PCGS board members may recall that on September 17, 2008 a Chinook helicopter carrying Cpl. Michael E. Thompson went down in western Iraq.  Lost with Cpl. Thompson were the remainder of his Red River 44 flying unit, part of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, including fellow sons of Oklahoma Chief Warrant Officer Brady. J. Rudolf and Sgt. Daniel Eshbaugh as well as Sgt. Anthony Luke Mason, 1st Sgt. Julio Ordonez, Chief Warrant Officer Corry A. Edwards and 1st Lt. Robert Vallejo II all of Texas.  The connection that Cpl. Michael E. Thompson had to many of us on the PCGS boards is that our fellow board member, BRdude, was his father.  Continue...

I live close enough to the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site (SGNHS) such that my wife and I have visited several dozen times over the years and we have brought our daughters there numerous times, too.  In general, we drive out to the SGHNS at least twice and up to four times during the year.

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