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AIS MILITARY MEMORIAL HONOREES
IN MEMORY AND TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO SO PROUDLY SERVED FOR THEIR COUNTRY.
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Texas Veterans Voice Newsletter
Spring 2008
Veterans Land Board Breaks Ground for Veterans ..Abilene Cemetery
Must have Adobe PDF Reader friendly program to view newsletter via URL address.
Click on:
Texas Veterans Land Board at >>>
http://www.glo.state.tx.us/vlb/docs/vetvoice/vetsvoicespring08.pdf
http://www.glo.state.tx.us/vlb/docs/vetvoice/VeteransVoiceFall05.pdf
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Veterans Helpful Links:
24 HR VETERANS & DEPENDENTS SUPPORT NO MATTER WHAT IT IS!
Sick kid, sick dog, can't get there because the car is broke down, etc.
CALL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 1-800-342-9647
http://www.militaryonesource.com/skins/MOS/home.aspx
VA benefits application
http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/main.asp
Veterans Troop Support at Home.. Links
http://www.glo.state.tx.us/vlb/HolidayTroopSupport.html
Texas Veterans Commission
http://www.tvc.state.tx.us/
Texas Veterans Land Board
http://www.glo.state.tx.us/vlb/
www.beproudtexas.com 1-800-252-8387
Check out details special low-interest up to $325,000 for home, land $80,000 and home improvement projects up to $25,000.
Texas State Veterans Homes:
exclusively for veterams, spouses and Gold Star parents
Texas State Veterans Cemeteries:
Killeen, Mission, Abilene
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"God Bless America..The Movie"
Dedicated to all Veterans who have served........
Copy and paste the following url address into your address bar. Click the refesh key and to download the movie and play.
http://www.dayspring.com/movies/view.asp?moviename=america.swf
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VETERANS HONOREES
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Chris Kreis, U.S. Navy 24 years, retired, Deceased December 12, 2006.
AIS member.
Nancy Kreis, loving wife, writes a Memorial in tribute.
Herman W. "Chris" Kreis, was a Quality control engineer/inspector who was Projects Manager at INTECO ( International Inspection & Testing Corporation) in Japan for 13 years.
He was in Houston, Texas for approximately 12 years as District Manager for Chicago based Robert W. Hunt Company for his supervisor Abdon Bray. Until last December 2006, he was a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties in Kailua, Hawaii. Prior to these professions, he served in the U.S. Navy, mainly, submarine during world War II, Korean War and other conflicts for 24 years. The picture taken by Life Magazine photographer, Chris as the diving officer with two crewmen watching the diving plane indicator aboard USS BATFISH has been on display at the National Submarine Musem in Washington, D.C., Adml Chester Nimitz Museum, Fredericksburgh, Texas; recent DVD by Fox News with Oliver North's War Story-Submarine series the same picture was shown two times. Chris and a few actual Navy men appeared in the movie, starring William Holden in "SUBMARINE COMMAND".
I am going to present leis to the memorial plaque of 52 WWII submarines and 3000 crewmen in eternal patrol at the SUbmarine Base in Pearl Harbor Naval Base tommorrow, May 28, 2007. Many people and news media focus on Punchbowl National Cemetery or Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery, though little know about submariners quietly holding annual memorial ceremony at Sub-Base in Pearl Harbor. Afterall, one in four ratio, submariners were killed during the great war, yet 55% of the enemy ships were destroyed by submariners. All men were volunteers, not drafted ones then.
In memory of my husband I cordially submit Chris' memorial ceremony program you.
Aloha & Mahalo,
Nancy Kreis
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Reaccount of Military Tour of Duty:
SPECIALIST 5th Class. Floyd Atkinson
Floyd Atkinson served his time in the military during the Vietnam\ Era in the Texas Army National Guard in the 236 th Engineers located in Victoria, Texas. It was a wheeled vehicle, transport and bridge building mechanized military unit at first. The military company then became double Military Occupation Status (MOS) in June 1973 and became Company A, attachment of the 49 th Armor Group of Ft. Hood, Texas. They all under went additional schools of training in how to operate, load, fire and command the M60-A1 Abrams type Armored Tank during two weeks summer camp training. They met at the armory at the Red River Street location in Victoria, Texas once a month for a weekend training sessions during the reserved status duty time.Some of the technical sessions consisted of M60-A1 lubrication points on the tanks, how to assemble the 60 caliber weapon,military code of justice, camoflouge technics, equipment maintenance records practices and safe convoy transportation practices. The annual two weeks training time was at Camp Bullis, North of San Antonio, Texas and at training centers at Fort Hood, Texas near Kleene, Texas.
Tours of duty include hurricane duty and community service watch programs. One such duty was after Hurricane Celia, a category 3 hurricane, moved in at Corpus Christi, Texas on August 3-5, 1970. The State of Texas Governor called in the Texas Army National Guard Units from Victoria, Alice and Edna, Texas to perform community service time on the mission to render aid in search and rescue missions in securing and stabilzing the areas of Corpus, Christi, Rockport, Taft and Ingleside, Texas areas immediately after the hurricane blew through. August 3, 2006 marks 37 years since Hurricane Celia, blew through Corpus Christi, packing winds of 130 miles per hour, with wind gusts as high as 170 mph. The tornadoes and hurricane winds flattening homes, turned trailer homes upside down with the anchor cables still attached and knocked down power lines at the neighboring towns of Alice, Taft and Ingleside, Texas.
Trailer homes in the Ingleside, Texas area are revealed as many as eight persons which lost their lives to the ravages of the hurricane damages in a trailer park there.
He served as a fuel transport truck dispenser operator performing a vital service to provide 6000 gallons of diesel and 3000 gallons of gasoline fuel from the local Gulf Oil Fuel terminal in Victoria, Texas (open 24 hours) for the Ingleside, Rockport and Corpus Christi, Texas areas for use in their military vehicles and the Texas Department of Public Safety Vehicles. Hazardous duty was a four-hour sleep time per night until the areas was declared secured. He had no mobile radio communications to base camp to provide him communications and assurance of safe passage for equipment and his co-driver. He had the duty and mission to deliver the fuel no matter what. The only communication chain was the DPS radio and the company commander.
He had to drive across frayed electrical high power lines which were sometimes laying along or upon the highways. The sparks would fly as he drove around and sometimes over them. I am thankful for Guardian angels which surely watched out for him and his co-driver then. Some of the most rewarding times for him he says were, "the satisfaction of helping the people of the area of Rockport, Texas area." He told us about a "miracle" rescue of one little old lady and her son which were removed from their home. The house was still in tact after the hurricane. It was sitting constructed upon the dike adjacent to and overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in Rockport, Texas. The rescue was an old lady and her son. The ladies son had held his body weight against the front door of the house as the ravages of the hurricane from the Gulf of Mexico had washed the insulation from the walls of the house. The insulation was redeposited on the inside face of the walls surface. The insulation was seawater soaked and the young fellows mother lie in the bed with a dislocated hip and no one seemingly to help rescue them. Floyd then assisted other fellow National Guardsmen and the DPS search and rescue team remove her down the dike with a borrowed hospital wheel chair to the awaiting DPS car to deliver her to the Rockport, Texas Hospital. Floyd then refueled up all the DPS cars which were parked around the hospital as directed by his company commander. The local Rockport Hospital had had the roof torn off of it from the ravages of the hurricane and tornadoes. A make shift plastic sheathing was used as a roof to repel water and misting rain on a portion of the hospital roof. The little old lady could lie in the bed at night and see the stars from her hospital room as the storm had passed. The little old lady's son sat down beside her bed at the hospital with cuts and bruises upon him thinking how it was such a miracle.
All was quite after the three day tour of duty at the Texas coastal towns and Floyd was back at home to get the much needed sleep.
Floyd received his honorable discharge from the Texas Army National Guard, 236 th Engineers / Company A, 5th Battalion Armor National Guard (detachment of Fort Hood, Texas), June 25, 1976, as a specialist 5th class. Floyd was asked to re-enlist but turned it down due to family obligations.
Respectfully submitted by: Kathryn Atkinson, current wife of Floyd Atkinson.
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AIS members or family members may send in their Memorial writeup for posting in Memorial to this webpage.
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EDITORAL:
We in the United States of America have defended our nation in its cause for the rights to vote, bare arms and promote freedom upon the land we know. We at home believe in the land of the free and the brave to defend our constitutional laws and to restore freedom to those who experience terrorism and tearony.
Please let the editor know if you or any relative you know is serving time in the Afghanstan / Iraq Conflict for freedoms for all people.
If you would send a picture please be advised that I will post it in our Photos Gallery for: "American Inspection Society Members, Relatives and friends serving Military tours of Duty" there. Please indicate the persons military unit attachment and return mail address. The address information will be retained in private for non-publication for privacy protection purposes.
Indicate the persons tour of duty dates, date of photo and what they are doing during their "unclassified information sensitive" tour and something about the photos. Editor has USB 2.0 port for down loadable memory stick purposes for photos, etc. See: CONTACTS" link for return mail or return address for forwarding unclassified data.
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