GREETINGS....

Obie Oakley leaving for Fort Pickett, VA

First, there was the picture of Jennie Margaret, Don Nance, and Gene Moore
in Cap and Gown obviously graduating again. (See stories further down on the next page)

Then there's the one of Warren Sparrow....going out to sea in a NAVY submarine.

AND NOW A PICTURE OF OBIE OAKLEY going off to war again!

Next, I expect to see a picture of Alton Widenhouse and Johnny Thomason working out at Redskins Park for the upcoming football season!

I assigned the CHS54 investigative reporting staff to look into the matter and here's what they discovered.

Well, ............they didn't find out anything.

So, I reached into my journalistic bag of tricks........and came up with the solution; I asked Obie.

Here's what he said:

" These photos are from a recent trip I made to Ft. Pickett, VA. Veterans from my old unit were invited to spend the day with the current members of that unit who were training there.
They put on parachute demonstrations, both high and low altitude, displayed some of the weapons they now use and gave us briefings on their recent deployment in Afghanistan. This was in appreciation for the Humanitarian Aid project we completed the first part of the year where my guys raised $12K with which we bought over 4,000 pounds of blankets, clothing and school supplies.
These were sent to another one of our unit's Special Forces teams fighting in Afghanistan that they might distribute them to the locals in the battle to win their hearts and minds. Distribution began on April 6th.
The one of me in body armor was when I tried to convince them to let me re-reinlist and the other shows us walking out to our private aircraft for the trip from Charlotte to Ft. Pickett. Big day for us old troopers."

(It seems to me that the ARMY doesn't need for Obie to re-enlist. He and his buddies are doing just fine where they are! -Ed)