(no subject)
Yesterday I found out that my great-uncle is suffering from the final stages of Lou Gehrigs disease. Up until about a year ago, he was the most active man of his age I had ever met. I'd guess that he's in his early eighties, but he still played tennis regularly, went on cruises with his friends, and-- a few years after the death of my great-aunt (the one who passed away at the Beau Rivage Casino one night) he became romantically involved with a very active lady. The next thing we knew, he was having back trouble and needed surgery. I saw him a few weeks before his surgery and was stunned-- the healthy, active man that I had known was hesistant, unsteady, and frail. Now I'm told that he might not make it through the week.
Bill Jones served with Naval Intelligence during the Korean War. He spent part of his time in Japan, but spent most of his time with the carrier fleet. He was the guy in charge of briefing the bomber pilots if a nuclear strike on Korea was ordered (which seemed like a very real possibility at the time). When the ceasefire came into place, he was brought up to the demilitarized zone and tasked with trying to find a route through the zone that we could use to get American pilots back safely if the hostilities resumed (as seemed likely at the time). He and his team were unable to find any safe route through the demilitarized zone.
After leaving the Navy, he became a successful businessman, living in Chicago and Seattle. He and his wife-- my grandmother's sister-- retired to Mississippi when I was still in elementary school. I never spent much time around Bill Jones when I was young, and now I regret that-- he seems to have lived a fascinating life, and I hope that there are plenty of people who remember his stories.