Having lived 45 of your 50-year marriage, I especially want to thank you for being my parents. Ann Hand says I should write this in my own hand, as it would be more personable; however, since Daddy taught typing and Grand Harry used to demonstrate touch typing,it is keeping in the Manes tradition for this letter to be typed.

One of my earliest recollections is of playing cowboy while wearing Daddy's boots and also wearing his "50 mission crushed" Army Air Corp hat. I believe this must have been in Anson, Texas. I seem to remember a white frame house with little or no grass in the yard. (This may be a remembrance of a picture I have seen). However. if it is true about the lack of grass, it might explain why I can't seem to get a green lawn where ever I live--maybe I'm keeping up a tradition.

I remember Shawnee, Oklahoma; living across from the grade school and thinking it looked like a frontier fort. I remember the German Shepard we couldn't keep, because he was too protective; the small dog given to us by Grandmother Birdie (a scotty?) who was run over by the city bus his replacement Mugs. Mugs was a boxer who stole things from our school and brought them home. Because of this, I got to collect the lunch money and take it to the cafeteria, because I was the only one from whom Mugs wouldn't take the money bag. I remembeer Ann being born; Grandmother Dale staying with us, getting the call from the hospital, and saying she weighed 8 lbs and 8 ounces. I remember want1ng to join the Boy Scouts, because their uniforms looked like (to me) a 19th century Calvary soldier's uniform. I had the measles and had to stay in a darkroom until my nose started to bleed. When you drove me to the hospital, I threw up blood and was given a shot. After that, ordinary nose bleeds have never seemed scary. Our car had a big area behind the back seat against the back window where we slept while Daddy drove. The Shawnee house seemed big and Daddy built a bar-b-que pit in the back yard. Going to the Air Base in Oklahoma City when Daddy was called up for Korea, I didn't know what it meant. But, I remember getting some special treat on the way home. I remember San Antonio (Kelly Air Force Base). Daddy was gone for a year to Korea. Mother read us the Wizard of Oz books. We lived in Billy Mitchell Field housing--apartments with lots of Kids. Chuck and I (mostly Chuck) taught Ann to hit, and she became the terror of the neighborhood. The apartment complex maze seemed hugh, but I can remember hearing another call when I seemed to be miles away. I remember Chuck and me playing cards at a friends house and drinking coke out of shot glasses--pretending it was whiskey. I remember winning a drawing which allowed me to be on a T.V. Show (Cowboy Bob's?) on my birthday. The host asked us to speak up to the Microphones, and all I could do was whisper. We sat on a saddle and shot our cap guns at bad guys and (dinosaurs?). 0f the program, when I watched it on T.V., I often wondered what the bad guys looked like. I remember being disappointed that there wasn't a real dinosaur or bad guy behind the cameras--in a way I believe it disoriented me. I bought a razor £or a dollar and mailed it to Daddy in Korea. The wonder dog of my childhood was Jen. I remember Daddy coming home from Korea. He brought a wooden battleship for Chuck and me, a doll for Ann, and a mink for Mother. Ann rode Daddy's shoulders wearing the mink into the room. Mother was very surprised.

Our house in Fairfax, Virginia, had a park across the street. When it snowed the street would close and we could sled. Walking to school, we passed a house with a family grave yard. The owner would shout at the kids both scaring and exciting us. Every childhood needs one spooky house. Once, while riding my bike to school, I didn't brake hard enough and slid into the traffic. I wasn't hurt, but the shock hit me at school, and I got to go home for the day. We had neighborhood plays and charged admission. I felt cheated once, because Skip Beamer wanted to be reimbursed for his expenses before we split the take. 1 wanted to split the gross. The park had dirt embarkments where we dug forts, something that would scare me for my kids to do. In Aurora. Colorado (while we were stationed at the Air Force Academy), I could always walk to the grade school. I remember sitting in the back seat of the classroom at school. I remember our new 1951 Chevy and lighting Daddy's pipe; also, Jen's puppies and the room Daddy built out of the garage with the money from the sale of the puppies. My fifth grade teacher was a man who talked of being a rear gunner on a B-26 bomber. This seemed neat until I figured out he had favorites, and I wasn't one. There were lots of snow, and I pretended to be freezing to death in the snow. I remember Mother skidding our car through a stop sign.

I realized that I was physically a big kid for the first time when I picked up a kid who was trying to be a bully and threw him into a mud puddle. Our new Chevy station wagon was stolen the first week we owned it, and we had a sedan until it was found. The sedan seemed so neat. It had electric windows. Sixth grade on Fitzsimmons Army Hospital base was in old converted barracks. We would have fire drills every week, because the buildings could burn down in three minutes flat. My teacher liked me and her husband brought everyone ice cream sandwiches on his birthday. I wrote a paper using the encyclopedia and received an F, because it wasn't understandable. In the eighth grade in Aurora at the new Junior High School (North), I worked on the school paper and saw my first attempt being placed on the front page of the first issue. After four years in Aurora, Colorado, we moved from Denver to the Air Force Academy site in Colorado Springs. Here,I had the first bedroom of my own. The woods behind the house had animals (bears?). I remember burying a treasure (5 new 1959 pennies and a note). I hope it is still there.

After a short time at Colorado Springs, we were assigned to Madrid Spain. Of my many memories, there were Franco's victory parade; winning 2nd place in a bombing contest at the aero club. At the rostrow (Spanish flea market), I still remember some of the bargains and regret not buying them; being allowed to stay out at night--feeling safe in a big city-something not possible today;never hav1ng to clean my room and not having to say sorry to the maid for being messy. I had a biology (chicken) experiment that received raves from the teacher. Mother took care 0f the chickens for me. I kept forgetting. After Madrid, we returned to Spingfield,Virginia, and I enterred High School. Springfield, I learned to drive, but hanging out at the hamburger drive in Springfield seemed dull after Spain. I remember going to see the John Glenn parade downtown and going on a high school class trip to New York, and returning home to find Mother in the Hospital with a bleeding ulcer.

My first year at the University of Texas was a catastrophe. The second year was not much better. I especially enjoyed working in the summer at the U. S. State Department (Mother's contact at the White House got me the assignment). Then, there was Shawnee, Oklahoma, at Oklahoma Baptist University. Soon, there was a called for duty in Viet Nam?.I survived. I remember the many letters and packages while in Viet Nam?. They were always appreclated and looked forward to. However, I never could flgure out what to do with the instant ("Just add COLD MILK and Shake") milk shakes.

(Note: the following was written by Robet Manes for his daughter Andrea as a high school project): I grew up in a military family, my father was a Colonel in the US Air Force, and, I therefore, spent my childhood in many States and Countries. I graduated from High School in 1963 and went to the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. I remember that when President Kennedy was assassinated, I, and several other students, gathered around the radio to listen to the news. We said many things, but the one that most sticks in my mind the most was that the president’s assassination meant war. At the time, Vietnam was a remote story that was never on the front page. One of the girls I dated even thought that Vietnam was somewhere near Mexico.

War, to me, was a movie. It never seemed real. As a boy I thought that if another war happened, it would be great if I could be in it. In 1967 I was in it. Every male over 18 had to register for the Military Draft and in 1967 my Draft Board sent me notice that I had to take a medical physical. I passed the physical and as I left the Sergeants said, we’ll see you in a couple of weeks. I had friends in the US Marine Corps and I didn’t want to just be drafted into the Army, so in May of 1967, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

USMC boot camp was unbelievable. Nothing in my life had prepared me for it. For the first time in my life I was thrown together with men of all racial backgrounds and educations. There were American Indians, African Americans, Oriental Americans and Caucasian Americans all mixed together. This was the 1960’s and Civil rights were a new idea. There were sons of millionaires (one man was the heir to the Johnny Walker fortune) and men who were dirt poor. The man with the bed next to mine was Navaho and had never before been off the reservation. USMC boot camp was physically and mentally the most challenging thing I had ever done in my life. The war had created the perfect society where all men of various economic status, creeds and racial backgrounds learned to live together and be one thing, Marines.

After boot camp, I was selected for Officer’s Candidate School and in 1968 was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the USMC. It is the tradition in the Marine Corps that all Marines are infantry first; therefore, I next went to Infantry Officers school and after that Artillery Officer’s School. I was now a trained Infantry Officer and Artillery Forward Observer. Artillery Forward Observers (FO) are the eyes and ears of the artillery. They travel with the infantry on the front lines and call in and direct the artillery on the enemy. In May of 1969 I received Orders to go to Vietnam and, despite my fears, the war was still going on and I was going to be part of it.

My flight over to Vietnam was on a civilian Airline (Global Airways) contracted by the Government. We stopped in Okinawa, and I expected to stay there at least two weeks as was traditional to allow you to become accustomed to the climate. However, two hours after arriving I was on another plane going to Da Nang, Vietnam. I later found out that because of the high mortality rate of Artillery Forward Observers, my orders were rushed so I could fill in for an officer who had recently died.

I was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines in Da Nang, Vietnam and made an Artillery Forward Observer (FO) for 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines Lima Company. Lima Company was a front line infantry company and I, as the FO, was never more than 10 feet from the Company Commander. We walked all over “Charlie Ridge”; “the Bo Bans”; “Antenna Valley”; and “Arizona Country”, all American names for the Vietnamese areas below Da Nang. I called in a lot of artillery during this time. In one battle, I called in over 3000 rounds of artillery. This was the battle featured in the book “Death Valley” where Lt. Col. Dowd was killed. I was the only Forward Observer left alive out of the Marine Regiment (rein). We found out after the battle that we had been fighting a full North Vietnamese Army Regiment whose main purpose was the destruction of a US Marine Company for political propaganda. Instead, we destroyed their entire regiment. My war experiences were typical. I slept in rainstorms; walked great distances; endured the heat; starved (I went down to 130 lbs); and was in close combat several times. I survived because of my Marine Corps training and the other Marines with whom I served.

In March of 1970, I was rotated back to the United States. I spent my last year on Active duty with the USMC at Camp Pendleton, California with the 1st Shore Party Battalion, 1st Marines.

The War and the Marine Corps instilled in me a sense of duty and purpose. I wanted to do something interesting with my life. My attitude was that I could do anything and succeed at anything, because I had been in battle, faced death, survived and succeeded.

After the Marine Corps, I returned to the University of Texas and completed my Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Masters of Administration (MA). I began working for the Internal Revenue Service as an Office Audit examiner. In 1976, I married Ann C. Dappen. Our marriage has succeeded and we have been blessed with two children, John Robert Manes and Andrea Jane Dale Manes.

I remained in the US Marine Corps Reserves and after 27 years, I retired as a Lt. Colonel. I served in a variety of roles, my last being as an inspector for the Marine Corps. I traveled all over the US and inspected Reserve units for their mobilization capability. My Reserve unit was called up for “Desert Storm”, but the war finished before we could report to our new command.

In 1977, I was selected to become a Special Agent of the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS. As a Special Agent I investigated persons for violations of the criminal statutes of the Internal Revenue Code and for violations of the Money Laundering Laws. For 23 years I prosecuted criminals who had made their illegal money from confidence swindles; tax fraud; timber theft; prostitution and drugs. On February 4, 2001, I retired from the U. S. Government as a Senior (GS-13) Special Agent. Since then, I have enjoyed traveling, hunting, cooking (Texas Bar B Q) and my family.

As a Marine, I learned that if I applied myself, I could do anything or be anything I wanted, because, after a year in combat in Vietnam, everything else was easy.