Saturday, September 01, 2018

Roger Wolcott Hitchcock


1LT Roger Wolcott Hitchcock (4th cousin 2x removed), 88th Aero Squadron AEF, KIA, France, Sep 1918. Recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. Married Alta Icye Williamson in December 1917 just 3 days prior to shipping out for France. She never remarried and there were no children. His DSC reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Second Lieutenant (Air Service) Roger W. Hitchcock, United States Army Air Service, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 88th Aero Squadron, U.S. Army Air Service, A.E.F., near Fismes, France, 11 August 1918, together with John W. Jordan, second lieutenant, 7th Field Artillery, observer; Louis G. Bernheimer, first lieutenant, pilot; James S. D. Burns, deceased, second lieutenant, 101st Field Artillery, observer; Philip R. Babcock, first lieutenant, pilot; Joseph A. Palmer, second lieutenant, 15th Field Artillery, observer; Joel H. McClendon, deceased, first lieutenant, pilot; and Charles W. Plummer, deceased, second lieutenant, 101st Field Artillery, all attached to the 88th Aero Squadron, Air Service. Under the protection of three pursuit planes, all carrying a pilot and observer, Lieutenants Bernheimer and Jordan, in charge of a photo plane, carried out successfully a hazardous photographic mission over the enemy's lines to the River Aisne. The four American ships were attacked by 12 enemy battle planes. Lieutenant Bernheimer, by coolly and skillfully maneuvering his ship, and Lieutenant Jordan, by accurate operation of his machine-gun, in spite of wounds in the shoulder and leg, aided materially in the victory which came to the American ships, and returned safely with 36 valuable photographs. The pursuit plane operated by Lieutenants Hitchcock and Burns was disabled while these two officers were fighting effectively. Lieutenant Burns was mortally wounded and his body jammed the controls. After a headlong fall of 2,500 meters, Lieutenant Hitchcock succeeded in regaining control of this plane and piloted it back to the airdrome. Lieutenants McClendon and Plummer were shot down and killed after a vigorous combat with five of the enemy planes. Lieutenants Babcock and Palmer, by gallant and skillful fighting, aided in driving off the German planes and were materially responsible for the successful execution of the photographic mission.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Cost of dental care...

About 50 years ago I had 2 taken at a time with only local anesthetic. Each time the gum had to be cut away to access the teeth and the teeth drilled and split with a chisel to get them out of the jaw. The dentist actually got up on the chair and leaned against me to get the right angle on the work he was doing. Then I was stitched up and sent home with a latex glove which had frozen water in it. They did give me a prescription for codeine pain pills (IIRC). Chew on the one side they said, the stitches will dissolve (its NEW) they said. 6-10 months later a piece of tooth migrated out of the gum and was discovered when I bit down on a pancake. Given the value of the dollar today I would think that the price you've been quoted is entirely reasonable

The public condition...

There are any number of politicians who will unabashedly lie to any and all to pursue their own self interest. We, the people, win only in as much as we can connect their self-interest with ours. For some of these politicians, controlling others is part and parcel of that self-interest. There is now a huge swath of citizenry who either believe they will benefit or are so pitiably ignorant of basic scientific, economic, historical, and parliamentary facts to do anything but follow them blindly. Of course, people in every "sector" of the range of opinion believe that they are THE ones who are not "those" people. Historically, that close mindedness inevitably results in some sort of violent resolution. I am not looking forward to that.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Mondays don't get me down...

My sister posted about Monday which I think was a bit sarcastic in her "praise" of the day. Maybe the years of working all days of the week with days "off" on any day of the week, sometimes seemingly at random, and duty on many holidays the identification of Monday with drudgery has been muted in my mind. While I know that Monday is generally a day of the week demeaned by most as the day one MUST return to WORK, I like it. It is always a day of new beginnings, of opportunities. Today is Monday! I get another chance to renew and make new friendships, to learn, to solve problems/puzzles. I GET to work and I like it.