Fathers Day

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RODGER L. McAlister, First Lieutenant, United States Army, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary heroism in action on 18 December 1966, while leading a section of aerial rocket artillery helicopters on a medical evacuation cover mission, in the Republic of Vietnam. The intended pick-up zone was surrounded by enemy automatic weapons positions, making it extremely dangerous for the medical helicopter to land. Using his own aircraft as a target for the hostile fire, Lieutenant McAlister led the medical helicopter into the area. Boldly flying into the face of the enemy, he was immediately taken under fire from three directions. His action diverted the enemy’s attention, and the medical helicopter was able to land and board casualties. In order to get the heavily loaded aircraft out of the pick- up zone, he again flew low over the enemy positions, exposing himself to heavy fire. Once again the decoy maneuver was successful and the medical helicopter was able to depart the area without sustaining casualties. He then braved the hostile fire for a third time to engage the enemy with rocket and machine gun fire, succeeding to destroy two of the positions. Lieutenant McAlister’s courage and determination under fire stand in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army. Rodger L. McAlister is a member of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society.

We head out for another hot day with temperatures into the high 80s and a humidity probably higher than that. At least now we are seeing the end of the light for our project and what a difference it has made. Were tossing around the idea of actually being able to finish up the whole project a day early and taking Friday afternoon and Saturday morning off to relax before heading back to La Ceiba on Saturday afternoon. At this point all of the woodworking is done save for a few trim details and the group is focused to paint and clean. Everyone has a brush, including Anna Nariz who is happy to help as she deftly maneuvers with her crutches and paints the borders around the windows.

We would get everything to about 95% and come back the next day to simply touch up the areas that we didnt notice yet. That night we would join all of the missionary families for a night of fellowship in the chapel. Everyone brings some sort of dish … Lizzie made some rediculously delicious graham cracker/oatmeal/iciing concoction. Why I did not get the recipe I will never know. They have a whole band with Dr Jeff playing guitar, one of their sons playing drums (quite well I might add), a keyboard player and Dr. Rosanne playing flute and singing with some of the others.

My dad would be the keynote speaker that night, which I knew would be entertaining because my old man can talk … a very social person and can make a new friend just about anywhere. While I figured I would know much of the material beforehand I was a bit surprised when we launched into a description of some major events in his life, that I knew nothing about at this point, which helped to develop the spirituality within him. I think everyone was duly impressed with his talk … even his (chronically embarrassed) son.The night ended with a few more games of cards around staff housing as we started to see our trip coming to an end. One more light day of work and then some rest and relaxation!!