Collectively, you have all been a big help ... glad we were able to communicate ... especially with those of you who have since "moved on to a low, green tent" (to use a Civil War burial expression).

For current photos taken by computer people with digital cameras . . . this has become easy. The photo file is electronic and any picture can be sent to me, via your computer, as an email attachment. For a large quantity of these its best to send them on a CD or on a USB key memory (the latter I will return to you). For historical 8X10 b&w prints, you will need to scan these to an electronic file or make duplicates at Walgreen, Wal-Mart, etc. Usually . . . Walgreen & Wal-Mart will make a CD for you from photos you bring in and scan on their machines . . . normally that would be a limit of 24 photos at about $5.99 per CD.

Everything has about become electronic and the darkroom has all but faded from the picture. There are negative scanning devices for folks like Ralph Hanna (with will-power above and beyond) to make positive electronic copies of their old negatives. Same difficult procedure for prints. And all the more frustrating as we become older and electronic programs explain less --- which usually results in the reader thinking "Say What?"

DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT, attempt to send me 1) xerox copies of photos or 2) your printer's copies (although some of the circa 2008+ printers are very good). The older printers will not work. Jack Bristol and Col. Fairlamb wasted lots of well intentioned effort this way.

Random hard-copy photo advice: Walgreen now has some great equipment . . . use it, if one is near you. The Wal-Mart 8x10 copying system (at this writing) is a chemical system (and expensive) . . . its snapshot copies, however, are made digitally --- ergo the latter are cheap but their DPI (dots per inch) create a random interference pattern with scanners. These snapshot copies are good buys for everyday distribution but of no use to this web page or for electronic conversion. One more thing on older snapshots, the ones printed on grain-surface paper, thats a real problem for a scanner because of the random light reflectivity. On those, its best to find the old negatives if you can. And if whatever you're looking at is out of focus . . . pass it up. All scanners and all monitors degrade the image, if thats bad to begin with then the results aren't of much use. Sometimes an image is so important that it must be used regardless of condition, but generally not. Tain't easy . . . and good luck.

PS: I have had good luck using a hand-held digital camera to copy a photo or newsprint (even one as small as a thumbnail) in window light, squaring the camera back to the photo plane. Never use flash. When it works, it can stun you. Nothing to lose by trying it. A really neat way to copy things like screened photos in yearbooks. [But a caution --- anything the sunlight passes through will impact the exposure...like dirt and screenwire patterns.] But no cost, no matter how long it takes you to get it right. GCW

My Country Tis of Thee

First performed in public on July 4, 1831, Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to this melody in Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3. At the time, he had no knowledge of the same melody's use for the British national anthem, "God Save the King." It is used here in a ragtime version to honor our WWII 482nd veterans, who liked nothing more than to lightly irritate (rag) the British while serving in the European theater.

"He believes in nothing . . . yet still he does what is right."
The Golden Child (1986)

"I'm a union man from head to toe . . . I'm U.S.A. and C.I.O."
Woodie Guthrie

"I am now mostly a collection of memories ... of my country, my family's freedom, my companions, and my struggles. I am New York City (1961-1963) ... and a product of Woodie Guthrie; Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul & Mary; Martin Luther King; and the Kennedys. Yet, the greatest thrill I can recall came at the end of a midnight work-shift, watching live Neil Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind." I am proud to have served my country and respect the rights of all Americans to peacefully dissent; honored to have set granite military markers over a hundred previously unmarked graves and re-set as many more; determined to represent my Union brothers and sisters with integrity; fortunate to have been friends with the famous in all of the various fields that interested me; and grateful to have lived long enough to recall those precious images, now hazed and dimming. I trust only knowledge and am not religious. Evil is the boogie-man used as Mankind's straw dog ... corruption, greed, ignorance, and bigotry are the problems. I am proud of you all ... those I never met and those I knew personally, now fading from memory. So while I can ... thank you for your service, help with the webpage, and friendship ... thank you so much." [GCW Oct - 2009]

EDITORIAL ASIDE: The following is an article of interest (hopefully) I wrote some years back, with photos, on re-setting a 200 pound Civil War military marker that was totally underground due to flooding. Called "The Raising of Peter Myers." [M/Sgt McIntire's repeated urging for me to find out about my family's Civil War history was ultimately responsible for my doing this work.]

482nd FIS Webmaster: George C. Willick
514 East St., Madison, IN 47250

The decade long, daily research and effort involved in
this website is dedicated to my younger first cousin:
SMSgt Garry Reed Fuller, Vietnam, USAF
September 13, 1941 - December 29, 1988
Arlington National Cemetery