Travel The World

Another picture from Nijmegen.  My army buddy and I are posing with a soldier from the Italian military.

This is a great picture!  A little Dutch girl came out to offer us some of her bread as we were marching by.  They really appreciated what we represented--a symbol of the allied troops that liberated their country from the Nazis.

Just thought I'd add this since I'm really getting into my genealogy.  Ancestry.com has a great DNA test that you can associate with others who have also submitted to it.  PS, click on the picture to get a better view.

Here I am with some of my teammates in a pre-march poker game.  Had we known what we were in store for the next day, we might have tried to get more rest.

Prior to the march, teams from various countries had a chance to socialize with other teams.  I believe this group was from Sweden (with the exception of me in the background).

Last week, I found some Kodak disc negatives in an old box that I had forgotten about long ago.  I knew they were from the '80s but had no idea what type of pictures might be on them.  The first challenge was finding a photo shop that could scan them since this type of film went out of style in the late '80's.  Fortunately, I did find a shop but they warned me that doing this would be a bit expensive with no guarantee of the pictures' quality or even if they'd come out at all.  Well, I picked them up yesterday and the quality was relatively good.  The subject was also a pleasant surprise as these pictures were taken in 1984 in Nijmegen, Holland during the annual four-day march.  This event occurs in July of every year and both civilians and military teams participate.  As a matter of fact, my army team was chosen after six months of intensive training and being culled from an original group of about 150 to only 12 participants. ...

A delicious snack after climbing Da-ken mountain near Taichung, Taiwan.

I was digging through an old box the other day and found some Kodak disc negatives from the '80s.  They were given to me by a friend and included pictures of our army team marching in the Netherlands.  I believe he gave these to me after he had had them developed but I never got around to developing them myself.  Anyway, it took me a few days but I finally found a photo shop that could scan them and make copies for me (albeit a very expensive process).  I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow so hopefully, they will turn out well.

Here is the last one from Carnival '85 in Venice.  I especially like this picture because it shows a good view of the harbor and the Adriatic.

Another shot from Venice, 1985!

It's amazing what you can find in old boxes.  I was digging through one the other day and found this picture of two girls dressed up for Carnival in Venice, 1985.  I was visiting there from my home base in Augsburg, Germany during my time in the army.  Such pictures bring back great memories for me.

On the top, Field Station Augsburg Germany in 1983 when I was 21 years old. On the bottom, just outside Kabul, Afghanistan in 2008 when I was 46.  I'm standing next to a downed MI-24 holding my 9mm. I'd like to go back but I'm afraid I'd never want to leave!