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Email Exchange:

POSTED: 6/28/07 from John Fleming... a good friend to many of us.

Hi John

Well I am glad to hear from you and your recollections
bring up some fond memories. I would not give up those years
for all the tea in China.

Do you mind if I put up your thoughts here on the web page?

You know I was going to sneak over to that runway one night
and attempt to fly one of those French single engine planes
on the tarmack... that actually was one of the few things
I did not do.

You know I had to recover the photos for the site from
our families kodachrome slides... so I had the reverse image,
but I can easily reverse them and I will. thanks for the tip.

My Best...

John David


John Fleming wrote the following message:

John David - I hadn't heard from you in a while and I have a new
email address and wanted to update you. Hope all is going
well with you and your family. It's hard to believe that we
are both over 60. It seems like just yesterday I was 16 and
you were 14 tearing up the baseball diamond down by the
runway. I may just be getting old but if I could go back to
any time of my life it would be to Morocco. There is a line
in a Waylon Jennings song about Bob Wills that goes, "In spite
of all the hard times, I'd live 'em all again." I'd do it in
a minute. Maybe it is because the mid-teenage years are so
life defining and altering. I came to Morocco on Thanksgiving
Day 1958 and left July 31, 1961. It was less than three
years. There is no other three year period in my life I
remember so well. Some times I have to think hard to remember
what decade things happened in. Thanks for the web site. I
might tell you that the negatives of some of your photos are
reversed. On the dress white uniform the medals go on the
left side.

Keep in touch.

John


 

POSTED: 3/28/05 from Lou Demas (www.PortLyautey.com)

Hi John,

POSTED: 3/16/05 from Bill Waters ('59 - '62)

John David,

     I'm not sure of the exact mileage but I thought that by being here in
Hawaii that I was as far away as one could get from Thomas Mack Wilhoite High
School and still be on planet Earth, yet you still found me!  It appears that
you have found several others from the good old days of long ago as well, nice
going!

     I have been here in Hawaii almost two years now while my wife, Mary,
continues her Navy career in charge of the Navy's  communications throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. I am barely able to get a dial tone much less send electronic messages to someone "over there."  This cyber space stuff is really tough to comprehend.  However, because of the time zone difference, I do know who wins Monday Night Football long before midnight!

     Other than those folks who Bob already mentioned, I can't say that I
have seen too many Kenitra alum's except to say that I did live across the street on two different occasions during my active duty Navy days from Deanna Waters; once in Guam and again in Port Hueneme, Calif. I have seen Deck Waters a couple times since graduation day from USNA and as I now recall Beth Hood also attended my graduation; she lived in the New Orleans area at the time.

         I spent most of my professional life as a professional civil
engineer so any "dirt" that you dig up on anybody will be good!  I can't recall where the waste water treatment plant was on the base but should I ever get back to Port Lyautey someday that will certainly be my second stop after checking out the baseball diamond where we had the most fun.

     My daughter, Wynde, and her husband, Scott, (and kids) live in St
Augustine, FL and are both Physician Assistants, one in orthopedics and one in
geriatrics, and my son, Jeff (and his wife Kate), live in Atlanta where Jeff is the
area manager for Kendall Jackson Wineries.  So you can see that I have it
made in my fast approaching (maybe have already arrived?) golden years. Maybe we can all sit around one day telling Morocco stories at the old folks home while sipping on a fine, KJ cholesterol reducing red wine, popping an aspirin or two to make that new plastic hip joint feel better and reflecting on what a great time it was to be overseas with such a great bunch of friends.

     Aloha for the moment,
     Bill
 

POSTED: 3/2/05

Neal Colvin
Dorothy Culjat
Lou Demas
Mike Hatfield
Pat Parker Monk
Dennis Porter
Sandy Sanford
Alice Scully
Bob and Bill Waters

Hi Folks...

  Honestly, I am thrilled to hear from each
of you! I am still working on sending personal
followup emails to each of you.

 Please do not be upset that I am sending you
an email "en masse"... I wanted to announce that
I have started the process of putting new PL
slides on our PL internet site [second page
just added yesterday]:

  www.jupiterspacestation.org/portlyautey

 Dorothy Culjat has promised me some photos
to put up and Alice Scully has sent me
16 shots of the Morocco 2004 reunion, and
I will be working on scanning those and
putting them up, as early as this weekend.

  I have put something about each of you in
this email.

 Well in the last few months I have heard
from five old friends: Bob Waters, Alice Scully,
Neal Colvin, Pat Parker Monk, and Dennis Porter.

 I thought that I would share some excerpts
from each of you with you all...

 First, Alice:  Updated info coming...

  With this lead I called Bob Waters at work:

Second from Bob:

"John -- I forwarded this to Bill and look forward
to  catching up with you  and exploiting your website.
I'm glad Alice helped you locate me. Maybe there is an
on-site reunion in our futures. I've never been back
and really regretted I couldn't make the excursion
Deck Waters ( he was in the same USNA class as Bill
and me, and Paul Bacon) and Alice went on a few
years ago. But, it's almost Golden Years Time with
Bill and me turning 60. "Jimmy", our younger brother,
is 51, and he got back to the base  in the 70s before
it closed when he was still a "junior year abroad"
french student at UNC -- with two girlfriends, who a
Moroccan  they encountered wanted to puchase from
Jim, but the price was too low because the guy only
offered an ox and a couple of donkeys or something
like that as I recall . ( Jim's a major Tarheel fan
as is my father; how's their 2005 recruiting class
look to you, as I see you are a football recruiting
expert?)  Speaking of the base and the area, if
you read  history, there is a fabulous bit of
WW II  Port Lyautey history in "An Army At Dawn", now
in paperback and published about 2 years ago
author Rick Atkinson, if I have the spelling correct).
You might want to reference it in your website. Nothing,
however, about  our school's namesake. More correspondence
to come."

Hey Bob... suggest to Bill that I know he too graduated
from Anapolis where they probably taught him
correspondence skills... [Bill married a Navy
Captain (female) and lives in Hawaii; [Roxanne and
I need to know people who live in the Pocanos or Hawaii]

Everyone: let me know if I can get your
permission to put these excerpts up on our
web page under posts AND add your names to
the anonymous emailer I have on our site for
people to contact you without giving away
your email address.

This is a hot way hook up with old friends,
especially when Google indexes the names
and topics... How many of us have never
put our name in at Google to see what comes up?

Third, Neal Colvin:

"Viewed your site.  KAHS site disappeared.  I was at TMW
from Sept. 1960 to Feb. 1962.  My dad was stationed
at Sidi Yahia.[Still kicking at 86 and routing for
the Red Sox].  I went back stateside on the same
ship with Beth Hood. I recall a photo of you from
Camp Columbus [Rota] showers found its way to a
TMW HS bulletin board. I enjoyed my stay in Morocco
a lot...sad to leave. I had to do a lot of growing
up while there. Still a dork when I left. We wound
up taking a bus to/from school everyday.  I was part
of the perpetual pinocle game.

Glad to see Sandy never had to do the POW route or worse.
I did Linebacker I and II from the TDY safety of Guam
as an Air Force munitions officer. AC and cold beer. 
   
Anyhow, I live in Florida. I'm gray, 6'4" and way too
large.  I'm a senior trial attorney for Zurich Ins. Co.
I have a daughter who has graduated from college and
is engaged to be married, a son who is a senior in
mechanical engineering, plays lead guitar in a sort
of heavy metal band, and a wife who thinks I'm OK
from time to time. I love them all mucho. Life is good.
Like to "hear" from you ..."

Fourth, Dennis Porter:

"Hi John--WOW--what a surprise!
I am  a Realtor in Pa & New Jersey--I live in the
Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania 1:15 min west
of New York City.

I sell Real Estate, New Home construction and timeshare
foreclosures. www.resortvacationgroup.com  is me.
I guess New Homes keeps the plate full the most.
I have been divorced for over 30 years and still
live alone. I have son who is married and lives in
the Poconos near me..."

Let's see Dennis... single, living in the Pocanos...
OK... sounds like a rough life to me!

Fifth, Pat Parker Monk [Chaplain and Hazel Parker's
daughter]:

"Hey John,

Thank goodness you wrote back.  My computer went on the
blitz and I lost e-mail addresses...............
and have been terribly busy running two
stores to really do any decent replying...

I came back to his hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia,
and lived with my dad's sister and his very famous
niece, my first cousin......V.C. Andrews who
wrote the FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC  books..........
She became quite famous----left a $50 million estate
-------and I am still waiting for my share.... Ha Ha!

 Mother died a couple of years ago---a series of small
strokes all in the same quadrant of her brain left her
almost a vegetable for a while.  It was a blessing
when she finally did pass. Dad, on the other hand,
developed Parkinson's and had dementia in the end.......
which was a little over 10 years ago.  My brothers--I have 3
--- have done well.  Cliff, the oldest is a retired Pulmonary
Specialist and is currently a deepsea fishing captain
of his own rig-----The Big Easy at Cape Hatteras.  You can
see it on the web.  He is the guy who looks like E. Hemmingway!
The twins------Joe doesn't work and has 3 children (one is
6 Years old!!!) and John has one son and sells restaurant "stuff".
As for me, I own a several stores.  I taught school for years
and quit before I killed me a kid!  Middle school was my deal...
.............and those kids are something else now!!!"

For Dorothy:  Dorothy... please send me your
photos with comments so I can scan them and
put them up on the web site... [My Dad took over as
Industrial Relations Officer from Dorothy's Dad]

For Lou: Lou, will send you a separate email
with a picture of my Dad and Mrs Counihan... I
will continue to look for the Capt and Mrs Counihan
photo... also Lou please identify for me the Capt in
the second attached photo... [Lou runs the:
www.portlyautey.com web site]


From Sandy Sanford:

"John D.,
You can't imagine the old memories that these names bring up. My Mom
always spoke fondly of Chaplain Parker. It seems that he had been a
country preacher in my home county (Caroline County, VA). She still
laughs that he could not believe that she knew  the location of
Shumansville, VA.

Neal, it looks like you did well for yourself. Like John said, we all
turned out pretty good.  It was easy to stay out of trouble when one
lived on the base. We had about forty  mothers.
Great to hear from you all.
Sandy"

and Sandy... please send me the Stars and Stripes
picture [baseball shot] for me to scan... I will take
good care of it, I promise...

From Mike Hatfield:

"Apparently, we did have some overlap at PL. I was there until early 1961, but we rotated back before baseball season. We lived off the beaten (Navy) path after we came back. After a 6 month stint at McGuire AFB (more MATS duty) dad got a chance to be the test pilot at Hayes,
International, near Dothan Alabama. That facility was doing overhaul of Navy planes, and dad was the only Navy person there (except a civilian secretary). He had to fly and sign off before the Navy accepted the plane back. He got to be home every night and weekend (except when he
had to make an emergency landing somewhere!)- it was a good deal after VR-24 and McGuire. I left home from there and went into the Air Force (the rebel in me!). Dad went on for two more tours; one in the Panama Canal Zone, and his last was at Andrews AFB flying VIPs. He retired in Harrisonburg, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley. He passed away from cancer in 1979. My mother moved to the Daytona, FL area about a year later and lived there until last year, when I brought her to live with me.

I've been digging through some of her things looking for pictures from PL. I have found a couple so far. One is a picture of our house off base. We lived on the southern edge of town, about a block off the main drag leading to Rabat.

I forgot to mention another person I have corresponded with. Linda Hurl (now Garcia). Her father was an umpire for our baseball league at PL, so if he was there when you played, you may remember him (and her). She lives somewhere in NY State."

Mike, show me the money! [send me the pictures...] Since her Dad umpired all our baseball games... please have Linda send us something...[Linda lived just down the hill from us...]

You guys are all very special...

John

POSTED: 7/30/04 @ 2230 hours

Here are some email exchanges between Sandy Sanford [Ratman], Mike Hatfield and me over the last few months. We hope that a few people mentioned may see some of this post and give us a call.  Also I have added Sandy and Mike to the Spam-free Contact Us page...

******************************
Mike Hatfield to John Bernard and Sandy Sanford:

I like John's idea that we will refresh each other's memory as we do this. Maybe this will spur some others to join in and contribute.

What are you doing at Nellis and Edwards Sandy?   (Don't tell me if you have to then kill me!) That is a different Air Force out there! I was involved with that bunch a little north of Nellis when I was in the Tactical Air Warfare Center- back in the '80s.

Mike


******************************
John Bernard to Mike Hatfield and Sandy Sanford:

Hi Guys...

  Well, well... this internet is a fascinating
place... meeting friends from 42 years ago.

  Mike, I remember you being a starting pitcher
and having a hot fastball... but I always enjoyed
trying to hit Danny Speed's sweeping curve. I will
ring you up Mike, and Sandy try to send me that
Stars and Stripes picture...

  Also, I remember John Ferguson, Ron Buckley, and
Jack Shively from the Junior High Basketball team
with Coach Tuvey...

  I am proposing posting some of our email exchange
on my personal PL site to maybe stimulate some
memories from other guys we knew or played ball
with and maybe some of the girls... I will edit out
email addresses, addresses, and phone numbers, change
a few phrases here and there... Dorothy Culjat and I are
working on some more emails/info to post up...

  Have any objections to putting the info below the
starred line on my web post page?

Best

John

******************************
Mike Hatfield to John and Sandy:

Hi John!  The reason I didn't receive this before is that Yahoo thinks it is spam. I just happened to look in that folder to see what was there before deleting it, and saw this. Its good to hear from you.

I do believe I was on the "National League" team. Rick was on the same team. I was pitching and playing third base mostly. I had always been a catcher and wanted to play a different position.

I looked at your website and it looks like it will be a good one. I will contribute something- if I can find any old photos. I do have a 1959 Sultan (school yearbook) that we can lift some pictures from, if need be (the copyright has probably expired, heh!).

I met a Moroccan fellow who was working for Wylie (noise contractor), and talked to him about the current state of affairs over there. He invited me to visit his family- down south of Casablanca somewhere. Of course, he was
born after we had left!

Thanks for forwarding this on Sandy.

Mike

*******************************
John Bernard to Mike Hatfield and Sandy Sanford:

Hi Mike and Sandy...

  Well I remember Mike and Rick... Mike I think was
a pitcher/third baseman, Rick was a shortstop or
second baseman I think... I thought he was a wiz
with a glove...

 What I also remember about Rick was all the girls
falling over themselves for him...

  Mike, forward this to Rick... and refresh my
memory... were you not on the "National League"
team?

  Roxanne and I are planning a Morocco/Paris trip
when I retire in a few years...

  I am also working on a small Port Lyautey web page
to put up pictures and get email...

  www.jupiterspacestation.org/portlyautey

Back at ya...

Best

John

***************************
Sandy Sanford to Mike Hatfield and John Bernard

Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I do remember Rick Yeary, although I did not play on a team with him. My family arrived in Jun. 1960 (a looong time ago), and I wasn't able to play in '60. I did play in '61 and '62 on the "American" team. The other PL team was "National", with Sidi Slimane and Nouersuer (sp) as the fourth team. I was a pitcher (1st Base and Center field when not pitching).

I was an A-6 Bombardier/Navigator (B/N), and stayed in for 24 years. Some of our PL friends also ended up in the aviation business. Mike Maloy, Deck Waters, Paul Bacon, and Patrick ... (I'll have to look up Pat's last name).

Where did you go to school? Where were you stationed in the AF? I almost got out in '79 to fly in the RF-4 with the AL ANG, but stayed in the Navy. Were you in SEA? I made one tour and got 193 missions during Linebacker I & II. I have some USAF Buds who I correspond with on a regular basis. It is a Combat Aviator chat group that is an off-shoot of
the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association. It is really good hearing from you, and hope to hear back soon.

I will cc this to John Bernard who also played ball on the
"American" team.

Sandy

PS: Rick Yeary, I do remember him as a good athlete.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Mike Hatfield wrote:

Hi Sandy,

 We must have been on the same team, since we were in the same class. Do you remember Rick Yeary? He was on the same team. I have been in touch with him- he lives in Birmingham, Alabama. He went on to play pro for a
couple of years after college, but I don't know the full story.

 I see that you are a retired Naval Aviator. I am a retired Air Force Aviator. I flew in the back seat of the F-4 until the Air Force phased them out, in favor of those new-fangled machines that do everything for you.

Mike

************************************************

John Bernard to Sandy Sanford and others

Hi Folks,

  There are many old friends of mine that were
on the email list sent out by Sandy, however, I am
not going to attend this reunion coming up.

  I do PROMISE that I will attend the next one.
2005 is when I will be 60 and plan to retire
and then Roxanne and I want to do a Morocco/Paris
trip...

  Roxanne and I have been corresponding with
Dorothy and Carl (Culjat). Dorothy has just
returned from a 2 week trip to Morocco and she
is sending me some pictures to post on a new
web page I plan to put up later this summer.
Roxanne just came back from my Mother's and
brought 50 or so slides of 1958-1961 Port
Lyautey which I will put up and send to the
other sites.

  The reason I am putting up a separate page
from the other Port Lyautey web sites is simply
to eliminate all the spam I have have gotten
since making a post with my web address on the
portlyautey . com site. As a web developer I have
some email redirection software which can
hide email addresses from spammers. I think I
will make the page available to others [like us]
who would to use it to protect an email address
from the spammers, yet receive Port Lyautey/TMW
related information. I will use the above address
until that page comes up and then I will post
a web page for my email, where I can be contacted
directly from there. I do not want to start a
new TMW site because the three out there are
just perfect and we should contribute to them...

  I think I am going to have some fun with this
for the next decade...

Best

John

************************************************
John Bernard back to Sandy Sanford

Hi Sandy...

  Southpaw right? Always liked you Sandy Sanford.

  It is nice to hear from you! I just discovered the
P/L site a couple of months ago and was stunned
by the people I knew that had posted... I have joined
the TMW HS site but was waiting for my wife to
get back from my Mom's because she is bringing back
our family kodachromes which have some P/L shots...
Will share them once I get them scanned. I would love
to have a hi-rez scan of your baseball photo!

  My brothers do not know about the site yet... just told
Mom and Dad.  Email chatted with Dorothy Culjat
who was going to Morocco last month and offered
to send my Dad a post card from there.

  We had great baseball teams and we both enjoyed
playing... Mike, my second brother, pitched a little
and my Dad was the Official Scorekeeper for the
League. Will your son play in college later?

  I live outside Clemson Univ and see baseball there
a lot, graduated from Univ of South Carolina which
typically plays in the College World Series. See Virginia
play here occasionally. Both Clemson and USC have
fine teams. Played HS ball [including the State 4A
Championship] and I made a couple of cuts at USC
but my torn ligament injuries from high school football
stopped me dead. Graduated from USC, Clemson,
and the NJ Institute of Technology.

  Last year I was the #1 ranker in college football and plan
to have a commercial sports web site this season run
by several of my students... This season's site
will be up and running in August... Last season's
site:

    www.sportsdocfootball.com

  On the academic side I do research at the
Jupiter Space Station Radio Observatory and
teach computing at the 2 year college nearby:
Tri-County Technical College.

    www.jupiterspacestation.org

Sandy, let's stay in touch and plan to see each
other when we are in each other's
neighborhood.

Best

John


************************************************

Sandy Sanford to John Bernard

John D.,

I am on the Port Lyautey site and saw your entry. I have wondered why you and your brothers were not on the TMW HS site? What a great entry you have. I'll always have great memories of our ball playing days in Babe Ruth ball. I even ran into our coach (Mac?) at the Breezy Point Officer's Club about 20 years ago. We were both LCDR's. He was a Mustang who worked his way up through the ranks. I think he still lives in the Tidewater area. I live near Fredericksburg, VA in King George County. Retired from the Navy in 1989.

What a great catcher you were. My Dad was a catcher in HS and my son (youngest) is a 15 y/o catcher in Senior League (same as our Babe Ruth).

I have an article that appeared in the P/L base paper of me pitching to Danny Speed. All you can see in the photo is Chief Hurl (ump), you , Speed, and one of my pitches (probably about to be nailed).

Let me know if you receive this. I'd like to hear from you.

Best Regards,
Sandy

at www.portlyautery.com

POSTED: 4/13/04 @ 2230 hours

Well this is an interesting web site for Port Lyautey folks... Thanks for putting in the time to make it a collection point
for old memories...

Since this is more oriented towards military personnel, then as a Navy Brat I would like to say a few things about my experiences and interaction with the support people on the base.

My Dad, LCDR John D Bernard was the Industrial Relations Officer from late 58 - to late 61...and I attended Thomas Mack Wilhoite from 8th grade to 10th grade... Dad took over from Leo Culjat whose daughter Dorothy left a post in 2003 here. Dad is still retired in Toledo Bend Texas [age 87] and has some smoking/asbestos related health problems...

My name is also John D Bernard, 58, and my life at the Naval Air Station helped shape me into an instructor teaching at Tri-County Technical College in computing. Like everyone else I always wanted to go back stateside, but later realized that this was a fun, exciting three years of my life.

First, I need to thank the Shore Patrol guys who stopped me at night at a 4 way stop to tell me that my lights on the Lambretta were not on... They were not on because I had to roll the scooter dowm the hill [at age 12] to start it so my Dad would not know that I was joy riding his "go to work" vehicle...If they had asked me for a license or took me back to the house I would not be alive today.

Second, I would like to thank the VP-16 pilots who would fly me to ROTA in their P2Vs on Saturday mornings... AND for bringing me back... It was interesting to me because I would bike down to the terminal/flight room where the pilots went in
and out, tell them that I was LCDR Bernard's son and beg for a ride to ROTA... most said no, but there was always one... If my parents knew that I was out of the country for the day... again I would not be alive today.

Third, there was Gallagher at the stables... for 50 cents he would saddle up the meanest Arabian Stallions for my brother Mike and I, and wish us good luck... we rarely made it out of the stable yard... as my horse would jump on Mike's horse
or throw us though/over the fence... I think Gallagher had a sense of humor... he always offered us the brown horses but Mike and I would not have any part of it.

Fourth, and the Torrejon telephone operator... After climbing on the water tower at night by the basehospital, there was this lone, mysterious telephone. Picking up the receiver connected me to the Torrejon operator who would put me through to my friends who had gone back stateside or to my friends in Charleston, SC...

Most remember the Oasis, Johnny Horton's Battle of New Orleans on the Jukebox, the Teen Club, the inter-service football and baseball games, special services, etc... but the people make up life at a base, and the people were good people at Port Lyautey.

John D Bernard, EdD
1958-1961
www.jupiterspacestation.org/portlyautey