the modern development took place in he Woodie wagon era. Damn thing was wild to recapture so who cares. Go ride the Rolley Coaster for thrills and the same girls grab you for safety for the ticket price. Lesson learned. Do what you are good at. No co-ordination need apply.

Subject I know  in my  deepest  heart  recesses  45 years. Did not end at Bastogne Belgium 101st relieved by 3rd Army until 18 Jan full push back.  Meantime along the way George kept busy.

2 years 1972 and  74 I  was the USAF rep at  annual Ettlebruck Patton  Day  where  the Nazi occupation   ended    Dec  25 ’44. Quite an honor  and  2nd  time guest of honor  was Patton  4th  then  a B Gen of tanks  Hood Tx. My role as  Wing  Public Relations  at  Spangdahlem AB  was to  coord the marching units and the USAFE Band (I was a short time  later  asst  conductor but  did not get it  permanent)  and with providing   a ground controller for the   fly  by. We shared duty  with Bitburg AB alt years usually.  Planning  meets  were a  blast at  Hotel de Ville ( city  hall.) with a  grand  feast went on for  hours  of  courses quiche to baked  Alaska  bombe .  City  councilman was a  fellow ,Willie,   wore a  Silver Star  awarded by George himself in  Dec  ’44.  Patton was  demi-god to those  folks  and you know why. Also  in  ’74 I was able  to  bring a  display of  a moon rock  and  space suit allowed to tour  Europe.  Rock was kept  secure in  vacuum  container  but  I took the spare space  suit  home overnight to deliver  at the parade fair site and Tom  age 18 mo got  to wear the clear  plastic  helm. Is an old  picture  somewhere.  We also did  annual  dedication   and fly by  at the  Lux Hamm  Military  Cemetery   for Bulge  killed in special part. Patton Day Sunday weekend had a High Mass in the town church among 500 year old artifacts. I’d studied them in Music History class so knew all the parts but 1st in person They are LONG! Get up sit down kneel get up sit down, rinse repeat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettelbruck

https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memoria … YNAvoWcG18

“he did not see another Christmas. Patton died on December 21, 1945, and was buried in a cemetery in Luxembourg for Americans who died in the Bulge, six thousand of them from his beloved Third Army. It was Christmas Eve.”

Enough to make you cry.

Halloween 2012 we visited the Military Cemetery in Tunis where George led 2 Corps to defeat the axis in N Africa. Same feeling of awe at the sacrifices felt there .

“at Kasserine Pass and El Guettar, American soldiers under Generals George S. Patton, Lloyd Fredendall, and Charles Ryder began to learn the cruel lessons that would carry them into Sicily and Italy and, later, into France and Germany.”
“Held in place by a tenacious enemy defense and irritated by changing instructions, Patton took a hard look at his command. Deciding a personnel change would help, he chose Maj. Gen. Ernest   N. Harmon to lead 1st Armored Division from 5 April. The very next day the enemy made the work of the II Corps easier by withdrawing.”

http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/t … unisia.htm

They were quite a generation.