a man who "flew The Hump" WWII

[Beau]

It is my opinion that we all have more than one father in life ... today a father figure of my boyhood passed over to the other side, an email from one of his sons:

"dad passed away peacefully today at 615am he had A GOOD LIVE and passed away at home .my mom would very much appreciate a card thanks jim
mrs gene e ( )
(address omitted)"

It is my opinion that Mr Horton is now more fully at home, and more himself than he ever was in this plane of existence ... and I am so glad that I went to see him and his wife Gene up in the mountains of Calif last year.

I had always thought that he was a bomber pilot in WWII ... Europe ... but standing there in his cabin (old cabin next to the house he built by himself after retirement) ... I looked at the old posters that he had on the walls and I asked him what he did. He flew 2 engine and sometimes 4 engine airplanes over "The Hump" in the India-China theater ... dangerous enough ... though such action never got the attention that the European pilots got a la "12 O'Clock High". And, according to his wife, he had little boys when they called him back into service for "the Korean action".

A Paul Bunyan of a man to me ... a great cook ... loved his boys and daughter and had his wife forever. I hear she is doing ok with his passing over.

Ah, those forever boy days of runnning into their house (before he got his mountain home away from "the rat race" as he put it ... run into their kitchen for a Kool Aid, or a Lime Icee ... stay over for dinner of some great Steak or a nice Bouliabasse (great cook you were Paul Bunyan ... I recall when I was a Diver ... he said bring some Abalone and he'd cook it up ... sorry I never did ... great Chief ... ) ... sleep over night in the backyard where a Pup Tent was set up, and look at the stars and wonder, if God created them, who created God ... and I think I know the day that his daughter was conceived (on this earth plane) ... the big man came out to the backyard and gave Mike some money for both of us to go to the Matinee ... less than a year later, a baby girl ... I know that was the day.

And I think I see, in my foggy memory of some details ... on their Dresser was a picture of Mr Horton ... of a brown tint sort ... of a man in Army Air Force saucer cap with Captain bars ... maybe that image is a trick of memory. But I don't think so ...

I can't ever call you "Bob" Mr Horton ... and you probably think of me as Bobby "just one of the little shits running around your home" ... and thats cool with me. I never flew the Hump Mr Horton ... but I know you read my letter and it had that picture of me riding a flat bottomed Army riverboat near the DMZ ... with my .50 cal ... and Steel Pot and Flak Jacket ... when you saw that picture, did you breath in deep through your nostrils and atleast subconciously feel pride in me ... little Bobby, one of the little shits ... I hope you did.

I was tempted to post the picture of you that I took last year ... not this time ... but I will post a doodle that I took that is both imaginal and real ... of the time before shipping out to Bitnam when I went to church with the Kellers, in my Class A uniform ... I think it says things ... in what Blue Yonder you pilot in now, it is probably just like going home "our life is but a sleep and a forgetting ... not in entire forgetfullness, but trailing clouds of glory ..." [I think throughout life, we remain connected to the other side ... sometimes, in sleep perhaps, or in Alzheimers ... we go more fully to the other side in this earthly plane ... it may appear that we are not concious ... but we are "somewhere else, not here").

If yah can, Mr Horton ... in spirit, tell me when to bank left, rudder down ... there is still this battle of Powers and Principalities as one Good Book says ... and I am in the fight.

I will write that card ... and I will see Gene ... I will.

Bobby

[DMZ-LT]

[MARINEVET]

I remember you telling me about this trip in an Email last year...think you may have included a couple photos...can't remember for sure.

Do recall seeing this sketch tho!

He's in a much better place, and time is just a thing...we'll all be mustering with him on Heaven's Scenes...someday....

Semper Fi to Capt Horton....

[Beau]

yes, it was appropriate to post this in the family group ... I talked to momma Horton last night and she sounds ok ... she told me she wrote up something for the papers ... how do you capture a life in a brief column. I told her I would try to visit her ... lives way back in the backwoods alone now but she is busy, she says.

Funny ... of all the things the Obit captures, it captures mostly his military time and some pretty good medals:

11 -8-2006

Robert James Horton, 86, , formerly of Remer, Minn., died Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006, at his home on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.


He was born Aug. 26, 1920, in Remer at the Horton family farm. He married classmate Gene Elizabeth Rogers June 28,1942, in Cass Lake. He immediately left for U.S. Army Corps (later the U.S. Air Force) cadet training and graduated from Marianna, Fla., Class 43D. He trained in single engine planes. He was assigned to Denver, Colo., and trained there in twin engine aircraft with United Airlines. He was reassigned to the CPI and was stationed in Karachi, India. He flew "The Hump," a route over the Himalayas delivering fuel to troops in China, and then returning to India with troops or cargo. He returned from the CPI and was promoted to captain. He was discharged in November 1945. In 1950, he was recalled to the service during the Korean conflict and flew B-26, C-46 and C-47 aircraft. He was stationed in Japan while his family remained in El Paso, Texas.


In civilian life, he worked for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. When he retired in 1979, he was manager of quality assurance for the Laboratory Nuclear Test Program. He continued as a consultant for 10 years and then fully retired in 1990.


While in the military, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal, Presidential Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation and two Battle Stars for the Asiatic Pacific Theater Medal.


He is survived by Gene, his wife of 64 years; two sons, Bob and Jim Horton; one daughter, Alexis Hummel; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.


He was preceded in death by his parents; and one son, Van Michael.


In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to the American Cancer Society.

[DMZ-LT]

[urbsdad6]

Hand Salute! Nuff said!

Doc Urb

[Margaret Diann]

He saw enough 'action' to be affected by the chemicals of explosives.

(What cancer did he have?)

I have a theory that the WWII Vets hold answers to the health issues of today's baby boombers (their children) and to all major war periods since.

No statistics for WWII Vets I've been told.

I suspect they look like the Vietnam Vets, the Korean Vets, the 'gulf war syndrome' vets, today's vets ... even WW I vets

I think they all have the same chemical of harm, but not nearly the Presumptive Lists for disability approval:

Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome CFIDS should be there after FLU

Soft tissue sarcoma

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Hodgkin's disease

Porphyria cutanea tarda

Respiratory cancers (lung, larynx, trachea)

Prostate cancer

Multiple myeloma

PCT is a liver disorder characterized by thinning and blistering of the skin

Hepatobiliary cancers, Nasal/nasopharyngeal cancer, Bone cancer

Female reproductive cancers (breast, cervical, uterine, ovarian)

Renal cancer, Testicular cancer, Leukemia, Spontaneous abortion, Birth defects

Neonatal/infant death and stillbirths, Low birthweight, Childhood cancer in offspring

Abnormal sperm parameters and infertility

Cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders

Motor/coordination dysfunction

Peripheral nervous system disorders

Metabolic and digestive disorders (diabetes, changes in liver enzymes, lipid abnormalities, ulcers)

Immune system disorders (immune modulation and autoimmunity)

Circulatory disorders

Respiratory disorders

Skin cancers, Gastrointestinal tumors (stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer), Bladder cancer, Brain tumors

Also should include skeletal & degenerative discs - Any autoimmune issue of any body system or organ or gland

ONE CHEMICAL EXPOSURE DOES ALL of the ABOVE

Which 'group' do you think put forward this list of their health concerns? ... after serving in which war?

Web page of all the 'same' health issues