John...

Just received your letter and photographs...thanks? At this point, I'm not sure how well the picture of you will scan..will give it a shot however. If you have another that was taken while you were in the 17th, etc., will be honored to scan and post it. You know...after a "dead bug" game or "late in the night/early in the day" after visiting the Fox and Hare...etc....<grin>...or even one taken on the "bus" out to DYE III...<grin> (For those who haven't had the honor of visiting Sondrestrom...DYE III is around 300 miles out on the ice cap...there is not a bus...however, the "old timers" used to get the new crew members to wait down near the port to catch the bus...to attend the "squadron party" that was being held there at hight....<grin>...sorta like a 17th snipe hunt)

You should enjoy this. I have been furiously searching through my saved e-mail files to find yours about Yellowknife. The story about having to spend the night there brought back memories. After my blood pressure reached 280 over 700, I finally remembered that you had written it yesterday....senility....<grin>. As I recall, I was on the first "gaggle" through Yellowknife...to determine whether or not it would be a good intermediate stop to Greenland. Seems like either two planes were together, or one plane with more than one crew was involved. Anyhow we spent the night...and I will swear that it was in a hotel with a Chinese restaurant attached. The thing that I really remember is that the owner of the restaurant said that he owned a grocery store nearby and that he used up any vegetables that were getting too ripe in the restaurant. That night, we "toured" a bar where all of the locals hung out...loggers...miners, etc. One huge guy...a former punch drunk professional boxer with cauliflowered ears and flat nose...took a "liking" to Major Hamilton. Ralph could not escape him...the guy wanted to buy him drinks...sit with his arm around his shoulders...followed him around the bar like a puppy etc. Boy, was Major Hamilton "------ off." The rest of us laughed until we were crying....<grin>. As you may recall...Ralph Hamilton seemed a bit "straight laced" at times...this broke his composure. Until you mentioned it...I hadn't thought about the "unique" Chinese restaurant for years.

One night going through Yellowknife...our flight engineer went out to do a quick walk around while we were stopped... and didn't return for an inordinate amount of time...20 or 30 minutes. So...Gary Lattin, Lin Dove, and I left to flight deck to search for him in the darkness. We found Sgt. "Redeye" Williams lying on the snow behind the aircraft...with blood around his mouth. We immediately rolled him over...Lin administered CPR (mouth to mouth) and revivived him. Sgt. Williams had to stay in Yellowknife...was hospitalized...and had a bleeding ulcer. Somewhere around this same time...maybe when the two crews were together evaluating the airport...I lived through my first "buddy" start...interesting..

Thanks again...hope this diatribe wasn't too boring...

Until we "talk" again...

-Nolan