I read the news today, oh boy...

...actually it was everal nights ago I was reading the local newspaper online.
There was a bulletin about a double homicide committed just outside a near a town I spent my teen years living in.

Where I live is certianly not an urban environment, but nowhere is immune to this sort of event anymore.

I was saddened to find one of the names belonged to John, a friend from high school.
He traveled to Florida with me and two others to see the launch of Apollo 16. I'll never forget the screams he made when the shower water hit his beet-red skin after spending the day in that hot Florida sun.

John was in my younger brother's class and was like adopted brother for our high school days, and after.

THIS little adopted brother was a patriot.
He wanted to serve his country so bad, he quit school, and got his parents to sign on the line allowing him to join the U.S. Marines.
At 17, John took part in the evacuation of Hanoi, as the U.S. left Viet Nam in a hurry.
I know that stuck in John's throat, the thought of losing a war, but like all soldiers he knew that a war ran by politicians is never good for the country let alone those fighting it.

Any time he returned home on leave, it was the same old John with a different perspective.
One time when he was home on leave, about 8 of us went to see the Rolling Stones a Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
We 'camped out' all night just out side the stadium... well, we ran around downtown Cleveland all night and checked back at the stadium occasionally to see what thousands of other concert goers were doing.
I'd have probably been terrified to run around an area like that, but the fact that 'John the Marine' was there seemed to give all of us a security blanket that made it fun.


from what the new said, last Friday, John was trying to help the other victim with a problem with her propane tank when the gunman came to kill her.
The shooter was the lady's brother, apparently there was some kind of family dispute and this guy wanted to settle it. John was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I haven't seen John on over 20 years, and this is not the way you want to see an old friend for the last time.
Tomorrow, I am going to his funeral to say a last goodbye.