H-34 Charlie's busy summer, part two, 2014

H-34 Charlie has had a busy summer.

Fist she was in the Lost in 50's parade and old car show (see previous posts.)

Following the Lost in 50's activity, she "supervised" the veteran's Stand Down at our local fairgrounds June 14th.  At our Stan Down we provided surplus



military gear to about 1100 veterans, and fed almost 700 free meals for the attendees. It was a dreary day with a light rain falling, but a little moisture did not deter the veterans.

Here is a picture of Charlie at the "receiving" line. The Marine Corps League had a recruiting tent next to Charlie. We made some new friends but did not recruit one new member.

Our local VFW post No. 2453 managed the Stand Down, and Marine Corps League Detachment #1110 provided the tasty food. Chapter 890 of the Vietnam Veterans of America provided much of the funding for this event. GREAT JOB, GUYS!  Good working together.

This is our big veteran event for the year, and is always greatly anticipated.
We have a lot of veterans here in Northern Idaho who pretty much hide out in the woods most of the time and they do not come into town often. They tend to be poor, so it is a nice thing to have a place where they can get boots, cold-weather gear and sleeping bags. Our winters here can get very cold.

Here is Charlie pre-positioning at the fairgrounds the night before. Marine Corps League member and former Commandant Everett Wood has become our most experienced tow-meister. That did not prevent a minor tree-strike on the way home from the 4th of July parade!  more on that next post.

After the Stand Down Charlie returned to her nest at the NORTHWEST AUTO BODY storage area on GN road, out behind Sandpoint airport (SZT, for you aviators out there).

Blatant Commercial Plug here:
If you live in our area, and
if you need any kind of auto body work or windshield repair NORTHWEST is your place to go. With their new facility out in Ponderay, it is even more convenient to use their courteous, professional shops to have your auto body and windshield needs met. If you use them, please be kind enough to say to them that you appreciate their generosity for letting Charlie live in their storage yard for free.

At the end of the stand down, the Marine Corps League ran out of BBQ beef on toast to make sandwiches. I ran to the store to buy more, but the store had no BBQ beef at all.  I asked for help even, and the asst. manage came to assist, but no luck.  I had to buy some canned hash and we made a field expedient substitute for BBQ beef by adding catsup to the hash.  We borrowed a name from my wife daughters for this treat, calling it Hash La Too-sha  see video, Marine Corps League member Vivienne S. speaking:

A quick note here, after 24 and a half years, I am in the final, final, final, final stages of finishing my book, 

"ADVENTURES IN HELICOPTER FLYING"

"Flying the H-34 in Vietnam for the United States Marine Corps."

I will be posting asap when it is available on Amazon Books.  SOON!

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