A life well-lived

Read the news or watch it on TV and one can become disillusioned with our world today. We have a lame duck congress trying to spend us into the poor house. We have a President intent on making our borders porous and eager to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants all in hope of creating more voters for his socialist agenda. We have spiteful politicians out to destroy our CIA. Our standing on the world stage is in steep decline. Yet scratch the surface and we can find examples of the vast majority of good citizens that people this the best country on earth. Allow me to share.

In the early 1960s I was an Air Force pilot stationed at Otis AFB on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I was proudly flying the KC-97 air refueling tanker. It was the Cold War. Our primary task was to pull alert 24/7 ready to launch at a moment's notice. The war plan was to fly north, meet with nuclear bomb carrying B-47 bombers, off-load our gas, so that they could complete their mission of dropping their weapons somewhere in the Soviet Union I know not where. Hopefully those crews could then find some safe place to land before running out of fuel.

We also on occasion flew to England to pull alert in a most interesting country. One memorable year we had alert duty at Sonderstrom Fjord Air Base, Greenland. Ah Greenland in winter, quite an experience! Have you ever looked south to see the Northern Lights?

One evening back at Otis, probably at Christmas when lucky enough to not be standing alert, Ann and I went to a formal dance at the Officer's Club. Mess dress and formal attire for the ladies, nice. We had a live dance band that evening, a group from the Headquarters Air Force, Washington D.C. called "The Airmen of Note". We were pleasantly surprised to spy Dallas Mathews playing lead trumpet right on the front row of that wonderful band. During several breaks we were able to catch up with each other's lives--a great reunion.

It was great to visit with him as Dal had been a classmate and friend at McCook High School. Dal played trumpet in Bill Kelly's great Bison Band. I played football. Kelly's bands always numbered 100+ students and they garnered many awards during the 1950s. Halftimes at our football games were probably better than the football games themselves as we had a string of mediocre seasons. The great Bison marching bands specialized in intricate formations as well as playing good music.

Sadly, Dallas died of a no warning massive aneurism at his home in Denver last week. We had lost touch over the years except for sporadic contact at class reunions. His well-written obituary was a welcome chance to review a life well lived.

After graduation Dal had gone to the University of Nebraska Lincoln for one year. By that time music impresario Bill Kelly had taken a position at Western State College in Gunnison. Somehow Bill "recruited" Dal to come study music and play for him. There in the mountains of Colorado he completed his Baccalaureate degree. Born without a silver spoon in his mouth and in that era before Pell Grants, loans or other free money Dal worked his way through college in the cafeteria dish room, grounds keeping on the campus, playing in a band for hire and traveling weekly for a time to Montrose to teach trumpet to high school students. He also found time to court and marry a Gunnison lady named Sonya. It was a marriage that lasted 56 years and produced three children.

During his eight years in the ceremonial bands at Headquarters USAF Dal was privileged to play for President Kennedy's inauguration and also sadly his funeral. He accompanied Vice President Lyndon Johnson to Jamaica to celebrate their independence from Great Britain and also performed around the island for a week in 1961. He played at General Douglas MacArthur's funeral, many times at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on the back lawn of the White House and a plethora of other notable events.

After leaving the Air Force Dal worked his way through Denver University to earn a bachelor's degree in Music Education and a Master's degree. Then he was hired by the Denver School System to teach music until retiring. "Retiring" meant continuing to play trumpet, singing professionally and coaching brass students.

Not bad for a kid that grew up in the flatlands of rural Southwestern Nebraska. Ever the perfect gentleman he lived a life of giving in a profession that he loved and that started right here in the McCook School System. Work ethic, love of good music, love of teaching and good family values. "Well done good and faithful servant--enter thou into the house of the Lord."

See I feel better already because "That is the way I saw it."

Dick Trail