Time Passes

Not sure if it is just "getting old" or having a long memory. But either way, sometimes a story just happens to cross my desk that flashes me back in time. This day, it was the story of an Army soldier who wears and has special affection for a bracelet with a Texas soldier's name on it. The name is that of Sergeant James Casey Joyce who was killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in October of 1993. His grandmother was long time Abilene resident and loyal KTAB viewer Mary Galbraith. She passed away a few years ago, but was well known and very active in Abilene. Casey was part of the group of 18 Americans killed on October 3rd during a firefight in which a Blackhawk helicopter was shot down by gunmen of a Somalian warlord. Sgt. Joyce was a part of a ground unit in a Humvee. The movie "Blackhawk Down" is based on what happened to Sgt. Joyce and the 17 other soldiers who died that day.
I did not know Casey, but I did know his grandmother. The story brings to mind the many Americans who have served and died for their country. Proud of all of them.
My recollection is of Somalia. I was there with the 463rd Airlift Wing, Dyess Air Force Base a year before the Blackhawk Down incident. A group of journalists flew to Somalia at Christmas time 1992 to showcase the effort by the United States to save lives. Somalia was in a long drought and thousands of people were dying from starvation. The 463rd flew the C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft from Mombasa, Kenya, up the coast of the Indian Ocean to Somalia. Many flights were to the capital, Mogadishu, but others were to remote airstrips to drop off tons of grain and other food items. Pilots flew low over the runway to scare away animals and make sure the right people were there to pick up the supplies. Navigators made sure we were at the right place. The crew in the back sweated over the cargo, its loading and unloading. It was hot. On my desk in the newsroom, I still have a 1.5 litre water bottle (Kilimanjaro Mountain Spring Water)which everyone carried or kept near by. Drank a lot of water.
I have some great video of the Somalians carrying the heavy bags of grain and putting them in the back of trucks, then taking a break, dancing and singing. Video was used for individual news stories and a half hour special which aired right around Christmas, 1992.
Probably most of the people in those tapes are long gone from the Air Force... That was nearly 20 years ago. Operations Provide Relief and Restore Hope, may have been the name of the operation. The journalists, I was the only one from Abilene television to go, flew there and back in a C-141 from the New Jersey Air National Guard. Altho, on the way home, I hopped on an American Airlines DC-10 at Frankfurt/Rhein-Main and flew non-stop to DFW.
That trip to Africa was one of the many great opportunities I've had to work and travel with the fine folks at Dyess.