[OKDXA] OKDXA Banquet

[Jerry Chouinard]

Thanks Kim! 

A snappy Salute! to your Dad no doubt a hero as was mine. Dad was a "cook" or steward today. Tales of turtle soup caught from the deck of the Swordfish one of those "boats" that sunk intentionally.

Kim I will not tarry long with words or subjects as my memoirs and a book about the people I have met, the sites and sounds of Amateur Radio. The memories, handshakes, hugs and radio sport masters I have met and competed against.. "The Young American Amateur" you see. Dedicated to my Mother, Dad, family and all the children of the world. 

My wish is I am able to and can properly represent this hobby I dearly love. Communications not only made me dear brothers and sisters my family but has been my life's work since retuning home from Argentina, Newfoundland in 1964. Long live the fields of communications and electronics.

Horns no Kim, an entire orchestra will sound for years as an objective of K5YAA's is and has been to blow the horn of those who have not the time or inclination to blow there own. Many of my friends and others I never met are silent today. Their keys and vox no longer play music or trip. So many pals used a footswitch those too do not click any longer though this OT can hear them click, can hear the music of the Morse they sent and the wonderful voices that tripped a vox. May God Bless each and everyone of them. God Bless your Father Kim,  God Bless my Father and Uncles Tom, Bill and Lawrence all who servers this Nation and God Bless the United States of America! 🇺🇸

Before signing off Kim just a few words about my heroes. Dad as I said was a cook. He served on a variety of "boats", sorry Dad, brother Jonny, my families adopted brother Sam and my stout ex-Dallas police copter brother-Law Terry. What is a ship?

My Uncle Tom was a marine who saw action on the beaches of Pelilieu. My Uncle Tom was my second hero. Of course Dad is my first. Uncle Tom was not mentioned in that short list of Navy men because the Navy drove the Marines wherever those warriors need to be or had to be. Go Navy! Get 'em there and don't forget those Tomahawks swabbies. <proud grin>

Dad said the following things about his WW2 experiences. He was a man of few words when it came to most any subject except his family. He told me he personally handed Jimmy Doolittle his crews Box lunches after painting sawed off broom sticks black to fool the Japanese making them think twice. Buddysan, are those real? 

Dad was aboard the Hornet CV-8 when she was crippled badly in the Battle of Santa Cruz. He witnessed the body of a pal being ripped i.e. sawed from his hands and arms when both were scurrying up a metal attached ladder ship side on the or near the deck of the Hornet. Dad took a deep breath as he told that part of his initial of four stories over the years. 

Dad was in burning oil when a cruiser went down under him and the crew. Perhaps that is where he was covered in oil. The day he died his anchor Tatoo was very light as a number of layers of skin on his arms had been burned off when he had to "make a hole" in burning waters of the ocean to gasp for air. He figured after three "boats" he rode were now deep in the Pacific shelf it might be good to join the submarine service! 

My wife Carol and I saw an actual WW2 submarine on the day we visited Pearl Harbor. May those warriors Rest In Peace. I have yet to visit the Batfish museum in Muskogee. One day when Ww5SUB is on the air I will honor my Dad and all the submariner shabbies. Dan the Man, K7IA was an El Capitan on a nuclear sub. Salute Dan my man!

Dad did take a deep breath during his Hornet story but tears never welled up in his eyes. Dad was a "real" man Kim a rare commodity these days my friend.. He continued on up that ladder with no doubt frightening fear. Those Rising Sun kamikazes  just kept coming. 

Fortunately Dad could swim like a fish or more like a torpedo under water. He went under, I witnessed his skills He went at Grand Prairie, TX public pool when I was six. Nearly drowning when I leaped from the high dive into ten door water. Choke choke was what I was doing when the Life Guard pulled me from around my height of maybe half that. Dad came running. He was a "cutter" (my word for Superman) of a man, a hustler may be a better selection of words.. Dad went under the pool water not to be seen for over three minutes. He was the on the scale of an Olympic swimmer i.e. a giant of a man at 5' 5" tall.. Dad shows me homie to be a man from my sixth, seventh, eighth and all the way to my 17th year when I joined the reserves and went on active duty after the eleventh grade finished. This OT taught himself sic software languages and could design radio- telephone systems in his sleep. Please do read my life's story Kim. Each OKDXA member, their XYLs and certainly the children in their families great grand or not. What child is not great or grand? 

Only one more thing and I will close. Dad saved the lives of three men when the Hornet was badly damaged. One was Ray Arleque. Rays brother was the President of a fairly large bank in 1955 Grand Prairie, TX. That banker said to Dad one afternoon when I was ten and hustling sacks for the crowds of ladies at Wyatt's grocery a few blocks away. Earl Wyatt had thirteen such stores in the Dallas not DFW Meteroplex at the time Kim. Minimal amounts of concrete and certainly not a solid 10" thick block from Rockwell to Weatherford to stretch my point but only by a tad. Traffic and humans are walk to wall now. <sad>

Dad refused a no interest, payback when you can loan of $1,000 from a grateful man. You see his last name was Arleque too. That banker said, "Frenchie buy all the stock you can in Texas Instruments." In 1955 TI was yet to go public. The stock was 10 cents a share. Let me tally that QRX 1 Kim and OKDXA readers........... OK I have it $10,000 private shares. The Nasdaq was only a dream of some wall street "huckster" See my memoirs. 

BTW: Seems I've seen the letters OK somewhere else before.  Why heck yeah that DX group of champions the OKDXA. They are just OK you know Kim?

Dad told that banker, "Well sir I appreciate the offer but I refuse to owe a nickel to anyone." The result of his Dad my grandpa co-signing a note for a friend going into business. Grandpa a lumberjack all his life was chased from St. Perpitue, QC to Lowell, MA where Dad and his brothers and sister grew up after all but sis and his youngest two brothers were born in St. Perpitue. Find a map and look way North past Port St. Joli on the St. Lawrence river then go Northeast until you are about thirty miles from Maine. Carol and I sat in a small very small pizza place actually family diner and spoke my weak French to my Dad. That day Kim may well have been the best day of my life.. 
I shook as I dialed long distance to Pittsburgh, Texas then said, "Mon cher papa this is your son. Guess where I am calling From mon Pere." We both had tears in our eyes. Dad's family had five siblings. He was #2 or #deux un Francaise. 

Monsieur Jacques "Sweenah "definitely a native Frenchman built a log cabin at the mouth of that mighty river way back in 1756. 
Ol' Jacques was the nexus of the  "Sweenah" (Chouinard) in Anglaise. That fellow has created with his bloodline some 6,000 of us 95% live in Quebec of which some 3,000+ are in Montreal and Quebec City. Wowser! The Chouinard name is an American anomaly especially in the Republic of Texas, Oklahoma and the "confederate" states. The only celebrities I know of are the Mountain Climber Equipment manufacturer Yvonne Chouinard known world wide for his quality..?yvonne lives in Montana. Obviously a mountain man himself. A woman in California GM has a renowned dance studio. Her firstname I do not know. A Canadian of Olympic is Josee Chouinard who place second to the U.S., competitor some years back in women's figure skating. Now if one of my high school pals were to consider this OT to be if celbrityvststus I know onlytgree in our America! 

That is only a small very small portion of my memoirs about my Dad my hero Kim. More between the covers of Forever Forward! Forever Onward! Vol 1. It covers the years of 19445/48 and up to 2002 when I retired at 57 from Equant a joint venture between AA and Societe Internationale du Telecommuncations Aeronautique in Pares , France the ARINC of the world minus those hardheaded Canadians. May the stars and bars and the Mapleleaf fly foe eternity! 

I want to thank you and the OKDXA for giving me their ear for a fleeting moment in our lives.

My Best regards i.e. My 73 Kim,

Jerry - K5YAA

> On Oct 7, 2017, at 10:32 AM, Kim Elmore <cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> Well, gosh <blush>. Thanks Jerry, but as a CW op I'm not quite in your league: my best was 35 WPM with a stick and I have no claim to any military service, though my dad's ashes (W5JHJ, SK 2007) are in Arlington National Cemetery (WWII). Nor have I any intent to minimize or disrespect SSB, or any other mode, over CW. I just like CW. Maybe it's the musician in me (I play violin in a chamber ensemble and a community orchestra). There's a romance about CW that I grew up with and so, well... There it is.
> 
> As for 'phone: Once, I was at N2IC in Boulder, CO, for the ARRL SSB DX contest. I've never been so frustrated in my life! So, I happily tip my hat to those that can do 'phone contests well! Or even do them without becoming a latent ax murderer.
> 
> I'm sad that you can't attend, but hope you have lots of fun in the 'test! Stay healthy so I can dodge the contest next year and we can all see you at the banquet!
> 
> 73,
> 
> Kim N5OP
> 
> 
>> On 10/6/2017 10:16 PM, Jerry Chouinard via OKDXA wrote:
>> Kim:
>> 
>> Sir, a Salute! 🇺🇸 to you for your efforts!
>> I must tell you never feel apologetic for knowledge of the Morse! Never my friend. This old fellow can send 25 WPM with a paper clip used as a straight key. At the age of 18 he could copy 60 WPM. At the same age he read and put to paper RTTY as reminded by and before Bob Applegate, WA9JWR became an SK this past April. WA9JWR was beloved by the Navy black shoe radioman and certainly by K5YAA due to his similar speed using a Vibroplex "bug" of the Lightning variety. A blue racer model!
>> Very similar if not the same to his crew mate the aforementioned K5YAA.
>> 
>> Many times Zulu messages were QSP'd over the cold and dark waters of the North Atlantic watching for and reporting movements of the Ruskos during their weekly runs to and from the home of Fidel!
>> 
>> No sir Kim, do not apologize to a soul especially those that can only operate the Voice and especially those that have simple talk boxes strapped to their blue jean belts! Do as this old man has done most of his life. Offer them a drink or two of Charlie's finest brew! Offer it Kim at the highest speed you can muster then of course back her down a couple of Morse octaves so the newbies at the bar can savor the site's and zsounds of our Beloved Morse code....
>> 
>> Usually the poor fellow that has the reins of President gets yet another "assignment" by the crowd. Gene, W5LE one of these times my friend you must tell this OT how it is you have skillfully managed to use your saddle rope to lasso a number of others and "force" them to get off their numb "butts" a word used so as to not get in trouble with Mr. Day! LOL 😂
>> 
>> Gentlemen and the beautiful ladies of the OKDXA. K5YAA will again this year be unable to attend your prestigious gathering (tongue in cheek Geno) not due this year to health but due to the aforementioned World Wide tussle using a simple mode called Voice or SSB to true Operators of the dial.
>> 
>> The Young American Amateur will be at the side of his latest protege of a few over his 58 years in this glorious hobby of ours.
>> 
>> Mr. Scott Smith, KG5PWC a strapping young man of 25 who holds his General class license and wants to learn to be a high speed Morse operator or the drinker of the finest libation in this world Charles Whiskey!
>> 
>> This OT can never refuse a youngster who not only will listen to his yarns of yesterday but already has the mental capability. This youngster has demonstrated to YAA that he has what it takes not only to be one of the top CW ops in this great Nation of ours but also a multi-millionaire if he listens to this old salt who for many years all due to God's untold and uncountable blessings He has written long ago for Gerald J. "Jerry" Chouinard in His Book of Life.
>> 
>> My Best Wishes to each of you and definitely a smooch on the cheek of some of the most beautiful women associated with or in this great hobby of ours.. A prayer goes out to our Jeff Martin. Not only for his magnificent one man show on Easter and for his talk in front of the OKDXA. A prayer also to each and every member of the Oklahoma DX Association. One of the finest groups in the United States of America. 🇺🇸
>> 
>> 73, Jerry - K5YAA
>> 
>> Today no longer the "Young American Amateur" nor "Yesterdays American Amateur" as some have suggested but certainly Young in his heart!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> -- 
> 
> Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL, FISTS, QCWA, OOTC, ARRL Life Member)
> 
> /"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." //– Attributed to many people; it’s so true that it doesn’t matter who said it./
> 
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